Committee approves temporary rules reducing Veterinary Medicine license fees

Boise — The House Agriculture Affairs Committee approved temporary rule docket 243801-2501, enabling a fee table change that reduces Veterinary Medicine licensure fees by 20%.

Katie Stewart, bureau chief for the administration bureau at the Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses, presented the temporary rules and explained the Division’s rationale. Stewart said last year’s legislature included intent language directing the Division to monitor board cash balances and act to lower costs where possible. “The Board of Veterinary Medicine updated their rules to include not more than language, allowing this Board to easily decrease fees in the future and at this time the Board has voted to reduce their fees by 20%,” Stewart told the committee.

Representative Gerald Raymond moved to approve docket number 243801-2501. The committee approved the temporary rules by voice vote; no roll-call tally was recorded in the transcript.

Context and process Stewart told the committee the updated fee table appears on page 28 of the committee’s temporary rules packet and that the action responds to intent language in last year’s legislation (identified in testimony as Senate Bill 1442).

Outcome The committee approved the temporary rules; the fee changes are effective per the administrative rulemaking process and the board’s implementation schedule. The transcript does not include a detailed fiscal note in the committee hearing; the Division indicated the change responds to previously submitted cash-balance reports and the board’s voted plan to reduce fees.

What was not specified The hearing did not include a line-item fiscal estimate of the total dollars involved, nor did the committee record a roll-call vote in the transcript. The precise effective date of the fee table change was not specified during the brief committee action and will follow standard administrative rule promulgation procedures.