 Yes, this is the house health care committee. It's Thursday, March 25th, and it's 1 p.m. And we are gathering to hear from representative Kevin Christie coach Christie On an amendment that he has distributed to members for as a From an amendment to house bill 210 for this afternoon and so I'm going to ask Colleen and Kate or actually Kate McLean is the draft person and Coach Christie if you maybe you could have The language put on the screen And Give me one minute I need to So Mr. Chair, yes if you'd like to do A walk through what I can do is Get this group started In the In the other meeting and so I'll just mute myself for a second And be listening And I'll I'll jump back in After we do the introductions Okay, so we perhaps could go ahead and have Katie McLean if she's available walk us through the language that's in front of us So Okay, and then we'll hear from coach Christie as soon as he returns Katie McLean office of legislative council So this is a amendment that has several instances of amendment and since it might not be readily apparent in all of them where they are I'll try to talk you through and give you some context as to where each of these changes are So the first change is in The section that creates the advisory commission There's a list of members of the advisory commission And the director of racial equity Or the executive director Right now it specifies that that individual will serve as as chair of the advisory commission So that language is being removed in this proposal And you'll see language further down that gives the advisory commission the authority to choose a chair and vice chair Then oops. Thank you. I forgot. I didn't have control of the document A little bit more calling, please Great, um, so the second instance of amendment Is also in the section on the advisory council And this is in the subsection that discusses the duties of the advisory council So there has been this is subdivision one and so the underlying language has been removed And there's a new subdivision one, but it is very similar to the previous subdivision one And this directs That the advisory council is to provide guidance on the development Of the office of health equity. So it makes it clear That that an office will be created in the future It's it's less of a hypothetical office and more that something that will be created I think the original language said provide preliminary guidance So this says provide guidance on the development of the office of health equity Which shall be established based on the advisory commission's recommendations And this language is new as soon as as soon as fiscally Practicable to do so. So this is kind of giving a timeline for when this office will take place when when there's money to do it That's when this office will come into being and then this subdivision a had been kind of part of Sub of the lead in language in one and I just bumped it down to be part of the list structure responsibilities and jurisdiction but in concept it is the same Language just kind of redesignated and then the rest of the items in that list have been Designated to have new letters as a result that a has bumped down from subdivision one So the third instance of amendment Thank you. Um Is also in the section on the advisory commission and we're still um looking at language that has the responsibilities of the commission and this has two new responsibilities of the commission and subdivision five Advise the department of health and any funding decisions relating to eliminating health disparities and promoting health equity Including the distribution of federal monies related to kovat 19 and in subdivision six To the extent funds are available for the purpose Distribute grants that stimulate the development of community-based and neighborhood-based projects that will improve the health outcomes of individuals Who are in black indigenous and persons of color individuals who are lgbtq and individuals with disabilities? And then we're renumbering the exact existing subdivision five to be numerically correct to meet that meaning we're making that subdivision seven Um So we're kind of inserting these two new ones in between subdivisions four and seven Next is the fourth instance of amendment This section is also in the advisory commission and this is the language that I referenced previously So we're striking the existing subdivisions two and three and replacing them to give What the effect is that the advisory commission has a little bit more authority Over its own organization So the advisory commission shall select a chair and vice chair at its first meeting and annually thereafter instead of Having the legislation designate who the chair will be and then in subdivision three The advisory commission is to adopt procedures to govern its proceedings Including voting procedures And how the staggered terms shall be a portion among members previously The section listed um What the quorum would look like So instead we're saying that the commission is to decide its own voting procedures And then in subdivision Excuse me not subdivision in the fifth instance of amendment We're no longer in the advisory commission section We're now in the section of the bill that lists the duties of the executive director of racial equity And if you remember we added a duty to reflect the fact that the executive director was taking on the responsibility of Heading up this new advisory commission and in that language it said that the executive director would be chairing um this group and Because the the executive director is no longer chairing That language is being taken out and inserting in Luther of the establishment Of and I need to pull up the language to give you what that whole phrase would look like Um, I don't have that at my fingertips. Oh, here we go So That sentence would