Chris Uben of the Legislative Service Agency presented the committee's monthly fiscal overview, detailing seven rulemakings submitted by four agencies and highlighting estimated impacts and areas where data are insufficient to calculate effects.

The presentation matters because the fiscal summaries inform lawmakers and the public about projected costs or revenues tied to administrative rule changes before the committee decides whether to hold hearings, approve or otherwise act.

Items reported by LSA included:

- Department of Transportation: rule to reimplement the Federal Driver Privacy Protection Act requirements for operating record abstracts; the agency reported approximately $91,000 in annual revenue from bulk data request fees based on prior years; LSA concurred in part and said no net increase was expected.

- Department of Transportation: an ignition interlock-related rule that allows medical waivers of interlock requirements and changes provider reporting timelines; LSA said no fiscal impact beyond implementing legislation but noted a one-time $34,000 IT programming cost anticipated in a related fiscal note and that impacts of modifying a serious misdemeanor could not be calculated due to lack of data.

- Board of Medicine: rules to set minimum licensure standards and permit provisional licenses for foreign medical graduates; LSA noted an estimated $143,000 increase to the licensing and regulation fund tied to provisional licenses but said fees are designed to net to zero after expenses.

- Department of Health and Human Services (HHS): a rule to increase foster care reimbursement rates by 5% over FY2024 rates and to set new maintenance payment rates and kinship payment timelines; LSA said no fiscal impact beyond underlying legislation, which allocated approximately $309,000 from the general fund for the increase.

- HHS: rule to reestablish the children's health insurance program (Hawkeye) eligibility and continuous enrollment provisions; estimated fiscal impact for the expansion was approximately $9,000,000 for FY2025 (about $2.3 million state funds and $6.7 million federal funds), per LSA figures.

- State Public Defender: a rule change regarding travel time reimbursement for contract attorneys and guardians ad litem; both the agency and LSA described the fiscal impact as unknown; staff provided context that travel paid in FY2024 totaled $259,000.

- State Public Defender: an adopted rule increasing pay rates for court reporters and allowing payment for real-time reporting and technical transcripts; the agency estimated the rate increase would cost approximately $415,000 and LSA concurred.

After each summary, committee members had the opportunity to ask follow-up questions; no formal committee action on these rulemakings was recorded at the meeting time other than the opportunity to pull items for further consideration on later agendas.

The LSA fiscal overview will be part of the committee's record as members decide which items to hold for additional review or move forward in the rulemaking schedule.