SENATE HEALTH, EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SERVICES COMMITTEE April 24, 1998 9:08 a.m. MEMBERS PRESENT Senator Gary Wilken, Chairman Senator Loren Leman, Vice-Chairman Senator Lyda Green Senator Jerry Ward Senator Johnny Ellis MEMBERS ABSENT None COMMITTEE CALENDAR HOUSE BILL NO. 407 "An Act relating to repayment of teacher scholarship loans." PASSED HB 407 OUT OF COMMITTEE CS FOR HOUSE BILL NO. 353(HES) am "An Act relating to adoption by reference in regulations; and providing for an effective date." HEARD AND HELD SENATE BILL NO. 293 "An Act relating to contracts for the provision of state public assistance to certain recipients in the state; providing for regional public assistance plans and programs in the state; relating to grants for Alaska tribal family assistance programs; and providing for an effective date." PASSED SB 293 OUT OF COMMITTEE SENATE BILL NO. 266 "An Act relating to Medicaid coverage for certain eligible children and pregnant women; relating to primary care case management and managed care services as optional services and to premiums and cost-sharing contributions under the Medicaid program; establishing the Healthy Families Alaska program; and providing for an effective date." PASSED CSSB 266(HES) OUT OF COMMITTEE PREVIOUS SENATE COMMITTEE ACTION HB 407 - No previous committee action. HB 353 - See HESS minutes dated 4/22/98. SB 293 - No previous committee action. SB 266 - See HESS minutes dated 4/8/98 and 4/15/98. WITNESS REGISTER Representative Gary Davis Alaska State Capitol Juneau, Alaska 99801-1182 POSITION STATEMENT: Sponsor of HB 407 Gary and Marcia Reed P.O. Box 2612 Soldotna, Alaska 99669 POSITION STATEMENT: Support HB 407 Bruce Campbell Staff to Representative Pete Kelly Alaska State Capitol Juneau, Alaska 99801-1182 POSITION STATEMENT: Testified for the sponsor of HB 353 Mr. Terry Hoefferle Bristol Bay Native Association P.O. Box 310 Dillingham, Alaska 99576 POSITION STATEMENT: Supports SB 293 Bob Charles Alaska Village Council Presidents Bethel, Alaska 99559 POSITION STATEMENT: Supports SB 293 Mr. Michael Walleri Tanana Chiefs' Council 122 1st Ave., Suite 600 Fairbanks, Alaska 99701 POSITION STATEMENT: Supports SB 293 Sharon Olsen Tlingit and Haida Central Council 320 West Willoughby Juneau, Alaska 99801 POSITION STATEMENT: Supports SB 293 ACTION NARRATIVE TAPE 98-38, SIDE A Number 001 CHAIRMAN WILKEN called the Senate Health, Education and Social Services (HESS) Committee to order at 9:08 a.m. Present were Senators Leman, Ward, and Chairman Wilken. Senators Green and Ellis arrived shortly after the meeting convened. The first order of business before the committee was HB 407. HB 407 - TEACHER SCHOLARSHIP LOANS REPRESENTATIVE GARY DAVIS, sponsor of the HB 407, gave the following description of the measure. Alaska established the Teacher Scholarship Loan Program to provide an incentive to Alaska students to return to teach in rural Alaska after completing a teaching degree program. After teaching in a rural area for four years, Alaska student loan borrowers can get up to 100 percent of their loans forgiven. HB 407 simply provides the same loan forgiveness provision to a very small group of student loan borrowers who have contracted an illness that requires them to remain in urban areas to receive special medical attention. Those borrowers must be teaching in the urban areas. In the specific case Representative Davis was made aware of, a student loan borrower contracted a degenerative disease that requires continual physical therapy and doctor's visits. Current statute contains a provision allowing loan forgiveness if a borrower becomes disabled, but in this instance, the borrower does not want to file for disability. This woman wants to continue to teach. CHAIRMAN WILKEN asked Representative Davis if a constituent brought this problem to his attention. REPRESENTATIVE DAVIS explained he was approached by the father of a student from the Soldotna area. Number 087 GARY REED testified via teleconference from Soldotna. He is the father of the student who prompted this legislation. He asked the committee to support HB 407. He explained that his daughter graduated from high school with a high GPA and went to college with the intent of returning to teach in rural Alaska. During the first semester of her senior year, she was diagnosed with a disease that is progressively degenerative and has no cure, but is treatable. At this time his daughter is capable of teaching full-time, and she is not interested in qualifying for a disability. Stress is a factor that increases the degeneration, and the fact that she could not teach in rural Alaska added to her stress, as well as the hardship the student loan payments cause her. He noted the House passed this bill unanimously. MRS. REED also urged the committee to support HB 407. Number 146 SENATOR LEMAN moved to pass HB 407 from committee with individual recommendations. There