SB 479

General Assembly  Substitute Bill No. 479
  February Session, 2026
 AN ACT CONCERNING OVERSIGHT OF FEDERAL FUND
 APPLICATIONS BY THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES.
 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
 Assembly convened:
1Section 1. (NEW) (Effective from passage) (a) As used in this section, (1)
2     "Rural Health Transformation Program" means a federal program
3     established pursuant to P.L. 119-21 that provides grants to states to
4     improve the health of rural residents; and (2) "technical assistance
5     funding" means federal grants to states to implement system
6     modifications to implement eligibility changes for certain public
7     assistance programs, including, but not limited to, Medicaid required
8     pursuant to P.L. 119-21.
9(b) Not later than thirty days before submitting an application for
10    Rural Health Transformation Program grants or for technical assistance
11    funding, the Commissioner of Social Services shall forward such
12    application to the joint standing committee of the General Assembly
13    having cognizance of matters relating to human services. The committee
14    may schedule a public hearing on such application and vote on whether
15    to approve, deny or modify the application.
16(c) If the committee does not vote to approve, deny or modify such
17    application not later than thirty days after receipt of such application
18    from the commissioner, the application shall be deemed approved. If
19    the committee votes to deny the application, the commissioner shall not
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  Substitute Bill No. 479
20 submit such application to the federal government. If the committee
21 votes to modify the application, the commissioner shall modify the
22 application in accordance with the committee's vote before submission
23 to the federal government.
  This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
  sections:
  Section 1      from passage  New section
 Statement of Legislative Commissioners:
 In Subsec. (a)(1), "grant program" was changed to "program" and "to be
 distributed" was changed to "that provides grants" for clarity.
 HS  Joint Favorable Subst. -LCO
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