Senate adopts House substitute to fund backup generators for qualifying rural hospitals

Senate Bill 170 arrived on the floor as a House substitute that retooled an original Senate measure into a Department of Community Health grant program to help qualifying rural hospitals acquire or install backup generators for emergency continuity.

Senator Kauser offered amendments requiring that any state funding be limited to hospitals that do not have a backup generator as of the effective date of the act and that have not received federal assistance for the same purpose, language intended to avoid duplicative funding. Another amendment clarified that appropriate applicants would be nonprofit or not‑for‑profit hospitals in counties of 50,000 or less and with fewer than 100 beds.

Senator (speaker 22) explained the bill’s history on the floor, noting the original bipartisan homelessness proposal had been changed in the House and describing the intention behind the amendments: to make state grants available only where federal rural‑health funds were not already provided. Colleagues raised questions about whether the amendment meant "not applied for" or "not received"; the sponsor clarified "not received" was the intent.

On recorded votes the Senate adopted amendment 1a without objection, recorded amendment 1 Ayes 50, Nays 0, and the motion to agree as amended passed. The amendment package narrows eligibility and ties state support to hospitals that still lack federal funding for generators.