Bill Description: Senate Bill 1253 would create the Idaho Rural Health Transformation Fund in the state treasury and establish the Rural Health Transformation Committee which would provide direction and legislative oversight to any appropriated funds.
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Does it create, expand, or enlarge any agency, board, program, function, or activity of government? Conversely, does it eliminate or curtail the size or scope of government?
The proposed legislation establishes the Rural Health Transformation Fund in the state treasury. The purpose of this fund is to disburse hundreds of millions of dollars to healthcare entities and programs throughout the state. This represents a massive expansion of government in the healthcare industry and an enlargement of the state government’s capacity to interfere in this sector of the economy. The legislation also establishes a committee, including the power “to establish any additional requirements for funding subawards“ which gives them substantive control over how expenditures are made from the fund into the economy.
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Does it increase government spending (for objectionable purposes) or debt? Conversely, does it decrease government spending or debt?
By establishing both the fund and the legislative committee, this Bill prepares and strongly anticipates that the state of Idaho will take on massive amounts of new debt-financed monies from the federal government provided for in the One Big Beautiful Bill’s Rural Health Transformation Fund. This spending represents a massive distortion of the healthcare market and impinges on its free operation.
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Does it violate the principles of federalism by increasing federal authority, yielding to federal blandishments, or incorporating changeable federal laws into Idaho statutes or rules? Examples include citing federal code without noting as it is written on a certain date, using state resources to enforce federal law, and refusing to support and uphold the tenth amendment. Conversely, does it restore or uphold the principles of federalism?
The new section of Idaho Code 56-2501 proposed by Senate Bill 1253 would state that the “fund shall consist of moneys received by the state of Idaho from the federal rural health transformation program grant” and that “Moneys in the fund shall be used solely for federally approved rural health transformation program purposes…” By preparing for the acceptance of $925 million in federal funds over the next several years, including whatever conditions the federal government imposes, this legislation would greatly empower the federal government in the state of Idaho and further corrupt the careful balance between the state and federal governments the Founders constructed.
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