House committee reviews DE1 amendment to children and families omnibus, schedules markup for next day

The Children and Families Finance and Policy Committee on April 6 conducted a detailed walkthrough of the DE1 amendment to House File 2436, the committee's children and families omnibus budget bill, presenting fiscal spreadsheets and agency priorities while reserving formal action for a markup session tomorrow.

House fiscal analyst Mr. Berg led the committee through the official spreadsheet, telling members the current version, dated 04/06/2025 at 08:58 p.m., shows a net expenditure change of $25,000,000 in the first biennium and a negative $15,000,000 in the second biennium that together balance to the target provided by the Ways and Means Committee. "If you look down on lines 9 and 10, or 10 and 11, it shows you the total spend at our target and that the difference between that spend and our target is 0," Mr. Berg said during the walkthrough.

The DE1 includes a mix of policy and finance changes across the newly created Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) and several related offices. Major funding and policy items highlighted by Mr. Berg and House research staff include: a 1-time, $6,000,000 appropriation for early childhood education scholarships; a $50,000,000 appropriation for SSIS (the child welfare information system) that combines last year's $10,000,000 with new house funding to reach the upper end of the estimate for modernization costs; $1,500,000 for food security programs split among American Indian food sovereignty, food shelves and prepared meals; provisions to move certain programs and budget lines back into the Department of Education where staff determined they belonged; and several federal compliance and technical adjustments for CCAP (Child Care Assistance Program) and licensing.

Commissioner Tigey Brown of the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth and Families thanked the committee for including the DCYF policy bill and the department's budget request in the DE1. "The provision allowing the state to extend our contract with EBT providers to avoid a constant churn of contracting will support more efficient and effective government," Commissioner Brown said, and she noted the importance of funding for electronic enrollment and attendance recordkeeping for CCAP. Brown warned that the bill's current structure leaves the agency without ongoing maintenance funding for that system after the 2026-27 biennium. She also said cancelling most of the previously proposed transition funding, leaving only $1,000,000, would hamper essential transition work for the new department.

House research staff summarized the DE1's policy articles: Article 1 (economic assistance) removes certain contract-term limits for EBT contracts; Article 2 (child protection and welfare policy) makes multiple statutory changes affecting foster care, inquiries into a child's heritage, extended foster care, trafficking responses and mandated reporter training; Article 3 (child protection and welfare finance) authorizes permanency services contracts and removes an annual cap on some grants; Article 4 through Article 6 contain licensing, certification and early care and learning finance provisions, including changes to background study fines, clarification of scholarship eligibility, and multiple CCAP compliance changes intended to align state practice with federal requirements.

Committee members pressed agency staff on implementation details. Chair West noted one procedural point: "the DE does not reflect the signed agreement between the chairs and specifically article 5, section 2 related to House File 1915, removing the camera requirement, was not in the signed agreement and there will be an amendment tomorrow to resolve that issue," indicating the committee will address that discrepancy during markup.

The committee did not take any votes on the DE1 Thursday; members were asked to hold substantive remarks until the formal markup session scheduled for the next day. The chairs and staff asked members to retain materials for reuse in the upcoming meeting.

Questions and clarifications raised during the session included whether the Minnesota African American Family Preservation/Disproportionality Act (MAPFA) will be implemented statewide on the January 2027 date in the legislation or phased in; Commissioner Brown said a statewide work group is forming to help develop implementation recommendations and that the department would review the bill language for feasibility. Counties, represented by Dakota County Commissioner Lori Halverson and county human services administrators, urged the committee to fund SSIS modernization and to consider the practical staffing and technology burdens counties face while implementing new systems.

The committee adjourned and will reconvene for a markup session tomorrow to consider formal amendments and votes.