being no objection, the motion carried. HB 353 - ADOPTION BY REFERENCE IN REGULATIONS BRUCE CAMPBELL, staff to Representative Pete Kelly, informed committee members he prepared a committee substitute after several concerns were discussed by committee members at a previous meeting. SENATOR ELLIS moved to adopt SCSCSHB 353(HES), version F, as the working document of the committee. There being no objection, the motion carried. MR. CAMPBELL explained the changes made in the committee substitute. On page 1, line 11, language was added allowing this process to be applied when a regulation references a regulation adopted by another state agency. For example, DHSS regulations require that child care centers meet fire marshall codes. The fire marshall regulations regarding fire codes change when codes are updated. Rather than require DHSS to repromulgate its regulations regarding fire codes in child care centers when the code is updated, HB 353 will allow the new code regulations to be adopted by reference. On page 3 an additional U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' reference document was added, entitled "The Relative Value Units Used in the Medicare Program for the Determination of Fee Schedules." Number 190 SENATOR LEMAN asked if Mr. Campbell decided the inclusion of Amendment #1, proposed at the last meeting, was inappropriate in the committee substitute. MR. CAMPBELL responded Amendment #1 is moving independently as SB 305, and is now in the House Labor and Commerce Committee. He stated had it been included, two bills that do the same thing will be enacted. SENATOR GREEN asked if, when new legislation is being drafted, a search through the regulations to cross-reference any tangential connection could create a conflict. MR. CAMPBELL said he did not think so because regulations are not normally quoted in statute. If DHSS cross references the fire marshall code in its regulations on child care centers, then DHSS should be able to amend the regulations so that it can use the updated fire marshall code without re-promulgating regulations which can take six months. CHAIRMAN WILKEN asked the committee's wishes on HB 353. There being no motion to moved HB 353, CHAIRMAN WILKEN announced HB 353 would be taken up again by the committee on Monday, April 27. SB 266 - MEDICAID COVER/HEALTHY FAMILIES AK PROGRAM SENATOR GREEN moved to adopt CSSB 266(HES), version B, as the working document of the committee. There being no objection, the motion carried. CHAIRMAN WILKEN noted HB 369 is a mirror version of this bill. He asked Mr. Livey what the status of that legislation is. JAY LIVEY, Deputy Commissioner of DHSS, replied HB 369 passed out of the House Finance Committee the previous day. CHAIRMAN WILKEN asked Mr. Livey to give the committee a synopsis of what activity has occurred in regard to HB 369. MR. LIVEY stated the original bill, as introduced by the Governor, proposed to increase Medicaid eligibility for children and pregnant women, whose income is up to 200 percent of the poverty level. The provision including pregnant women was removed on the House side so the bill that passed out of the House Finance Committee yesterday retained the Medicaid increase up to 200 percent of the poverty level for children only. The original bill proposed continuous eligibility up to 11 months; that provision remains in the House bill. The original Governor's bill also proposed targeted case management, which is a Medicaid option. Targeted case management for the Healthy Families Program and for nurse midwives was removed from the House bill. The original Governor's bill also contained a proposal to allow DHSS to proceed with certain types of managed care. That provision was put back in by the House Finance Committee. The language that allows for cost sharing for children at over 150 percent of the poverty level remains in the bill. The remaining sections of the bill were definitional sections. Number 282 SENATOR LEMAN asked if version B of SB 266 is similar to the House Finance Committee version. CHAIRMAN WILKEN answered it is identical. SENATOR ELLIS moved CSSB 266(HES) out of committee with individual recommendations and its accompanying fiscal notes. The motion carried with no objection. Number 303 SB 293 - STATE/REG'L/TRIBAL FAMILY ASS'T PROGRAMS CHAIRMAN WILKEN announced HB 401, which is similar to SB 293, is now in the House Rules Committee. He asked Mr. Livey to update the committee on the status of that measure during his presentation on SB 293. JAY LIVEY presented SB 293 to the committee. When the federal welfare reform legislation passed, it contained a provision that allowed the 12 Alaska Native regional non-profit corporations to apply to the federal government to administer welfare programs in their service areas. The "welfare" program would consist of monthly cash payments, employment training services, or any other services necessary to put people to work