Miller describes funding delays and supports Intro 897 with caution

The second issue that we've been talking about is funding.

These buildings that have been mentioned are in aging facilities that were not originally intended.

Nonprofits get annual budgets.

They include maintenance costs, but not for...

Leaky roofs, broken pipes, the inflation of food, right?

So they have to go to DHS to get more money in the budget.

That has to be improved by OMB.

Then it has to get into the individual nonprofit's line item budget in order to get paid.

This takes a long, long time.

DHS has about 1,900 pending new need requests going back to 2018, totaling, at our estimate, nearly a billion dollars.

Some requests, as we've heard, go back years and years, back and forth, and yet the work doesn't get done.

The increases don't get into their budgets that they need to run their programs.

I think overall, we need to focus on the people and not the processes, and we have to

make sure that the funding gets to the right place at the right time.

I just want to note that we are in support of Intro 897.

Of course, we want adequate planning ahead of severe weather events, but there's one note of caution, and then I'll finish, is that we are concerned that this will be an unfunded mandate of more work on the nonprofits.

They already operate under hundreds of policies and procedures.

So please, whatever you do, take into consideration that it doesn't put an onerous burden on the nonprofit, but that government and nonprofits are working in partnership.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Derek.