Department of Human Services overhaul proposed

The state agency that delivers services to Minnesota’s poor, elderly and disabled could be the subject of a restructuring work group.

Sponsored by Rep. Tony Albright (R-Prior Lake), HF3575 would establish a group to study how best to revamp the Department of Human Services.

The House Health and Human Services Reform Committee approved the bill, as amended, on a voice vote Tuesday evening, moving it next to the House Government Operations and Elections Policy Committee.

The proposed work group’s first meeting would be no later than Aug. 1, 2018, although the bill does not yet have language specifying the deadline to release a report and a draft version of legislation. The bill stipulates that the group must consider transferring duties from the department to other agencies, looking for administrative efficiencies, and eliminating any duplication of services, among other considerations.

As initially proposed, the bill called for 14 members, including four legislators and representatives of county social services agencies, tribal social services agencies and organizations that represent people served by programs administered by the department.

However, an amendment successfully added by Rep. Tina Liebling (DFL-Rochester) would add a representative from the Cultural and Ethnic Communities Leadership Council.

The bill has no Senate companion.