Bill requiring Idaho Legislature's approval to expand public assistance programs advances to Senate
The Idaho State Capitol building in Boise as seen on Jan. 11, 2023. (Otto Kitsinger for Idaho Capital Sun)
A bill to require approval from the Idaho Legislature to expand eligibility for public assistance programs is headed to the Idaho Senate — one of its last legislative hurdles before potentially becoming law.
House Bill 90 would require legislative approval through passed laws, called statutes, to expand eligibility criteria or benefits for public assistance programs — which are largely run by the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.
The Idaho House already widely passed the bill last month, with only two votes against it. The bill is cosponsored by House Health and Welfare Committee Chairman John Vander Woude, R-Nampa, and Sen. Brian Lenney, R-Nampa.
Presenting the bill to the Senate Health and Welfare Committee on Monday, Lenney said at a high level, the bill ensures Health and Welfare doesn't decide on policies that can impact the budget — while the Legislature isn't in session.
He referenced Health and Welfare's decision in August 2024 to pause new enrollments in the Idaho Child Care Program until January, as the agency projected a $15.5 million budget deficit, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported. Since 2011, the agency changed the program's income eligibility level for families twice, Department of Health and Welfare Director Alex Adams told the leaders of the Legislature's budget committee last year.
'This is a bill that addresses bureaucrats behaving badly,' Lenney told the committee.
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The bill would repeal language in Idaho law that required statutory approval for changes that amount to 'any change in financial' eligibility criteria, expanding the law's language to 'any change that would expand eligibility criteria' or benefits for public assistance programs.
The committee advanced the bill to the full Senate. It could go up for a Senate vote in the coming days.
Senate Minority Leader Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, voted against the bill in the Senate committee Monday. But she said she might support the bill later.
'I was on the committee and remember the conversation distinctly that the department did present with their estimates, and we as a group voted to support that rule. Because, and I believe one of the things we said was, … if we could help more people we should,' Wintrow said in committee.
Generally, Idaho agency administrative rules — which are subject to legislative approval — are easier to change than state laws.
Wintrow said she has supported recent moves by the Idaho Legislature to convert rules into laws, but she said she's starting to question the impact of that practice.
'What are the cons to this? What have we not seen or thought about in the future that we could have some misgivings about?' Wintrow rhetorically asked.
Expanding on language already in Idaho law that says eligibility changes can't be made in agency rules, the bill would add new language specifying that eligibility changes can't be made through state plans, state plan amendments, agency guidance or other documents.
In a text message, Lenney told the Sun that Health and Welfare had made several other program changes to the Idaho Child Care Program through those mechanisms.
'Beyond childcare we have like 10-15 welfare programs that are primarily spelled out in state plan or rule — food stamps, heating bill assistance, weatherization assistance, cash assistance, etc — and this ensures what happened at childcare doesn't happen in any other state program,' he told the Sun.
If the bill passes the Idaho Senate, Idaho Gov. Brad Little has three options: He could sign it, allow it to become law without his signature, or veto it.
If passed, the bill would become law July 1.
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