May 8, 2026 · Appropriations · 5,913 words · 13 speakers · 211 segments
. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Thank you. . Thank you. Thank you. The committee on appropriations will come to order. Okay. Okay. 1324, lay over. Lay over. Okay, first up we have Senate Bill 20... Oh, yeah, I skipped a big piece.
Ms. Conagoraja, please call the roll. Senators...
Gonzales. Good morning.
Kirkmeyer.
Aye. Colker. Good morning.
Sir. Pelton.
Present. Simpson.
Present.
Mr. Vice Chair. Yep.
Madam Chair. Here.
You did switch out Lister.
Okay. First up today, we have Senate Bill 183, Senator Kirkmeyer.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move Senate Bill 26183 and J001.
Committee members, Senator Kolker.
Thank you. This year, it doesn't have general fund, but next year it says 780. So that 780 that's in the general fund that could go back into the general fund, that is still part of our budget.
How do we explain this? Sure.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Senator Korkmeyer.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Sure. This is just like the same as with those sunset bills. These are funds that have already been appropriated. What has happened is when we did a COP back in 2024, which was funded by federal mineral lease dollars, backed up by federal mineral lease dollars, we have, after we went through and did all of those COPs, we found out we had a, God, I can't think of the right word, but surplus essentially, or we had an additional 13 million that we could do COPs with These are the funds the 780 is the funds that had been appropriated back then to use for the whole entire million of programs that we were doing So it's already funds similar to like in the Sunsets where they're already appropriated out.
Senator Colker. But the Sunsets have a department. This is a new construction item that wasn't already being paid for. So if it's something that we can divert or defer for another year, it will add $780 to our general fund for other priorities.
Senator Kirkmeyer. Yes, and we will also lose $13 million of capability to bond out in to go down our capital development construction list in funding towards those buildings. So, again, just like what we did two years ago when we did the bonds that we knew that were coming up and the dollars that would be available through the federal mineral lease dollars, and we issued COPs, there is an additional surplus or an additional amount of money that we can still do because we got such a good price on them that we can still do. So we pulled another project off the list, and no, it wasn't up at the top of the list because, as you know, I think probably as you know this year, we severely cut the capital development construction list, But we were able to pull one off the list and get a building done for the Colorado School of Mines. Anything over and above the $13 million is on the Colorado School of Mines. They will go find the money. But this is a building that is in bad shape and needs new HVAC systems and other things with regard to their building that they need to get done. They've had it on the list for quite some time. So, again, because our budget, we were short. The only thing we could fund in the capital development construction list pretty much was the controlled maintenance, and then we did the continuation project for the Clark building for CSU. Realizing that we had these additional dollars that we could bond out through COPs or do COPs on and the money had already been appropriated to issue those COPs, we went and found another building that met, one, the kind of requirements with regard to federal mineral lease dollars, which come from oil and gas, and then also try and pull more projects down off of that CDC list, capital development list.
Senator Kolkier. Thank you, Madam Chair. So the COPs, you said if we don't use this, we lose the COP. Can't we just issue COPs in the future? Help me understand that.
Senator Kirkmeyer. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, we could. Could we get better financing in the future? I think we're getting really pretty good financing now. That's why there was the ability to do some additional COPs. Do you know any idea what that is? I do not. Let me see if I got a text from a friend, but I don't have that information. Okay.
Are there objections to J-001? Senator Kolker objects, so Ms. Canagraja, please poll the committee.
Senators Gonzalez.
Aye.
Pirkemeier. Aye.
Kolker. No.
Pelton. Aye.
Simpson. Aye.
Mr. Vice Chair.
Madam Chair. Aye. That amendment is adopted on a vote of 6-1.
Ms. Conagraja, please pull the committee on the adoption of Senate Bill 183 as amended.
