Senate Finance, 5/7/26, 1:30pm

[FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Senate Finance Committee to order.

Good morning. We have 2 items on today's calendar. Present, Chairman Steadman, Chairman Olson, Senator Keeough, Senator Merrick, Senator Kaufman, Senator Cronkin, myself, Senator Hoffman. The first item is Senate Bill 178, expanding early intervention services. This bill was first heard on March 4th.

We took public testimony and reviewed the fiscal notes at the time. We have a CS to introduce.

Senator Steadman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that the Finance Committee adopt the committee substitute for Senate Bill 178, version N, before the committee as our working document. I'll object and ask Liz Harpold to the table to explain the CS.

Thank you. Good afternoon. Liz Harpold, staff to Senator Olson and the Senate Finance Committee. What this CS does is the bill sponsor and Department of Health work together to come up with a new effective date for the conditional language in here. It gives the Department of Health a bit more time to create and submit a plan for approval to changes made for the state's Medicaid plan.

I remove my objection. There are no further objections to adopting the CS. Seeing none, that CS is adopted. Will the committee center statement? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I move that the Senate Finance Committee substitute for Senate Bill 184, version N, from committee with the attached and forthcoming fiscal notes and individual recommendations. Is there objection? Seeing no objection, that bill moves on to the next committee of referral, which is the Rules Committee. Wait, please. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Meeting back to order.

We're moving at lightning speed. Senate Bill 178 moves from committee with individual recommendations attached fiscal note. That brings us to Senate— House Bill 173, Occupational Therapy and Leisure Compacts. This bill was first heard on April 13th. We took public testimony and reviewed the fiscal notes at that time.

We have a CS for introduction. Senator Steadman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move the Finance Committee adopt the committee substitute for House Bill 173, version I.

Let me rephrase that, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Finance Committee adopt a committee substitute for House Bill 173, version I, before the committee as a working document. I'll object and ask Liz Harpold to explain the CS to the Finance Committee.

Thank you. For the record, Liz Harpold, staff to Senator Olson and the Senate Finance Committee. What the CS does, it makes two changes. First, it adds an executive administrator to the State Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy Board. And then second, uh, and I should note both of these changes came at the request of the sponsor.

The second change has to do with background check language being put into statute, and this is something that this bill sponsor worked with the Department of Public Safety to make sure they're meeting any sort of national requirements for background checks. And those background check changes apply to existing compacts as well as the new compact that we're looking to create with occupational therapy. Does that require a new fiscal note? It may. May.

With that, I remove my objection for the adoption of the CS. Is there further objection?

Seeing none, that CS is adopted.

Senator Steadman, will the committee—. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move the Senate Finance Committee substitute for House Bill 173, version I, from committee with attached and forthcoming physical notes and individual recommendations. Is there objection to moving the committee to the next committee of referral? Seeing none, that bill passes to the next committee of referral, which will be the Rules Committee.

This concludes this afternoon's meeting. Our next meeting is 9:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. We are adjourned.