under welfare reform. The regional non-profit corporation would submit a plan to the federal government for approval. If approved, the regional corporation would receive, directly from the federal government, an amount of money equivalent to what the state spent in that service area in 1994. The state's welfare block grant is also based on the 1994 amount, so the new federal law reroutes the state's federal block grant to regional non-profit corporations. Current welfare funds are comprised of half state and half federal money, so the regional corporations will also need to receive state funds to provide a program equivalent to that provided by the state. SB 293 establishes a mechanism by which the state can convey money to the regional corporations to provide those public assistance services. MR. LIVEY explained that DHSS and the regional corporations discussed various options, and came to a consensus on four or five points. First, the tribes and the state agreed that self- sufficiency should be promoted, as that is the whole point of welfare reform. Second, both agreed that flexibility in self- sufficiency strategies should be promoted because strategies used in urban areas may not work in rural areas. Third, both agreed that programs should be run efficiently. Fourth, both agreed that disparity in benefit levels and services for similarly situated Alaskans should be discouraged. For example, DHSS wanted to make sure that two families living next to each other, who operate within the same economy and community, were treated the same in terms of benefits. Fifth, issues surrounding the state's delegation of authority needed to be addressed. MR. LIVEY explained the mechanics of SB 293. The regional corporation will send its plan to the state six months prior to sending the plan to the federal government. The state will review the plan for two sets of standards. The first standard requires that the service area boundary of the regional corporation makes sense administratively, so that service areas are coherent and compatible with other state service areas. DHSS does not want to have pockets of service areas requiring the state to maintain a presence to fill in the blank spots. The DHSS commissioner has some authority to review the service area to ensure that it comports with the service areas of the state. Second, DHSS established five basic standards of welfare services that should be in the plan, regardless of who administers it. DHSS took those out of the state's public assistance plan. The recipient must have a dependent child in the family to receive benefits; recipients must work for their benefits, but not necessarily for cash; recipients will have to cooperate with the Child Support Enforcement Division; an appeals process must be in place; and, a minor parent must live at home or in an adult supervised setting to receive a benefit. If the regional corporation plan meets those two sets of standards, it will be eligible to receive a grant or contract from the state that will convey general funds to provide public assistance services in its area. Once the plan is approved, the regional corporation will be responsible for the public assistance services in that area. MR. LIVEY discussed the issue of services to non-Native families living within the regional corporation's service area. Two factors were considered by DHSS: administrative efficiency and disparate benefits for similarly situated families. DHSS decided it wants all families in a service area to receive the same benefit package. SB 293 provides that non-Native families will be served by the regional corporation plan, at the Commissioner's discretion. Number 412 SENATOR GREEN asked if the payment to the non-Native family would consist of 100 percent state funds. MR. LIVEY replied half of the money for Native families comes from the federal government and half will come from the state. For the non-Native families, 100 percent of the money will come from the state because the federal dollars for non-Native families is already in DHSS's budget. MR. LIVEY stated DHSS believes SB 293 is a good idea for the following reasons. DHSS believes this approach will make welfare reform more successful because welfare services can be designed to match the economy and labor force in specific regions. DHSS believes partnering with regional corporations will be beneficial to the state because many of the regional corporations have already established employment training and child care programs, allowing the state to leverage some services through the partnership. Finally, regional providers are willing to express a local responsibility to be successful within their regions. DHSS believes it will be beneficial to take advantage of the regional corporations enthusiasm and it wants to help the corporations successfully deliver services. Number 439 SENATOR WARD asked who requested the bill. MR. LIVEY replied DHSS has been