read Uh, temporarily so the lead in language um Well, this is a list of the of responsibilities and it says including and so this language in subdivision four would now read Temporarily overseeing the establishment of the health equity advisory commission Established pursuant to the cross-reference until an office of health equity is established And that is the amendment Thank you Thank you, and I'm going to see if coach christy if represent christy is You said you would be listening. I'm sure you're trying to do many things at once Uh Are you available to come back with us and share some of your thoughts in asking for this amendment I see yep, there's coach christy still on the screen Coach are you able to hear us? And I see that katie's had to jump off so that uh Their coach you're lit up on my screen So I'm guessing that you may be able to hear us as well as join us to make some comments See i'm if we're struggling with our technology or Let me see if Hello representative Had to finish a presentation Okay, katie mclin just walked us through the amendment Through these sections of the amendment and i'm inviting you to comment on your Desire to have the amendments put forward I guess very very quickly and you know, I appreciate the committee's time But being one of the original sponsors of the bill I just noticed that it looked like we Missed a piece because in the original Discussions about the bill As we presented it It was this version So the amendment basically is bringing us back to our original thought For The bill itself So it was more like technical correction, you know, it was just an oversight from my observation and and if I may uh, I might Say that uh, wow that several of those issues were brought to my attention by uh, particularly around the In the original bills introduced there was language that the commission would elect its own chair and vice chair, etc And that got changed and I take some responsibility for that in the press of Drafting a new version. Uh, I had mistakenly remembered that the chair of the Office of health equity was in fact the chair of the commission, which is not Was not accurate and so I I I suggested substituting the chair the chair be the chair of office of racial equity who was now a member And so in that particular point, let me say that that as soon as it was pointed out to me I understood what that Choice was and that in our interest of quote empowering Members of the commission as we've talked about that it made sense to return That to the commission to determine its own chair and vice chair and similarly uh When it was brought to my attention as well That there was not a process for Naming the staggered terms that were in the bill Uh, that had been brought to my attention by the government operations committee chair Uh, and this seemed to resolve that issue as well as the quorum issue by letting the commission in fact Resolve those issues and I think that's consistent with what you're concerned to our coach. Christie. Is that correct? Yes, um You know, like you said in the crush And as we all know It it's been Pretty intense the last few days Coming up with crossover and the big bill And then the capital bill On top of our own bills as committee, you know members as well It's it's uh, it's a test of one's serenity So to speak Yeah, but uh, you know, I I think and I'm hoping in all fairness everyone Would uh, uh, see that this is a A reasonable way to address All of our concerns Around the best possible bill to leave the body Uh, yeah, and if I may make Again because coach and I've had these conversations and I know he's pressed for time. I'm wanting to just find a way to balance all this but There was and I see the language around the grant making as clarifying What was in fact the intent to have the commission involved in grant making And I think the language one could infer that from previous language, but this makes it clear. Yes Uh, there's been a question raised as to whether this in any way affects the appropriation of the attached to bill and the answer is no Not there's there's no there's no impact of any of these amendments on Upon anything around the appropriation as far as I can see Okay Uh, representative black Thank you. Um, I just There was there's one piece of it that just sort of Struck me and it was in regards to it should be set up as soon as fiscally practicable I'm just remembering that we took testimony from the director of racial equity And she she made a point That we need that we should not rush rush the process that we should give the Um commission all the time that they needed to make the right decisions and that they shouldn't be under Pressure and and I mean It's the word fiscally that I'm kind of hanging up on Because it might be correct time fiscally to do it, but is it the Has the process taken enough time to really be practicable? Again, it's a little tough with not having coach right on the screen, but Coach would you like well, I you'd like to comment or would you like me to comment go ahead? Well, my my thought would be Being that we've addressed You know trying to make sure that the affected Community members that are participating in this hybrid Level commission Which is is self directed It it's it's not the way we usually set things up But it's the way that allows for That level of flexibility Because it is self directed Um, you know, they're setting their leadership they're setting their agenda and The only critical timeline is the final report You know back to the legislature you know in But as far as the work that they're doing they're working within the confines of You know their ability to pull their additional resources together and things of that sort like if they if we Are able to infuse You know enough funds to do what The estimated you know expenditures might be We designed