Oh, I'm sorry, Senator Simpson. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just for the record, for the committee's reference, if you all remember, with the appointment of a certain past president of the Senate to the Board of Trustees at Carter School of Mines, I said from the floor that the roof of Guggenheim would probably collapse So it ended up not being the roof but it no coincidence that we seeking funding to make repairs at Guggenheim and Hall And to think I was going to support that bill.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That man is a menace indeed.
Ms. Conagrager, please call the roll.
Senators Gonzalez. Aye.
Kirkmeyer. Aye.
Colker. Respectfully, no.
Halton. Aye. Simpson. Aye. Mr. Vice Chair. Aye. Madam Chair. Aye. That bill passes 6-1. Next up we have House Bill 1016. And oh, that's me. So.
House Bill 1016. I know. Madam Vice Chair. I move House Bill 1016 and J3.
To J3, is there any discussion? Senator Kirkmeyer, I think I know what the question's going to be.
Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. And, I mean, especially now when we just get our packets, so just would like to, if you could explain J3 to us and the fiscal note, and I think you've been working on it to get it down, even from when we talked about this at the Joint Budget Committee.
Senator Frizzell.
Yeah. Thank you. Good morning, committee. I'm very happy to be here to explain this fiscal note to you. We did make a change. Originally, the bill, originally, as it was introduced, started off with about a million dollars. It was cut down to $500,000, the request for this really important program, and passed out of the House with that amount. In conversations in committee, we worked with the Department of Higher Ed to further scale that amount back to $275,000. That's what it's going to take to just kind of keep this going, not as it could be, not as it has been, but just keeping the lights on.
Further?
Oh, sorry.
Senator, any other questions? Seeing none, is there any objection to J003? Seeing none, J03 is adopted. To the bill, any discussion? Seeing none, please pull the committee. Oh, Senator Kolker.
I just want to say that this is an existing program that's been around for a while. We've heard a lot of testimony in education about this, the importance of it and the understanding of it. And I know it originally is at typically $1.1 million. So to see it come down to $275,000, I appreciate the effort for that. Thank you.
All right. Now please poll the committee.
Senators Gonzalez. Aye.
Kirkmeyer. Aye.
Colker. No.
Pelton. Aye.
Simpson. Aye.
Mr. Vice Chair. Aye.
Madam Chair. Aye. That motion, that bill passes. The vote is 6-1. Back to you. Thank you. Okay. Next up we have House Bill 1054. and I see Senator Wallace is here. That does have an L amendment. Senator Wallace, would you like us to run L22?
Yes, ma'am. Thank you.
Mr. Vice Chair.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Madam Chair.
I move House Bill 1054 and L22.
I'd love to know what it is. Okay. Do you want to explain L22?
Yes.
I mean, Senator Wallace?
That okay Compliment taken Good morning committee members Thank you for addressing this bill This amendment simply clarifies so we are the Attorney General Office and the Department of Law are sure that they can handle this within their current budget. As you know, they would have to come back to us for any appropriation because we're not asking for any appropriation on this. This amendment simply clarifies that, as we know, they have to come back to us for any appropriations so it is really just stipulating in the law that they should they need money for this they will have to come back and ask for it. Okay Senator
Kirkmeyer. Thank you Madam Chair but are they basically asking for us for the fiscal one year conditional fiscal one year is that 2728 that they're saying they're gonna need 9 FTE for it or were they saying that they thought in 2627 they thought they needed 9 FTE to do this. Senator Wallace. Thank you madam
Chair, and thank you for the question. The Department of Law is not saying that they, we are having a disagreement between the Attorney General's Office and the fiscal note here, where the LCS is concerned about federal repeals of OSHA and that that will suddenly trigger a huge need in the Attorney General's Office for this. The Attorney General's Office is not asking for that. They believe that they can operate in this bill without any further appropriation. And so we are stipulating that once again they are not asking for an appropriation. We are not asking for an appropriation with the bill
Senator Kirkmeyer and then Senator Colfer I understand that
What I'm asking is is it the Attorney General's opinion or is it the fiscal note analyst opinion that the Attorney General will need 9 FTE? Because typically the fiscal notes the impact comes from the departments they tell the fiscal note analysts and the Joint Budget Committee folks what they believe they're going to need to Administer this program new new program or this new law that is it so did they are they the ones who said that they needed 9 FTE
Senator Wallace
Thank You madam chair. No ma'am They are not saying that the the fiscal note analyst is saying that and the Attorney General's office is on board with this amendment that once again stipulates that they are not that they would have to come back to us for any appropriation and that they they they do not believe that they will need 9 FTE for this.