talking to the regional corporations about this approach ever since the federal law was enacted. SENATOR WARD noted the Tlingit and Haida Central Council (THCC) unanimously passed a resolution four days ago that states that the Cook Inlet Regional Corporation (CIRI) should not be treated as a tribe. The Cook Inlet Tribal Council is appointed directly by the profit making corporation, so SB 293 would be giving state funds directly to a profit-making corporation which has direct control over its non-profit regional corporation by appointment. Eight of the nine villages in the Cook Inlet region protested over the hospital transfer. Number 452 MR. LIVEY stated the federal law that set up the regional corporation mechanism explicitly named the 12 regional non-profit corporations and Metlakatla as being the only entities eligible to receive the federal grants. He said he believes the Cook Inlet Tribal Council is named in that law. SENATOR WARD asked if any federal money will come to the state if SB 293 is not enacted. MR. LIVEY said if SB 293 is not enacted, regional corporations could still write a plan and apply to the federal government to provide services, however they could only use federal money since the state would have no mechanism to convey general funds to them. SENATOR WARD noted the regional corporations would also have to present authorization from the villages within their regions each time they applied. SB 293 would preclude that from happening. MR. LIVEY stated he believes the federal law defined the regional corporations as tribes for this particular purpose only. CHAIRMAN WILKEN noted teleconference participants might be able to address Senator Ward's concern later in the meeting. Number 473 SENATOR LEMAN questioned whether SB 293 contains incentives to encourage a reduction in the amount of payments going out. MR. LIVEY thought the incentives for the regional corporations are the same as those for the state. The federal money received by a tribe will be in the form of a block grant, so the amount will not fluctuate. The general fund portion will be subject to annual appropriation, and the regional corporations understand that that money will not increase if they are not successful. Also, the state grants and contracts will contain performance requirements regarding the services that have to be provided. SENATOR LEMAN said at present, the state submits a supplemental appropriation request if it exceeds its budget for welfare reform services. He questioned whether the regional corporations will do the same or whether incentives will be locked into the grants to encourage the regional corporations to hold the line. MR. LIVEY stated such clauses will be included in the contracts, but situations, such as the Bristol Bay economic disaster, could occur that require extra funding. Number 500 SENATOR LEMAN questioned whether a commensurate reduction in the state's cost to deliver the services through its public assistance program will occur. He stated the fiscal note does not reflect any reduction. MR. LIVEY explained the fiscal note is indeterminate because DHSS does not believe all twelve regional non-profit corporations will participate. As the regional non-profit corporations do take on this program, the existing money in the DHSS budget will be distributed in the form of grants and contracts. DHSS anticipates a savings to the state will occur, and it will reduce its administrative components as well, because administrative money will be going out to the regional corporations at the same time. Number 514 CHAIRMAN WILKEN asked how much money is available from the federal government. MR. LIVEY said the state gets about $60 million in the federal block grant. CHAIRMAN WILKEN asked if the state will pass a portion of the $60 million on to the new program. MR. LIVEY said that is correct, and the amount for the new program will be reduced from the amount the state can claim from the federal government. CHAIRMAN WILKEN asked where the five criteria in the second standard are located in the bill. MR. LIVEY replied they appear on the bottom of page 5, line 30, through page 6, line 18. CHAIRMAN WILKEN clarified there are six criteria. He asked if this proposal was before the Legislature during a prior session. MR. LIVEY stated this is the first year this bill has been introduced, however very short, similar language was contained in the original welfare reform bill that allowed DHSS to contract with regional corporations. CHAIRMAN WILKEN noted Section 5 pertains to qualifications. He asked if one person in a service area is served the everyone in that area would be served. MR. LIVEY explained the federal law gives the regional corporations flexibility to design and draw boundaries around their service areas. DHSS is requiring that it approve of the way those lines are drawn to ensure that the boundaries make sense administratively regarding efficiency of