By McDonald                                           H.B. No. 1585
       74R4936 MLR-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the powers of the Legislative Health and Human Services
    1-3  Board.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 330.004, Government Code, is amended to
    1-6  read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 330.004.  MEETINGS.  The board shall meet not earlier
    1-8  than the seventh day before the date on which a Legislative Budget
    1-9  Board meeting is scheduled <at least quarterly> and at other times
   1-10  at the call of the chair or at the call of a majority of the
   1-11  members of the board or a majority of the board members of either
   1-12  house.
   1-13        SECTION 2.  Section 330.005, Government Code, is amended by
   1-14  amending Subsections (a) and (c) and adding Subsection (g) to read
   1-15  as follows:
   1-16        (a)  The board shall oversee and review the implementation of
   1-17  legislative health and human services policy<, including fiscal
   1-18  policy,> by state agencies that have the statutory duty to
   1-19  implement that policy.  The board's oversight and review functions
   1-20  include fiscal policy such as line item transfers, Medicaid
   1-21  waivers, structural changes in the Medicaid delivery system,
   1-22  recommendations relating to fraud in the welfare system, and
   1-23  cross-agency programs and projects among the health and human
   1-24  services agencies, including integrated delivery systems.  The
    2-1  board may require information and reports from state agencies as
    2-2  necessary to carry out its duties.
    2-3        (c)  The board shall make recommendations to the legislature
    2-4  and the Legislative Budget Board concerning needed changes in
    2-5  legislative health and human services policy.
    2-6        (g)  The board shall oversee and review local efforts in the
    2-7  health and human services fields, including local models and local
    2-8  matching funds, the flexibility of the use of available funds among
    2-9  the local health and human services agencies, and the blending of
   2-10  funds among those agencies to foster innovation and improve
   2-11  accessibility to federal matching funds.
   2-12        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-13  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-14  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-15  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-16  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-17  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-18  passage, and it is so enacted.