Senator Kierkemeyer.
Great. Well, just for the record, they would have to do that anyways.
Right.
And I just want to be clear that as we're looking at this and when we do things through the Joint Budget Committee, we have a tendency to go back and look at bills and look at the fiscal note and what's in those bills. So the Attorney General needs to be clear that he's not getting 9 FTE.
senator colker oh senator wallace um yes i i agree thank you senator kirkmaier senator colker i just appreciate that appreciate the information from the ag's office and hope all departments are able to see that thank you
Okay. Senator Simpson.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And look, I've only served on a prop's maybe a couple times, but I don't know that I've-
You're a rock star, though. The dream team. The other half will be here shortly.
But I don't know that I ever remember a fiscal note with a conditional fiscal reference in it. Is that something the prop's committee has dealt with before? I don't know who to address that to.
Well, I'll just say we have seen that. I think one other time this year. I don't, I'll, it is a very rare thing. Okay. Okay, are there, Objections to the amendment of L-22, adoption of amendment L-22. Seeing none, L-22 is adopted.
Ms. Conagraja, please poll the committee on the adoption of House Bill 1054 as amended by L-22. Senators Gonzalez.
Aye.
Kirkmeyer. No.
Kolker. Aye.
Pelton. No.
Simpson. No.
Mr. Vice Chair. Aye.
Madam Chair. Aye. That bill passes 4-3. Next up, we have House Bill 1059. And we have our sponsor in the room, and Mr. Vice Chair.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move House Bill 1059. There is no J or L.
Senator Kirkmeyer.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Senator Frazell, would you just explain to us real quickly what you explained to me earlier for the record regarding your fiscal note?
Senator Frazell.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Senator Kirkmire.
I'm very happy to talk about this. This bill simply is creating a cost recovery cash fund for the Department of Revenue, and it is consolidating three other, four other, sorry, my apologies, four other cash funds into one. The hope of the Department of Revenue would be that they would achieve some efficiency in managing one fund over the four. And so there's, this is revenue neutral. It's just moving money from four pots into one. Okay.
Are there any other questions?
Seeing none, Ms. Kanagaraja, please poll the committee on the adoption of House Bill 1059. Senators Gonzalez.
Aye.
Kirkmeyer. Aye.
Colker. Aye.
Pelton. Aye.
Simpson. Aye.
Mr. Vice Chair. Aye.
Madam Chair. Aye. That bill passes unanimously.
Mr. Vice Chair. Thank you, Madam Chair. May I suggest the consent calendar?
Are there any objections? Seeing none, that would be on the consent calendar. Next up, it is Senator Frizzell Day at the Joint Budget Committee. Wow. I thought I was done. I thought you were done. The whole day is you. That had been stuck in appropriations in the House. Yeah, see you next year. And here we are. And, yeah, so after this, I will see you next year. Okay. So we have House Bill 1075. There is no amendment that I know of. Mr. Vice Chair.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move House Bill 1075. There is no amendment that I know of.
Committee members, any questions for the bill sponsors? Senator Kirkmeyer, we're waiting for you. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Sorry, I was reading the next bill. I'd already read that one. So it appears that this is actually good for us, but if you could explain your fiscal note real quickly, that'd be great.
Senator Frizzell.
