Child care provider bill passes House, returns to Senate

The Department of Human Services would be ordered to consider reforming child care provider regulations, under a bill that passed the House Tuesday.

Rep. Roz Peterson (R-Lakeville) and Sen. Bill Weber (R-Luverne) sponsor HF3403/SF3310*, which was passed, as amended to include the House language, 127-0. It now goes back to the Senate which passed its bill 66-0 May 7.

Rep. Roz Peterson

The bill would require the department to present a report on its progress studying possible reforms by the end of January 2019.

In addition to the review, the bill would also require some tweaks to existing regulations. It would mandate the department consider variances to child care center staff requirements.

Rep. Mary Franson (R-Alexandria) brought up a Fox 9 investigation from earlier this week that alleged child care payments to day care centers were being fraudulently diverted. Franson claimed some might be used to fund terrorism, and successfully offered an amendment to the delete-all amendment in response.

It would mandate the department take money from its existing budget and allocate it for “training to county and private licensing agencies that perform child care licensing functions on identifying and preventing fraud relating to provider reimbursement in the child care assistance program, by December 31, 2019."

“It’s time to bring some integrity back into our public programs,” Franson said. 

In addition, Rep. Steve Drazkowksi (R-Mazeppa) called for a pause on the child care program until the government investigates the matter further.