service. CHAIRMAN WILKEN asked if it is possible that one family will be provided service and another not, regardless of tribal affiliation, if SB 293 passes. MR. LIVEY replied that all eligible families within a service area will be served by a regional corporation. CHAIRMAN WILKEN asked if the families will have to meet the six criteria. MR. LIVEY clarified the six steps on pages 5-6 are actually requirements of the tribal plan. If those are not included in the regional corporation's plan, it will not be eligible for state money. SENATOR WARD noted the regional non-profit arm of the CIRI was the Cook Inlet Native Association. CIRI then created Cook Inlet Tribal Council; CIRI appoints the tribal council members. He asked if guidelines regarding the formation of non-profit agencies are contained in SB 293. MR. LIVEY responded SB 293 contains no such guidelines. SENATOR WARD asked whether any discussion about putting guidelines in the bill took place. Number 561 MR. LIVEY said no discussion took place, DHSS just referenced the federal law which lists the eligible regional corporations. He offered to supply committee members with a copy of the federal law. SENATOR WARD maintained the bill will allow state funds to be given to a regional non-profit corporation that is completely controlled by its profit making arm. He thought it would be prudent for the state to determine that all of the non-profits were formed, operated, and controlled in the same manner. MR. LIVEY stated he is not familiar with the situation in Cook Inlet. SENATOR WARD stated the amount of money is large enough to warrant concern. CHAIRMAN WILKEN took teleconference testimony. MR. TERRY HOEFFERLE, Chief of Operations for the Bristol Bay Native Association (BBNA), informed committee members BBNA is comprised of 32 tribal communities and is governed by a 37 member board of directors. BBNA was formed to work for the passage of ANILCA over 30 years ago. BBNA has since been performing some of the not-for- profit social and economic programs for the members of the association. TAPE 98-38, SIDE B MR. HOEFFERLE stated the new federal law named 12 tribal groups in Alaska as entities that could operate public assistance programs. In doing so, Congress recognized the necessity for local responsibility and to tie public assistance to local economic and social conditions. BBNA's 1997 annual report details the programs it operates and the resources it has employed. The report also details the source of program funds. BBNA has a staff of 294; 239 of those workers are located in villages. The village employees would be a major way to leverage some of the state's Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) dollars. BBNA's 35 programs are organized into divisions;, one of those divisions is called workforce development. That division combines 10 separate programs under a federal law called 102.477. That legislation permits BBNA to combine Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of Education, and Department of Labor programs. Those programs are combined for budgetary and administrative purposes. BBNA has operated the 10 programs as a single block grant, and by doing so has reduced reporting requirements and the number of applications to one. Administrative costs have been reduced by 30 percent; that money was directly plowed into client services. Those programs include six separate employment and training programs, a child care program, a general assistance program, and adult basic education. If BBNA has the opportunity to operate the state's public assistance program independently, it will be able to provide the necessary counseling required to move a person from welfare to work. At present, those services are provided by telephone from service providers in Anchorage. BBNA could provide individual responsibility plans to clients in person. SENATOR WARD asked if a majority of the voting members of BBNA's non-profit regional board are elected or appointed by the profit- making arm of the corporation. MR. HOEFFERLE replied 32 board members are appointed by the presidents of their local tribal councils, five are appointed by the board of directors to provide expertise to the operation of BBNA. Those five directors are BBNA members who generally represent the Bristol Bay Native Corporation, the Bristol Bay Health Corporation, the village representative to AFN, and two others. SENATOR WARD noted BBNA has a good non-profit regional corporation that truly represents the villages which is the way the law was intended. MR. BOB CHARLES, Vice President of Operations for the Association of Village Council Presidents (ACVP) in Bethel, testified. AVCP represents 47 village communities of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. AVCP wholeheartedly supports CSSB 293(HES). AVCP has been involved with the other regional corporations, the state, and its villages about this issue since it began several years