Counties, DHS seek millions to modernize human services IT and replace SSIS; bill laid over

Representative Enoch moved to lay over House File 1911, a package of proposals to modernize county and state human services information technology systems. The Human Services Finance and Policy Committee laid the bill over for possible inclusion in the omnibus bill.

Sponsors and county officials said aging, unstable systems—particularly the Social Services Information System (SSIS), used daily by thousands of county and tribal workers—create workflow inefficiencies, outages and data‑sharing barriers. The bill requests three investments: $5 million in FY2026 for grants to counties to offset local modernization alignment costs; a blank appropriation to support county modernization projects (technical integration, training, and interfaces); and $40 million in FY2026 to the Department of Children, Youth and Families to upgrade SSIS (building on a prior $10 million investment).

Clay County Commissioner Jenny Mongeau, testifying for county associations, described duplicated data entry and the time burden on workers (for example, repeated address entry and multiple screens to access case history). Olmsted County and other testifiers said modernization would enable multidisciplinary teams to access cross‑system data, improve dashboards and enable better client service and faster application processing. Testimony also included requests to leverage federal match funds for SSIS replacement and to centralize shared services and contracts to help small counties access modern tools.

Committee members and sponsors described the proposal as necessary to improve worker retention, reduce administrative burdens and speed service delivery. Representative Enoch reiterated that previous statewide IT investments left counties without dedicated funding for local modernization. The committee laid House File 1911 over; no appropriation was enacted at the hearing.