Last week marked the 1st and 2nd committee deadline at the legislature, with all policy-related bills needing to be acted on in committee by Friday.
For ARRM, our focus was on the Human Services Policy Omnibus bill, the Senate moved this bill out of committee last Wednesday with the House following with a vote on their proposal Thursday morning. Of note, both the House and Senate include language that would delay the implementation of the DWRS compensation thresholds to 2029. Additionally, the Senate included ARRM’s proposal that would call for increased stakeholder collaboration from the Department of Human Services when making changes to the process and forms providers access when requesting a rate exception. The next step is for the House and Senate to each pass the bill off their floor before heading to a Conference Committee.
In addition to the policy committee deadline, the House announced their proposed budget targets last week. The Human Services Committee was given a $300 million cut target for FY 26/27 and a $1 billion cut target for FY 28/29.
Looking ahead to this week, the third and final committee deadline is Friday with all finance bills needing to be through committee. Here is the schedule that we anticipate for the Human Services Committee:
- Senate:
- Monday: Walk through of Human Services Omnibus Finance Bill and member comment
- Wednesday: Public testimony and amendments, bill acted on by committee
- House:
- Tuesday: Walk through of Human Services Omnibus Finance Bill and member comment
- Wednesday: Additional walkthrough of the bill and public testimony
As we gear up for an important week, I encourage everyone who has not contacted their legislators about the cost of waiver service cuts to do so today. You can find our latest action alert here.
ARRM will keep members updated as we learn more about the House and Senate proposals and please reach out with any questions.
--Sara Grafstrom, Senior Director of State and Federal Policy