Thank you very much. Madam Chair, thank you, Senator Kirkmeyer. This bill is simply, there's no additional state dollars. It is, these are all federal funds that are being drawn down, so it diverts about $150,000 in the first year or annually, going to counties for providing services human sorry human services child welfare prevention services and that's kind of it. It's really fairly straightforward, Bill.
Okay. Committee members, Are there, I'm sorry I'm a little confused now, but we're on 1075. Are there any further questions?
Seeing none, Ms. Conagraja, please poll the committee on the adoption of House Bill 1075. Senators Gonzalez.
Aye.
Kirkmeyer. Aye.
Colker. Aye.
Pelton. Aye.
Simpson. Aye.
Mr. Vice Chair. Aye.
Madam Chair. Aye. That bill passes unanimously.
Mr. Vice Chair. May I suggest the consent calendar?
Any objections? Seeing none, that would be on the consent calendar. Next up we have House Bill 1147. And are there any, there's no J or L, no amendments. Committee members, questions for the bill sponsor?
Senator Kirkmeyer. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just curious why the Department of Health Care Policy and Finance needs to establish a database of host home providers and why they don't have one already.
Senator Cutter.
They've got to be giving them money. This is just an effort to have all of the information. They don't have a database this way yet, and this is just an effort to put all of the information in the same place so that there's some transparency and we're able to help protect adults with IDD living in host homes, which can be so they're free of abuse and neglect and all that kind of thing. And they have not had a consolidated database.
Senator Kirkmeyer. I don't have another question. I just have a comment.
Okay.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This has been our frustration with the Department of Health Care Policy and Finance now for years, sitting on the Joint Budget Committee. They gave us all sorts of information with regard to host homes, family caregiver homes, residential settings and institutions and apparently they didn't have it all together so the information that we got once again was probably wrong or incomplete and I think this department this is exactly why for those of you who thought maybe doing a commission with legislators on it to go in and look at what the heck this department is doing maybe you thought that was a bad idea if you were one of those people that voted no you should really go back and look at it because this is why we're having that commission because this department has a a really tough time of pulling information out of their databases that they have and giving us accurate information when we're going through the budgeting process. I think it's amazing that we have to carry a bill to tell them to pull together their database. That's amazing to me. And for them to say they don't have it is actually appalling to me. So again, it's just a comment. It's another reason why we did what we did at the Joint Budget Committee saying this summer we're going to take a deep dive on this department and find out what the heck they aren't doing over there that they should be doing.
Senator Coker.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And I agree with the study, and maybe with that study we'll figure out if this $20,000 was needed or not. But in this state expenditures, it says that we're going to leverage that $20,000 to get $60,000 in federal funds. Is that correct?
That is correct. That will be a yes.
Okay, Ms. Conagraja, please. We haven moved the bill We have not We have not We knew that too I knew that Yes Mr Vice Chair Thank you Madam Chair I move House Bill 1147 There are no amendments.
Ms. Conagraja, please poll the committee. Senators Gonzalez.
Aye.
Kirkmeyer. Aye.
Colker. Aye.
Pelton. Aye.
Simpson. No.
Mr. Vice Chair. Saved you. Aye.
Madam Chair. Aye. That bill passes 6 to 1. Okay. Fix trails and I'll be a yes. Next up we have House Bill 1230 and Senator Kerkmeyer.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move House Bill 26-1230. Ask for an aye vote.
And I don't see any amendments. Nor is there an appropriation. Committee members, any questions for the bill sponsor?
Senator Bridges. Thank you, Madam Chair. Can you explain your fiscal note, please? Yes. Thank you very much. There's actually no fiscal note, no appropriation needed for 2026. This would be an extension of this program that we already have in place, but it doesn't start until 31, 32, moving out, and it's only for a five-year extension, not 10. It's only for a five-year extension. Appreciate that. And so that is the funds that you see there in the out years, again, 31, 32, which is what is going on now in the program as well, and you'll see that it's actually not general funds, it's cash funds, because it's within the program and within the tax credits that occur. So it's a great – the Conservation Easement Tax Credit Program is a great program, and it's so great, in fact, that we have spent all of the tax credits through, and these are projects that take a couple of years in the making, but we bring in a lot of other dollars to this outside of the tax credits to do great things in the state of Colorado. So thank you for asking.
