JFAC reviews Public Health Services budget restorations, data-modernization and program requests

At a Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee hearing in Boise, Department of Health and Welfare leaders outlined the Division of Public Health Services’ 2026 budget request and a set of program restorations and one-time enhancements meant to stabilize services that were shifted from ongoing funding into one-time appropriations.

The Division’s 2025 appropriation was reported as about $164 million, and the governor’s recommendation for 2026 reduces that to about $154 million, a roughly 6% year-over-year decline as officials restructured funding and returned some programs to one-time status. Division funding is spent primarily through trustee and benefit payments, officials said, with personnel and operating costs forming a smaller share of the total.

Why it matters: the Division oversees multiple statewide services — immunizations, laboratory testing, emergency medical services, suicide prevention, vital records, WIC, home visiting and other maternal and child programs — that rely on stable funding and timely data systems. Committee members pressed officials on what was structural change versus program reductions, and on the progress of ARPA-funded technology upgrades.

Division administrator Elke Shaw Tullock and Director Alex Adams described a mix of program restorations and one-time enhancements. Officials said the Department requested restoration of previously ongoing programs for suicide prevention, drug overdose prevention, refugee health screening, Alzheimer’s/dementia coordination, diabetes and HIV programs, oral health workforce initiatives, hepatitis surveillance and others. A partial list of requests and clarifications provided to the committee included:

- Suicide prevention: request for ongoing funding reported as $1,807,700…