Date: 04/30/2013

Final
BILL SUMMARY for SB13-231

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC HEALTH CARE & HUMAN SERVICES

Votes: View--> Action Taken:
Refer Senate Bill 13-231 to the Committee of the WPASS



02:04 PM -- Senate Bill 13-231

Representative Levy, sponsor, presented Senate Bill 13-231 concerning the creation of the Title IV-E waiver demonstration project. The bill, recommended by the Joint Budget Committee, creates the Title IV-E waiver demonstration project and specifies that waiver funds will be distributed through performance agreements with counties or groups of counties. The Department of Human Services (DHS) is required to establish rules governing county participation in the demonstration project. The DHS is authorized to contract for an external evaluation of the demonstration project and counties with performance agreements are required to participate in such an evaluation. The demonstration project is repealed on June 30, 2019.

The bill also specifies the use for unspent moneys allocated to participating counties at the end of any fiscal year. Specifically, half of unspent Title IV-E moneys are to remain with the county for use on child welfare purposes and half are to be deposited into the Title IV-E Waiver Demonstration Cash Fund created by the bill for redistribution to over-spending counties. The unspent General Fund portion of capped county allocations may be redistributed as specified under several provisions of law, except that General Fund savings reinvested by a county must be used for child welfare purposes as specified in the performance agreement.

Under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act, federal funds are made available to reimburse states for costs of certain child welfare expenditures for low-income children (Colorado is currently reimbursed for 50 percent of such costs). Beginning in 2011, the federal government has been authorized to grant up to 10 Title IV-E waivers per year to states that waive many of the requirements of Title IV-E. Instead, these states are granted a fixed amount of funding to provide child welfare services. Under current law, the DHS has the statutory authority to pursue a Title IV-E waiver (Section 26-5-105.3, C.R.S.). The federal government authorized a waiver and the DHS agreed to the terms of the waiver agreement in October 2012. However, certain federal requirements for Title IV-E waivers conflict with Colorado's current methods for allocating and redistributing child welfare funding to counties. Thus, this bill allows the DHS to implement the Title IV-E waiver in compliance with federal requirements, while also creating the demonstration project to allocate waiver funds to counties.

Under the Title IV-E waiver terms and conditions agreed to by the federal government, Colorado will receive $46.9 million in federal Title IV-E funds for FY 2013-14. Funding increases annually over the course of the five-year waiver, reaching $50.9 million in FY 2017-18. In recent years, Title IV-E funding to Colorado has decreased. Without a waiver, based on current trends in the child welfare population eligible for Title IV-E funding, federal funds would be about $39.0 million in FY 2013-14 and would likely continue to decrease.

02:06 PM -- Pat Ratliff, representing Colorado Counties, Inc., testified in support of the bill.

02:08 PM -- Deborah Nelson, representing DHS, came to the table to respond to technical questions from the committee. She responded to questions regarding current and proposed federal fund allocation.

02:15 PM

Representative Levy concluded her presentation on Senate Bill 13-231.

BILL:SB13-231
TIME: 02:15:21 PM
MOVED:Young
MOTION:Refer Senate Bill 13-231 to the Committee of the Whole. The motion passed on a vote of 13-0.
SECONDED:Schafer
VOTE
Conti
Yes
Everett
Yes
Joshi
Yes
Landgraf
Yes
May
Yes
McCann
Yes
Schafer
Yes
Singer
Yes
Stephens
Yes
Tyler
Yes
Wilson
Yes
Young
Yes
Primavera
Yes
Final YES: 13 NO: 0 EXC: 0 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: PASS