By GARRY RAYNO, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD — The ongoing disagreement between Republican Gov. Chris Sununu and legislative leaders over who oversees accepting and spending federal COVID-19 funds continued at the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee meeting Friday.
Throughout the two-hour meeting held by telephone, Democratic members stressed the historic role the fiscal committee plays in accepting and spending federal money and in budget transfers within departments.
Sununu claims governors have the authority under a 2002 law, passed after the September 11 terrorists attacks, to accept and spend federal and other unappropriated money without the committee’s consent.
Legislative leaders cite the same law in claiming the governor is required to seek the fiscal committee’s “advice and consent” to accept and spend federal money.
At issue is more than $1.25 billion the state is slated to receive by the end of the month from the $2.2 trillion CARES act approved by the federal government to address the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the world.
Sununu has set up the Governor’s Office for Emergency Relief and Recovery (GOFERR) to oversee the distribution and determine where the money goes, and on Thursday named Banking Commissioner and former state Sen. Jerry Little to run the office.
While legislative leaders have pushed for the fiscal committee to play its traditional role, Sununu has said the process is too cumbersome when immediate decisions need to be made to help the state during the crisis which has already claimed the lives of more than 20 Granite Staters and stricken more than 800, hospitalizing about 130.
On Friday, fiscal committee Chair Mary Jane Wallner, D-Concord, cited two places in state law requiring the committee to oversee the funds.
“The joint fiscal committee is meeting today and can meet at any time,” Wallner said opening the meeting. “We can meet at the call of the chair whenever necessary,” noting it would not delay and would allow people to know if their tax dollars are spent judicially.
The committee acted on one item that accepted $1.2 million in federal funds from the first coronavirus package federal lawmakers approved to increase the budget for the meals on wheels and congregate meals programs.
Health and Human Services Commissioner Lori Shibinette said health officials have pushed the message to people over 60 years old and with underlying medical conditions who are most at risk of serious complications from the virus to stay home.
In order to do that, the meals on wheels and congregate meals program ramped up services so they could remain home, Shibinette said.
After the committee approved the request on a 10-0 vote, Sen. Lou D’Allesandro, D-Manchester, said, “It’s clear to my colleagues this money comes to us under the process we’ve always used.
“This is COVID-19 virus money the committee moved efficiently and effectively forward. It is what we are here for today. It is a process we used before and what the fiscal committee was intended to do,” D’Allesandro said. “We are getting money out as quickly as possible to address a very specific need caused by the virus: to keep people at home so they are safe and at the same time get their meals.”
The Department of Health and Human Services also submitted two “informational items” transferring funds within the department that several committee members noted should be the purview of the committee.
The two items transfer $18.05 million in general fund money into a special account in the commissioner’s office established for COVID-19 spending, according to Kerrin Rounds, the agency’s chief financial officer.
Among the money transferred is $9.5 million for a new secure psychiatric unit on state hospital grounds, $4 million for loan repayments under the rural health and primary care program, and $1.7 million from the homeless housing and shelter program, along with money from programs that are new this year or funded for the first time in several budget cycles, $2 million to help low-income seniors with the Medicare Part D “donut hole,” $750,000 for congregate housing, and $100,000 for a foster grandparent program.
State Sen. Jay Kahn, D-Keene, was concerned the money taken from the homeless housing program could create significant problems.
State Sen. Dan Feltes, D-Concord, criticized the transfer.
“Today’s decision by Governor Sununu to cut SPU funding, low-income Rx funding, and housing/homelessness programs to fund PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) contracts is exactly why we need to backfill the state budget with the stimulus funds,” Feltes said. “We must acquire PPE and we must fund these critical services.”
The state and some communities moved quickly to expand shelter space for the homeless, Shibinette said, so there is enough room for social distancing.
A quarantine shelter for those exposed or showing symptoms of infection was also established, she said, noting they hope to use either the CARES money or FEMA funds to “backfill” the expenses for the state and the communities.
Shibinette said the department is focusing on maintaining current operations but there are some challenges with some staff at home, lower caseloads because people are staying home.
The department is balancing that with the “tremendous need for (PPE) personal protection equipment, ramping up testing and contracts for providers to do testing,” she said. “All that needed to be done immediately.”
Right now, the resources and personnel are not available for new programs the agency had hoped to develop before the COVID-crisis, she said.
Moving the children’s unit at New Hampshire Hospital to the Hampstead Hospital was speeded up and allowed from 24 to 36 adult beds in order to clear the backlog of patients waiting to enter the hospital from local emergency rooms, Shibinette said.
The department looked at what it could do for hospitals if there is a surge of COVID-19 patients, and one thing was to clear emergency rooms of those waiting for mental health services, Shibinette said.
“We wanted to make sure those folks are not sitting in a COVID-19 area,” Shibinette said, noting the wait list has been eliminated at some times, but it cannot be sustained for a long-period of time until work is done at New Hampshire Hospital to make it an adult ward.
Kahn said if the transferred money is paying for PPEs and testing there would be contracts and wondered if the department should come back to the committee if those contracts exceed certain limits.
Shibinette said contracts do not go before fiscal but before the Executive Council. Sununu’s plan does not include Executive Council review of state COVID-19 related contracts.
Sen. Cindy Rosenwald, D-Nashua, asked if the agency was concerned that transfers within the department have not gone through the statutory process requiring fiscal committee approval so they may not be valid.
“I will defer to the Department of Justice,” Shibinette said, “we
take their advice.”
D’Allesandro said the committee has a role to play.
“The role the fiscal committee plays is so important to the process and so important to receiving information, and in case of federal funds received and appropriated properly, that is why the fiscal committee was created,” he said. “We’re all in this together and we need to cooperate and use the process in place.”
Wallner said she will hold a meeting April 20 to be briefed by the Legislative Budget Assistant Michael Kane on the federal guidelines for using the COVID-19 money.
She said the meeting will focus on coronavirus requests for accepting, spending or transferring money.
“As chair, I will call emergency meetings anytime there are items that need to come before us,” Wallner said, “not just monthly meetings. We will meet as often as necessary.”
Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com