Senator Bridges.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Agree. I think this program, as it was initially formed, had some challenges. You know, there's a lot of things that we create as a legislature that we need to go back and revisit and improve and fix and change. We are not angels. We are human. We make mistakes. Nothing we do is perfect. So I think we have really gotten this program into shape over the last few years. This is doing so much good across the state. I'm very happy to see this in thorough explanation of the fiscal note.
Thank you, Senator Kerkmeyer.
Senator Pelton. Thank you, Madam Chair. And with that, it's also we should make the people whole that were damaged by this program as well in the first part of it. So many of my constituents that have been harmed by this program as well. So thank you.
Ms. Conagraja, please poll the committee on the adoption of House Bill 1230. Senators Gonzalez.
Aye.
Kirkmeyer. Aye.
Colker. Aye.
Pelton. No.
Simpson. Aye. Mr. Vice Chair. Enthusiastically aye. Madam Chair. Aye. That bill passes 6 to 1.
Next up, we have House Bill 1272, and I see we have our sponsors, and we have a J amendment.
Would the sponsors like us to move the J3 amendment? Senator Weissman. Thanks, Madam Chair. Basically, the reason for this, Jay, is to reflect new information that the analyst got. You'll see it's a small bump. It's a fifth of an additional FTE. I think what happened is because major amendments have been made to this bill, much shrinking the fiscal relative to the introduced, if members have looked back at the older notes. Things are moving quickly. The last note that informed the Jay in the House was sort of preliminary information More information came in I think per usual LCS sort of resisted all of the contentions of the executive branch but I was informed a few days ago by Mr. Mayfield that the small adjustment would be coming.
Okay. Mr. Vice-Chair, do you want to move the bill and the amendment so I don't forget?
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move House Bill 1272 and J003.
Senator Colker. Thank you, Madam Chair. So there's no way the department can take on the small amount of cost here without this amendment, even though they find it a priority because other departments found a way to do that.
Senator Weissman. Fair question, Senator. I know I've been in this committee enough, even just listening in for fun before and after my own bills. That's wrong. I know that there's so much wrong about the legislature, Senator Bridges.
No, it's wrong that you're sitting in here for fun. That's what he meant.
I'm situating that in a bigger context, Senator.
At any rate, look, Senator, it's a valid question.
I'll begin that I've not had explicitly that conversation with them. Hey, could you just figure out a way to get this done? I know members of this committee have sort of mixed opinions about, you know, do we just clip off a five-digit probe? Do we clip off a fraction of an FTE? What I will say is that Senator Cutter and I and our House sponsors and organizations we work with have been in this effort for two years at this point. you know what what is before the committee now is essentially a data gathering bill and and that would help inform a model policy which would be sort of aspirational only and would not be subject to any sort of regulatory force so I mean there's bigger conversations to be had about the subject of the bill which is people working in extreme heat and cold that's not this bill that's not this year. I think we can both just say that after two years of effort and a bill just P.I. last year and chopping this down this year, one way or another, we just don't want this bill to die
in committee on day whatever it is, 1-16. Senator Colker. Thank you and appreciate that. We all work hard on our bills. It was told to me at the beginning of the session and told all of us We didn't have any money until I see that we have some money. I've been voting that way. And I would rather see them put this in place because this is a study. Is this a priority at this time?
And for me, seeing other things that we need, I know it's only 76,000, but I've been on record. This is what I've said. This is what I'm doing. And if we found the money, we have the money in a different way. If it leverages money, those are things that I'm looking at. I don't see where, for me, allocating this money this year is a priority. Senator Weissman.
