House committee adopts amendments to HF1082, refers the bill to Ways and Means

The House committee adopted a series of technical and policy amendments to House File 1082 — the committee’s budget-related bill — and voted to refer the measure to the Ways and Means Committee.

Chair Mueller renewed a motion to reconsider an earlier amendment and then moved to adopt a package of changes, including a revisor technical fix (A4), an amendment adding an ALS representative to a task force (A3), an extension of an appropriation spending deadline (A9), policy language on domestic-violence response timelines (A11), and updates tied to Department of Corrections program language (A12). The committee approved each amendment by voice vote and then adopted the D E 6 amendment as amended before referring House File 1082 to Ways and Means.

The amendment that drew the most discussion was A9, offered by Vice-chair Feist, who said the amendment would extend an appropriation’s spending deadline to Dec. 15 of this year. Feist said the original request-for-proposal and grant documents set a December 15, 2026, deadline but that implementers later indicated they meant June. She also said about $1 million of a $2 million allocation for services for "crossover youth" — children involved with both juvenile justice and child welfare systems — had not been spent, and she urged preserving the legislature’s intent. "That's a really big issue ... it's a really big issue at the heart of what is wrong with youth justice in the state," Feist said. The committee adopted A9 by voice vote.

Representative Johnson described the A3 amendment as a technical correction to add an ALS representative to a task force referenced in a separate bill (House File 3095); members adopted the change by voice vote. Chair Mueller moved and members approved the A4 technical amendment, which was drafted by the Revisor’s Office.

On policy language addressing domestic-violence procedures (A11), the committee narrowed a timing provision from an indefinite period to 28 days; the committee discussion noted stakeholders had previously requested a 14-day option, but the committee adopted the 28-day language by voice vote.

During discussion of A12 — changes tied to the Department of Corrections’ core program under a different bill (House File 4031) — Kelly Half, identified as the legislative director for the Department of Corrections, told the committee the negotiated amendment language no longer included a percentage figure and that the current text reflected stakeholder agreement. "For the record, my name is Kelly Half. I'm the legislative director of the Department of Corrections," she said, and confirmed the language before the committee was the agreed-upon version.

After the individual amendments were adopted the committee approved the D E 6 amendment as amended and re-referred House File 1082, as amended, to the Ways and Means Committee by voice vote. The committee did not record roll-call tallies in the transcript; members voiced "ayes" and "nays" and the chair noted motions "carried."

Next steps: with the committee’s referral, House File 1082 will move to the Ways and Means Committee for further consideration.