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.