The Senate convened briefly Tuesday afternoon to change the effective date on a bill before adjourning the First Special Session of 2024.
The body changed the effective date of Senate Bill 1011 to May 22, 2024.
This leaves the status of Senate Bill 1001 up in the air and in the hands of the House of Delegates. Last night the Senate amended the bill to the original form as it passed out of the upper chamber Sunday night.
In that form, it would allow the secretaries of the Department of Health and the Department of Human Services to transfer money out of a new reserve fund to provide money for other line items, such as Medicaid and the intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) waiver program. However, the bill in this current form has no specific directives requiring DoHS to transfer those monies to those programs. The legislation would require the secretaries to file monthly reports to the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Government and Finance to explain any transfers. It would also prevent any expenditures from these appropriations after March 30, 2025, returning any remaining funding in those line items back to the general revenue fund.
The House prefers a bill with specific spending directives to agency heads. In that body’s amended bill yesterday, the legislation would require DoHS to use some of the $183 million for specific line items. This version would require the DoHS use $10.3 million to increase provider rates for Title 19 aged and disabled waiver program, $10.7 million to increase provider rates for the IDD waiver program, $6.6 million to increase provider rates for personal care services, and $135,000 to increase provider rates for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) waiver program.
Given the Senate has adjourned with the bill in its original Senate form, the House’s option later this afternoon will be to either accept the Senate’s version or allow the legislation to fail.
The Senate is adjourned Sine Die
