The Senate Finance Committee is continuing its work on the state budget.  This past week, it finished up with most of its presentations from executive branch agencies, and next week it begins its actual deliberations on the budget.  When the Committee convenes on Monday, it will start with the easy items, and work its way through the rest of the budget during the course of next week and the following week.  It will probably be towards the latter end of the process that the Committee will make its final decision on SB 308 (the Medicaid workforce bill), and specifically whether the Medicaid rate increases and the state loan repayment program provisions are going to be included in the budget and the budget trailer bill (HB 1 and HB 2). NHNPA strongly supports the insertion of the SB 308 provisions into the state budget.

On a related note, on Wednesday the full Senate passed an amended version of HB 127 which includes the various survey provisions that also are in SB 308 . These provisions require licensing boards (including the Board of Nursing) to establish rules for the surveying of licensees regarding workforce issues. The results would go to the Office of Rural Health Care at DHHS. The reason for amending HB 127 is because on the chance that the Governor vetoes the budget, and that the provisions of SB 308 are part of the budget, the various non-financial aspects of SB 308 (like the surveys) would still survive in other places.

Also this week, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to recommend that the full Senate re-refer SB 481, the bill to legalize marijuana.  If this recommendation is approved by the full Senate next week, the bill would stay in the Senate Judiciary Committee and be reviewed further over the course of the summer and the fall, with a final substantive recommendation to come from the Committee later in the year and a vote by the full Senate at the beginning of January.