Appreciate the tension, Senator. I mean, I've done the thing, too, where I chopped down the policy of bills so that the fiscal will fit through this committee. I think we all heard zero, and now we seem to be in a different posture vis-a-vis the appropriations committees and then the budget committee that a lot of members of this committee in turn serve. I guess I'll say two things. One, you all, and I think the chair and vice chair in particular know better than those of us non-members can exactly what's in the pot. But more specifically, I think I just heard a little bit about 1016 concerning which there was originally a million dollar, I don't know if it's quite right to call it a set aside, but some sort of understanding. and that was then cut down to half a million, and then that was cut down to $225,000 or $275,000, such that now we have only, unless somebody has already made assumptions about that, which maybe has happened, now there's $700,000 or $800,000 a room that can be contended for, and as any bill sponsor does, I am contending for some consideration vis-a-vis that amount.
Senator Cutter. Thank you, Madam Chair. And, Senator Colker, I understand and appreciate your concerns as well, but I would contend that this should be a priority, as my colleague explained. We've worked on the bill for years, but I understand everyone has. I get that. But also, we're seeing extreme temperature changes already, and this is a worker safety bill. We cannot afford to protect the workers, actually enact measures to protect them. So this is a first critical first step in being able to do that. And at a time when many of our worker safety and protection bills are not being passed or signed or implemented, this is a really, really important piece of legislation for people in our state. So I hope you can see your way to supporting it. Senator Kirkmeyer.
Thank you, Madam Chair. First of all, this is the department head that came and sat in front of the Joint Budget Committee and told us no, he wasn't going to make any cuts in his budget and he didn't have to, just so you know. And it was so bad that it was the first time I'd ever seen Representative Taggart go ballistic. So with regard to the comments on other bills that have been going through appropriations because they had funding on it. The 1016 program, the bill there and that program, that online program, it actually is being reduced from about 1.1 million down to 200-something thousand. It is something that we talked about at the Joint Budget Committee. Didn't feel that we could carry the bill, but again, it was an existing program. The thing with the 183, again, existing program, the monies have already been appropriated in the out years. Same and very similar to the sunset bills that have been going through here that have appropriations in out years that didn't show up for an appropriation in this year because they were already, They were out there anyways, and we continued those. So those were not in a different posture. Those programs were already existing and going on. This is something new to be done, and this is something actually that the Department of Labor should be doing within existing appropriations. So if you want to spill it over your bill and you can go talk to them and tell them they want to take the fiscal note off and do it within existing appropriations, that's a different thing. But for right now I a no on this bill because again this department needs to learn that we don get to keep increasing FTE by leaps and bounds which they have done They have done One year there was like 300 new FTE in the Department of Labor and Employment And they don give that great a service by the way So I'm a no on the bill as well for those reasons.
Okay, I am going to call a senatorial five and would like to just have a minute. Make sure to pause this. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you I withdraw my motion for both J and for House Bill 1272 And we are going to lay this bill over until maybe later today or tomorrow or Monday. Okay, next up, we have House Bill 1298. You can just stay. And Senator Cutter is here. Are there any questions for the bill sponsor?
Senator Kirkmeyer. That's my favorite question. Everybody needs to explain their fiscal note. I know it's looking pretty good here, but you still need to explain it. Thank you.
Senator Cutter. Thank you, Madam Chair. It's just pretty simple. The costs are paid here from federal funds. They're just drawn down from federal funds. I can go into more depth about the bill. If you want me to, why? Essentially, there is no general fund. No, correct. No general fund impact. Thank you. Ms. Connick, do we move this?
No.
Mr. Vice Chair.
Thank you, Madam Chair. In hopes that I don't withdraw this motion, I move 1298. There are no amendments that I'm aware of.
Ms. Connick-Garagia, please poll the committee. Senators Gonzalez.
Aye.
Kirkmeyer.
Aye.
Colker.
Aye.
Pelton.
Aye.
