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Health and Welfare chairs tell JFAC to scrutinize res hab funding, oppose immediate shift of 988 into managed care

Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee (JFAC) · February 26, 2026
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Summary

Senate and House Health and Welfare chairs told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee to scrutinize health-and-welfare grants and audits, flagged a proposal to pull back $21 million from residential habilitation funding, and said they are not prepared to move the 988 suicide-crisis line into a managed-care behavioral-health contract now.

Senate Health and Welfare Chairman Senator Julie Van Orden and House Health and Welfare Chairman Representative John Van der Rotta briefed the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on budget pressures and policy proposals, urging closer oversight of health-and-welfare spending and caution on vendor consolidation.

Van Orden said members had differing views but flagged two priorities: closer scrutiny of public-health contracts and caution about folding the 988 suicide-crisis hotline into a behavioral-health managed-care contract. "I'm really not in favor of that," she said, arguing that moving 988 into a managed-care behavioral-health contract would place the service with a single vendor at a time when managed care is still taking shape.

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