Session officially kicked off this last week with legislators being sworn in on Tuesday, January 3rd. As anticipated, Rep. Melissa Hortman was re-elected as Speaker of the House and Sen. Kari Dziedzic was elected Majority Leader of the Senate.
On Wednesday, Senator Hoffman, Chair of the Human Services Committee and Rep. Noor, Chair of the Human Services Finance Committee introduced SF 7/HF 32, the “Caregiver Stabilization Act of 2023.” This legislation contains many provisions that were carried in the Senate Health and Human Service Omnibus bill during the 2022 legislative session, the hope is that this legislation can pass early in session.
Of note for ARRM members, SF 7/HF 32 contains the following provisions:
- Fully funds the Competitive Workforce Factor and allows for automatic adjustments every two years
- Changes the date of the data used for BLS adjustments to 24 month
- Changes the date of the data used for CPI adjustments to 12 month
- Creates a new rate floor for ICF facilities
- Develops Emergency Closure Grants for Community Residential Settings
- Extends the Temporary Staffing Pool
- Removes Unit Based Respite from the DWRS
The bill has a hearing scheduled for Monday, January 9th in the Senate Human Services Committee, ARRM has worked with a couple of testifiers to provide support for the legislation and emphasize the need to pass legislation early in the session.
On Thursday, Senate and House leadership held a press conference to outline their joint priorities for the coming session. In response, ARRM issued this press release, urging legislators to make disability waiver services a top priority.
Looking ahead to this coming week, ARRM staff will be spending time at the Capitol gathering signatures for ARRM’s legislative bills, we look forward to having those bills officially introduced in the coming weeks. We will also be working in conjunction with the Best Life Alliance and putting out an Action Alert mid-week, watch for more information on that in the Wednesday morning email.
Please reach out with any questions.
--Sara Grafstrom