ago. AVCP was formed in 1954 and was formally incorporated in 1968. Due to recent changes in Alaska law, AVCP can concentrate its efforts more on service delivery and improving the quality of services and case management at the village level. AVCP's directors are elected by their village residents. When Congress was considering this legislation in 1995, the AVCP convention adopted a resolution in support of it, and many of its villages started planning to assume responsibility to deliver welfare services at the village level. Local village coordinators were hired less than one year ago to take referrals from the Division of Public Assistance. The coordinators help people find work or training to help meet their work requirements. AVCP has been working with about 800 families. AVCP intends to integrate all of its services if CSSB 293(HES) passes and it believes it can do a good job because it has a strong and large infrastructure in place at the village level. Number 460 SENATOR WARD asked if all non-profit regional corporations should come under the same guidelines for their formation and existence. MR. CHARLES replied that each non-profit regional corporation is established according to the same principles and rules. Under the federal legislation, non-profit regional corporations must have established a cadre of services and programs comparable to the state's program and operated under the same principles. Regarding how the regional non-profit corporations are organized and managed, each region is a little bit different from the others. SENATOR WARD asked if any board of a regional non-profit corporation, other than CIRI, is appointed by the profit making arm of the corporation. MR. CHARLES said he was not aware of other areas. Number 445 MIKE WALLERI, the general counsel for the Tanana Chiefs' Conference (TCC), stated support for CSSB 293(HES). TCC has a republican form of governance; its board is comprised of 43 members who are appointed by the village councils throughout the region, and two associations in Tok and Fairbanks. All of the organization's boards and councils are elected under a democratic system. There are no appointments of Doyon or any village corporations involved in the TCC governance. SB 293 was developed in consultation with the regional non-profit corporations. TCC has been involved in welfare reform for quite some time. It was the first region in the state, and probably the first tribal organization in the nation, to implement welfare reform within the Bureau of Indian Affairs general assistance program. That ultimately resulted in a national program called the Work Incentive Program, which TCC has successfully operated for a number of years. TCC has undergone a planning process for about 1+ years beginning with meetings in the villages, meetings with regional boards, and culminating in two region-wide meetings to develop a plan which has been submitted to the federal authorities with a start date of July 1. The TCC plan will have a heightened work requirement for participants in the TANF program. The work requirement will be about 33 percent more than the state program requires. TCC also provides for mandatory drug and alcohol evaluation and treatment, and sanctions for not participating. One of the major differences between the TCC plan and the state program is in the delivery of services. TCC has a network of offices in every village in the region in coordination with the tribal councils. TCC is able to offer a "one-stop shop" for all TANF and work services which the state has not been able to do. Many regions objected to the lack of a "one-stop" service delivery approach in rural Alaska in the state plan. Second, TCC has more flexibility to develop plans to meet the local economies and needs in its programs. This provision allows for a "bottom-up" planning structure, beginning at the village level. This program will also allow state programs to interface with existing tribal regional programs and leverage off of those programs to provide the same level of services currently available in urban areas. This would not be possible under a state plan. Finally, it provides an economy of scale, for region-wide planning operations, and it avoids duplication of services that might occur if the tribal organizations proceeded to operate the programs without the state match. In response to Senator Ward's and Senator Leman's questions, MR. WALLERI said the Cook Inlet Region is different in terms of its governance, but the federal legislation designates the Cook Inlet Regional Corporation for purposes of contracting under the Indian Self Determination Act. That law locks the Cook Inlet Regional Corporation into a relationship in the actual contracting of those programs. The federal TANF legislation differs from CSSB 293(HES) in that it lists the non-profit corporations specifically, including the Cook Inlet Tribal Association. To that extent, this