Last Friday marked the 3rd committee deadline. This means that much of the legislature’s committee work has been completed and attention will now turn to floor sessions and the passage of omnibus bills. With this final deadline now behind us, I thought it would be helpful to provide a rundown of the current status of ARRM’s legislative priorities.
· Best Life Alliance: We were informed by Senate staff that this proposal would not be heard in this session. A fiscal note was requested and received that outlines the total cost of increasing the CWF to 16.7% and modifying the SOC code used to set Supervisor wages. For the remainder of this biennium, the total cost is approximately $16 million, in the coming biennium the total cost of the bill jumps to $348 million.
o House Position: Not included in the Omnibus bill
o Senate Position: Not included in the Omnibus bill
· Out of Home Respite for Children: The total cost of this bill is $155,000 in this biennium and $855,000 in the next biennium. The language was originally included in the House Omnibus Policy bill, but because of the cost, it was removed during the Ways and Means Committee.
o House Position: Not included in the Omnibus bill
o Senate Position: Included in the Human Services Appropriations Omnibus bill
· 245D Changes: The Department reached out to ARRM and our Chief Authors a couple of weeks ago in opposition to the changes we are making to the Designated Coordinator and Designated Manager positions. ARRM met with the Department and has worked closely with House staff to develop alternative language which was adopted into the House Human Services Omnibus Policy bill during the floor session on Monday. On Friday, April 19th, we reached an agreement with the Department on the final language.
o House Position: Amended version included in the Human Services Policy Omnibus bill
o Senate Position: Included in the Human Services Policy Omnibus bill
· City Licensing Exemption: Our language exempting 245D and 144g settings from city rental regulations has gone through many committee stops in both the House and Senate. The language has been included in both the House and Senate Omnibus policy bills.
o House Position: Included in the Human Services Policy Omnibus bill
o Senate Position: Included in the Human Services Policy Omnibus bill
· Indirect Billing for IHS Tiered Services: Our bill to allow for indirect billing for certain Unit-Based Services was heard in all relevant committees this session with a positive reception. Despite this, the Department remains opposed to allowing certain services to be billed for indirect time. Given this and the cost associated with the proposal, the bill was not included in either omnibus bill this session.
o House Position: Not included in the Omnibus bill
o Senate Position: Not included in the Omnibus bill
· SLF conversion to CRS: ARRM’s bill to allow 5 and 6-person SLFs to convert to a CRS has gone through multiple versions this session. During the Senate Human Services Committee on Wednesday, April 17th, Senator Utke offered a version of our language as an amendment to the Human Services Appropriations bill. The amendment was accepted and the language is moving forward in that bill.
o House Position: Not included in the Omnibus bill
o Senate Position: Included in the Human Services Appropriations Omnibus bill.
· FRS Rate Tier Delay and Taskforce Established: The cost associated with delaying the rate tiers until 2028 is $8 million, and the cost to establish the task force is $653,000. The Senate has included the funding for the task force in their omnibus spending bill.
o House Position: Not included in the Omnibus bill
o Senate Position: Includes funding and language to establish the Family Residential Services Taskforce
· Assistive Technology timelines established with counties and compensation threshold modifications: The Department added a fiscal note of $756,000 to update Cost Reporting to allow for assistive technology costs to be included in the Direct Care Compensation thresholds. Due to the cost, ARRM split our technology proposal into two separate sections, moving the policy-only piece that creates timelines for counties to approve or deny assistive technology in the omnibus policy bill and moving the compensation threshold updates in the omnibus spending bill.
o House Position: The Human Services Omnibus Policy bill includes the policy-only timeline language, the second part of the bill is not included in the omnibus spending bill.
o Senate Position: The Human Services Omnibus Policy bill includes the policy-only timeline language and the Human Services Omnibus Spending bill includes the compensation threshold update language.
· Own Home Provider Capacity Building Grants: Both bodies are carrying our Own Home Provider Capacity grants in their Omnibus spending bill, however, the House funds the grants at a lower level than requested.
o House Position: The Human Services Omnibus spending bill funds the grants at approximately $1.4 million
o Senate Position: The Human Services Omnibus spending bill funds the full $5 million grant request.
Next Steps
Over the next couple of weeks, the House and Senate will pass their versions of the Human Services Appropriations Omnibus bill off of the floor and the bills will go to a conference committee.
A conference committee has been announced for the Human Services Policy bill and we anticipate the committee to meet by the end of the week; conference committee members include:
· Rep. Peter Fischer
· Rep. Luke Frederick
· Rep. DaveBaker
· Sen. John Hoffman
· Sen. Alice Mann
· Sen. Paul Utke
Please reach out with any questions.
--Sara Grafstrom, Senior Director of State and Federal Policy