Yesterday Governor Dayton signed the omnibus Health & Human Services (HHS) Finance bill, making it Chapter 108 in the 2013 Session Laws. The main point of this bill was to establish the HHS budget, but there are also policy changes that will impact child welfare. One big change from earlier versions of the bill is [...]
The Health & Human Services Omnibus bill (H.F. 1233) in the Minnesota legislature has been slowly moving forward. Because the Senate and House did not agree on the bill text of H.F. 1233, there is a conference committee for the bill. This morning the HHS Conference Committee met from 8 AM to 10 AM and [...]
Update 4/16/13, 11:09 AM - Content clarification Update 4/5/13, 11:05 AM - Content clarification On Wednesday in the House Health and Human Services (HHS) Finance committee, Assistant Commissioner of Child and Family Services Erin Sullivan Sutton provided a walk-through of Governor Dayton's updated HHS budget recommendations from his supplemental budget as they pertain to children [...]
Northstar Care for Children is a proposed program in Minnesota that consolidates Adoption Assistance, Relative Custody Assistance, and family foster care into just one program that would equalize payments for these programs for children ages 6 and older. This program aims to increase permanency through adoption or legal guardianship by a relative, recognizing that current [...]
On Monday, March 11, the House introduced its version of the omnibus health and human services finance budget bill, H.F. 1233; the Senate version, S.F. 1034, had been introduced March 4. As this is a budget year, this bill will be a main focus of our blogging, if not the main focus. Next week I [...]
Minnesota is racing toward the Monday, May 23rd, deadline. Governor Dayton has indicated that he will reject any legislative budget proposals that resolve the deficit using cuts only; Dayton is calling for an approach that includes cuts and increased revenue. See Politics in Minnesota and MPR. Yesterday, the legislators passed to Governor Dayton their final [...]
The conference committees have been bustling in advance of the session deadline. House and Senate conference committee members agreed to the Health & Human Services budget amongst other budget areas. The Conference Committee Working Targets spreadsheet shows how each budget area's current proposal compares to the other policy areas, as well as how each compares [...]
The MN Legislature is on recess this week in observance of religious holidays. During the break in action, we thought you might like to hear more about the Northstar bill. Most years, the MN Department of Human Services puts forth its own bill regarding child welfare policy. This stands separate from the main DHS bill [...]