Senate panel hears hours of divided testimony on SB 1505, a workforce standards board for IDD services

The Senate Rules committee took testimony on Senate Bill 1505, a bill to establish a Home and Community Based Services workforce standards board with authority to recommend (and, in some draft language, set) minimum standards for wages, benefits and training across specified HCBS programs. Sponsors and proponents framed the bill as a mechanism to bring workers, service recipients and providers together to set enforceable standards and improve wages and retention; opponents cautioned it would create an unelected body with sweeping authority, duplicate existing regulators and impose unfunded mandates that could destabilize small providers and reduce consumer choice.

Staff described key elements of the bill and the amendments under consideration. The current draft narrows the board's initial scope to services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). According to staff, section 6 directs the board to establish minimum standards on wages, benefits and training, but standards will not be initiated until after a comprehensive review; a standard that requires state funding cannot take effect…