program offers a little more autonomy for that particular corporation. Most of the regional corporations urged Congress to adopt a decision-making structure at the village level as to who will actually operate these programs, much as that decision is made throughout most of the state under the Indian Self Determination Act. The Alaska delegation felt this was a more appropriate way to conduct the program therefore that issue should be addressed with the Alaska delegation and should not stop this legislation. TCC anticipates some cost reductions in the area of cost avoidance. Leveraging off of the non-profit service dollars allows the state to put together a program without having to actually pay out-of- state dollars for the job service programs that can be provided by the non-profit regional corporations. In addition, TCC expects to see a benefit reduction because of TCC's additional drug and alcohol sanctions and its higher level of work requirements. TCC is unable to estimate what those cost reductions will be with any degree of accuracy. Number 318 SENATOR WARD commended the TCC program and agreed that an approach that starts from the lower level and works up through a non-profit regional corporation ends with a product that represents the entire region. His concern about Cook Inlet is that the approach goes in the other direction. He stated the only corporation that will be affected if the bill requires 51 percent of the board seats too be appointed by the villages is Cook Inlet. CHAIRMAN WILKEN noted his intent to pass the legislation on to the State Affairs Committee where that issue could be addressed. SHARON OLSEN, Division Director for the Employment and Training Programs for Tlingit Haida Central Council, gave the following testimony. A packet she provided to committee members outlines THCC's goals, principles, and strategies in its tribal plan, a letter to Commissioner Perdue in support of SB 293 and other materials. THCC has undergone a lot of preparation to position itself to address welfare reform. THCC is comprised of 21 villages throughout Southeast Alaska. It's delegates are elected every two years; those delegates attend a general assembly annually to address tribal affairs. THCC also has an elected executive committee made up of a president and six vice presidents. THCC receives funding for its programs from the Department of Labor, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The funding is for child care, work experience, and training programs. THCC contracted with the State of Alaska last year to work with Native ATAP clients in the Juneau area to provide work search activities as well as case management. THCC also receives a grant from the Department of Education for its tribal vocation rehabilitation program. That program addresses needs of tribal members with disabilities. Two years ago THCC received a grant from HUD to construct a vocational training and resource center which will be completed in August. That program will offer computer training, small business management and tourism classes, and basic skills with the focus on job preparation and maintenance. THCC has undertaken these programs in preparation for implementing a tribal TANF program. THCC was able to consolidate a variety of programs into one budget, plan, and reporting system which gives it a lot more flexibility in meeting the unique needs of each of its communities. The unemployment and economic conditions in Southeast's rural communities will be a challenge for THCC. It has been working closely with all employers to identify employment opportunities. THCC has had years of experience providing on-the-job training and work experience programs. THCC believes it is ready and able to take on this challenge. Number 227 SENATOR WARD asked Ms. Olsen if she had a copy of THCC's resolution regarding CIRI. MS. OLSEN said she did not, but would provide it to committee members later. SENATOR ELLIS noted he has had THCC trainees in his office for three years. He noted THCC runs a lean, serious, no-nonsense operation which is exactly what policy makers asked for when they started welfare reform in 1989. He applauded THCC for its efforts. SENATOR GREEN asked whether THCC would use different standards for non-Natives in a town already integrated, such as Juneau. Number 200 MS. OLSEN replied that THCC has worked very closely with DHSS for the last 2+ years addressing comparability, equal access, and other issues related to running a TANF program. THCC believes treating people fairly and consistently is important, which is one reason THCC has spent so much time addressing every aspect of the program that will come before it. SENATOR GREEN moved CSSB 293(HES) to its next committee of referral with individual recommendations. There being no objection, the motion carried. There being no further business to come before the committee, CHAIRMAN WILKEN adjourned the hearing at 10:31 a.m.