it in such a way that If they have a public-private partnership For example, like we've done in some other instances They can expand upon the level of their work As far as the number of meetings and things of that sort In covering those stipends At least that's my You know If I may I believe that uh in the language of the In the language of the bill it calls for the commission helping to design and recommend Implementation of the office of health equity so I I would think that they have they they clearly have a voice In that office not being established In any premature manner Contrary to what their recommendation would be That's Representative golden It's interesting because I was struggling with the same language as fiscally practicable And I'm just not sure I understand what that means yet um So it's the advisory commission that decides it's fiscally fiscally practicable. Where does that decision come from? What has to be in place I guess for it to be a practicable You know, I I would I would think that It's consensus You know on the part of the commission You know, we put together a group very similar to this this fall And it represented all 14 counties And all of the affected parties May I follow up? Yeah, may I add as well that one of the parties would be the legislature Because in fact if there's if there's funds required from the legislature The commission is called upon to make recommendations about their continued work and There would need to be The legislature if that's the funding source would need to be a partner in determining what's fiscally Practicable may I ask another question regarding this original? um Recommendation was through the department of health is so is that what we're I mean I just was trying to understand how that fit together because they backed out for obvious reasons But then maybe they'll back in and I'm just trying to get my head around this fiscally practicable thing Well, I think we created An opportunity For them to do the right thing By design You know with the crush of everything going on especially with covet right now Even though looking forward it's hard to look forward sometimes When you're in the middle of You know this battle You know, especially around time and effort and resources uh, so basically we stood this up um, you know as the legislature um On behalf of vermanus And you know, obviously once uh that was uh Bought to their attention in that light It was oh I think we can work with this and then having the resources that they've come to know Especially over the past few months Working with the affected communities and with the office of racial equity They've come to also realize that they have more resources available to them than they realized before as well At least that's my observation Thanks coach Represent page Yes, just a couple of comments I personally like the idea that somebody's in charge at the very beginning such as The director of racial equity. I do not like the idea where we're leaving it to the commission to to start things off And and um, I'll just leave that point there um, the the other item I have is if this commission or this health equity Director if this becomes an independent office um Yes, it should advise the department of health But I think also the general assembly should also be included as well as the health care as well So, uh, do we have any other those would be my two points? Regarding this amendment Thank you Yes, and I believe the language sets it up so that they do advise the general assembly as well Coach christy. I'm sorry No, I I was in agreement with you okay, um Other questions before these yes, uh, just uh, um, you know back to representatives, uh the starting off piece um The office of racial equity um Is present You know at the beginning It's just she's not running the show You know, that's that's the other thing, you know, she's helping facilitate because that's You know who the office is and how Uh, it it works. We're not directing that in order to imply The self-direction of the commission And we provide the office of racial equity with the additional underneath thousand dollars of resource to Uh contract with someone or persons to assist in that process further questions Okay Thank you coach. I thank you for making time in the midst of I know for you is a very busy multi-tasking day So, um I think if there are not further questions right now we could Have you get back to your other responsibilities as well and we're actually The floor I think has started but we should try to bring some closure. I think before If possible before going to the floor Uh So I would I mean, I think we're at the point where if there's if there's for the discussion we should have it. If not, we should Entertain a motion on the amendment Either to support it or not to support it and then proceed to a vote I will make a motion that we support the Amendment just presented although I don't have a number. Sorry Yeah, I'm not sure that's where we can find that. Yeah Representative eras burrows. I'm sorry burrows. We're going to ask you how to pronounce your last name. So we do it properly It's the verb Burrows burrow under burrow under got it. Thank you No, I don't have a question. I just was raising my hand in support I'm supposed to be talking on the amendment that's being presented right now Okay, so let's move this forward then. Uh, so we have a motion to support the amendment as presented by representative christie People are ready for that. So I would ask by show of hands those who support the amendment as presented Okay, and uh those who are opposed Okay, great, but we have, uh Somebody figure out the numbers eight two eight two one, right eight two one. Okay, great Thank you all and, um I would encourage you to join the floor as soon as you can Sorry that we're randomly into the flooring