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Joint Budget Committee

Thursday, April 23, 2026·▶ Watch / Listen

The Joint Budget Committee spent its day nailing down the final pieces of the state budget — approving a $30 million competency package to stave off penalties under a federal consent decree, clearing a stack of conference reports on orbital bills, and tangling over wolf-reintroduction money and a contested DD-waiver funding maneuver.

Key Actions

·Consent-decree competency funding requestAction

+ 21 more actions

Notable Quotes

$30 million for contracted beds to me feels like a drop in the bucket that isn't going to get us very far. But to think of investing $30 million in community based options through the BHA feels like a transformative amount of money.

Emily Pope (JBC staff) · witnessStaff's framing of the core tradeoff in the competency request — buying more contracted beds for immediate compliance versus investing the same sum in longer-term community capacity.

+ 7 more quotes

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TranscriptPreview
The will come to order, we can have a few things on the agenda. We're going to start with Ms. Pope and her write up of the VA8 Human Services Budget Amendment. It was in tab 7 of your binder from a few days ago. The day before, actually. Here it is, Ms. Pope. Okay, thank you. Madam Chair. Emily Pope, JBC staff We are discussing the budget request submitted by the Department of human services and OSPB on April 1 related to resources to comply with the consent decree. We had a very long discussion with the Department yesterday, so I'm not sure how much I have to add, but I do have kind of a lengthy write up for you. I think you're in a pretty difficult position based on the timing of this request, the cost, and the overall situation. And it's difficult. I felt it very difficult to bring you a good option for those reasons. I think if you simply want to be able to quickly spend money to demonstrate compliance with the consent decree over the summer, the. The Department has brought you a request to do that. However, if you wanted to make
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