Simpson. Aye. Mr. Vice Chair. Aye. Madam Chair. Aye. That bill passes unanimously. Mr. Vice Chair. May I suggest the consent calendar for a Lisa Cutter bill?
Listen, I've had half dozen bills on the consent calendar. Yes, she has. Excellent work. I noticed I did not say that.
Okay, seeing no objection, that will be placed on the consent calendar. Next up, we have House Bill 1324, and Senator Doherty asked to have the bill laid over, so we will not be hearing that this morning, and that takes us to House Bill 1328. And Senator Kirkmeyer.
Thank you, Madam Chair, and this is a bill that you are absolutely just going to love, going to love. I move House Bill 26-13-28, ask for an aye vote, and let me just explain the fiscal note. Thank you.
Okay. Make Mollica explain it. Make Mollica explain it.
Yeah, make Mollica explain the fiscal note. No, no, I'm going to explain this.
Madam Chair, I would appreciate an explanation for me. Because here's the thing. I just want you to look right through here on page two of the fiscal note. Lego. Table 1A, state expenditures. General fund, minus $76,000. Cash funds minus nearly $21 million. Federal funds increase of $21 million. That's in 26-27. In 27-28, there'll be an increase of $43 million coming from federal funds. So this is really positive fiscal note. But the part that just kind of ticks me off here is, for years we haven't been drawing down these federal funds. Basically what this bill does is it changes administrative services to medical services, therefore we get to pull down federal funds. So back to why we're having a commission wondering why the heck the Department of Health Care Policy and Finance hasn been pulling down these federal funds for years When they know the situation that we had specifically with the non medical transport Thank you to my good co sponsor for inviting me on this bill This is a great bill. I ask for an aye vote.
Senator Mullica, I see you eager to contribute. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Senator Kirkmeyer. She explained it well. I will just also point out, just to clarify so you guys can see it on page five of the fiscal note, there is a different drawdown from the federal government. Right now, we classify these as administrative services. This will allow us to classify these as medical services, and there's about a 15% increase by being able to do that. And I also want to just mention too, and it's probably not for this committee, but I'm very proud of this. We have had significant fraud in this program, this bill is really going to address that to make sure that we have a system in place so that we're not in the situation that we've been in in the last couple of years with this program. Okay. And I will just echo that this has been a real problem and I'm glad to see that we're doing something to address it. And it also will inform our work over the interim on the Medicaid Commission. Senator Coker.
I just want to say something because this might get to consent, might not be able to say anything. I think it's a great bill. Thank you very much. Anytime we can pull down money from the federal government and it doesn't, you know, adversely affect us, and then just make these changes that are needed when it comes to fraud and the oversight that's needed, I appreciate this bill. Thank you.
Ms. Conagraja, please poll the committee on the adoption of House Bill 1328. Senators Gonzalez.
Aye.
Kirkmeyer. Aye.
Colker. Aye.
Pelton. To keep J.D. Vance out of our state, aye.
Simpson.
Aye.
Mr. Vice Chair. Pass.
Mr. Vice Chair again.
Aye. For today.
Madam Chair. Aye. That bill passes unanimously, but is not a candidate for the consent calendar.
Madam Chair, may I suggest the consent calendar anyway and the people can just vote no?
No, no. We want to get them to talk about it. Oh, great. Especially for the good senator from what county is he from, Taylor? Woodland Park. Yeah, that voted against a bill that's going to pull down in next year an additional $22 million approximately. Geez, think how that's going to help our budget. Okay. From the federal government?
Yeah.
Yeah, we're pulling down federal dollars. Okay. So let me just say.
Does that mean we have an extra $41 billion?
No. No, we do not.
We haven't pulled it down yet.
Okay. So the Committee on Appropriations is going to meet this afternoon. No. As of right now. And so I don't know when, but be prepared for that. You're in. The Committee on Senate Appropriation is adjourned. That is before 9 o'clock people.