No. HB 1435
Filed under Healthcare.
Structure and Legislative Oversight of Executive Agencies; Provides that divisions or offices in executive department may be established only by specific statutory enactment; provides that certain appointments made by Secretary of Business & Professional Regulation are subject to review & approval by Legislature; provides that certain appointments made by Secretary of Transportation are subject to review & approval by Legislature; provides that secretary's restructuring of offices is subject to review & approval by Legislature; provides that certain appointments made by heads of departments are subject to review & approval by Legislature; requires Legislature to dissolve certain divisions, offices, bureaus, sections, & subsections by specified date; removes provisions relating to Office of Minority Health & Health Equity within DOH; provides that state chief information officer shall have all decisionmaking authority with respect to information technology on behalf of all departments & all department divisions, offices, bureaus, sections, & subsections.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDState agencies could previously create new bureaus, sections, and subsections through an administrative process run by the Department of Management Services and the Governor's office. This bill eliminates that path; only a specific new law can create one now.
Six agency secretaries -- at Business and Professional Regulation, Transportation, Corrections, Juvenile Justice, Elderly Affairs, and Commerce -- now need the Legislature's review and approval before filling their own top deputy and assistant secretary posts.
The Department of Health's Office of Minority Health and Health Equity, and its Senior Health Equity Officer position, are eliminated. The department itself takes over the grant programs and reporting duties the office used to run.
By the end of the 2027 legislative session, the Legislature must review every department's divisions, offices, bureaus, sections, and subsections and dissolve whichever ones it decides are unnecessary.
AIPreviously only four named departments needed a specific statute to create a new division or office. The bill drops that four-department limit, so every department's new divisions, offices, bureaus, sections, and subsections now need their own law.
AIDepartments used to be able to create new bureaus, sections, and subsections through a Department of Management Services recommendation approved by the Governor's office, without a new law. That administrative shortcut is struck entirely.
AISecretaries at Business and Professional Regulation, Transportation, Corrections, Juvenile Justice, Elderly Affairs, and Commerce could fill deputy and assistant secretary posts on their own judgment. Each of those six statutes now conditions that appointment power on the Legislature's review and approval.
AIThe office and its Senior Health Equity Officer position are struck from law entirely. The Department of Health takes over the office's grant-award duties directly, and for one maternal-health program, sole responsibility shifts to the department's Division of Community Health Promotion.
AIA new sentence gives the state chief information officer exclusive decisionmaking authority over information technology for every department and all of their divisions, offices, bureaus, sections, and subsections, centralizing a power previously spread across individual agencies.
AIA new uncodified section requires the Legislature itself to review the purpose of every department division, office, bureau, section, and subsection by the end of the 2027 Regular Session, and gives it authority to dissolve whichever ones it decides are unnecessary.
AIThe Secretary of Transportation could combine, separate, or delete offices in consultation with the Governor's office alone. The bill adds the Legislature's review and approval as a second, additional requirement for that reorganizing power.