May
26, 2009
The
Honorable Michael Mauro
Secretary
of State
L
O C A L
Dear
Mr. Secretary:
I
hereby transmit House File 811, an Act relating to and making appropriations
for health and human services and including other related provisions and
appropriations, providing penalties, making penalties applicable and providing
effective, retroactive, and applicability date provisions. House File 811 is
approved on this date, with the exceptions noted below, which I hereby
disapprove.
I
am unable to approve the item designated as Section 28, subsection 3 in its
entirety. This language requires the
Department of Human Services to provide detailed proposals for any
reorganization to the Legislature. It
requires a 30-day advance notice. This provision
infringes on the Executive Branch’s duties to administer operations and
programs. As I have previously stated,
making government more efficient is a priority of my Administration, but we should
not do it in a piece-meal fashion as this language would require. We need a more comprehensive reorganization.
I
am unable to approve the item designated as Section 35 in its entirety. This language directs the Departments of
Elder Affairs, Public Health, Human Services and Veterans Affairs to develop
plans for a five-percent reduction in their respective budgets and a report of
such reductions to the Legislature by December 15, 2009. A budget process is already delineated in law
that starts with the Executive Branch, and this language infringes on the
Executive Branch’s duties to develop the state budget.
I am unable to approve the item designated as Section 37 in its
entirety. Section 37 directs
employees to submit actual receipts for meals and other costs and requires
reimbursement up to the maximum amount shall only be allowed in an amount equal
to the sum of the actual receipts submitted.
While I agree with the general intent of this section and believe that
employees should be reimbursed only for actual expenses, this language would be
particularly difficult to administer because similar language has not been
consistently required by the Legislature for every state agency or department
or for the Legislature’s own employees.
Accordingly, I have issued Executive Order Thirteen to require the Department
of Administrative Services (DAS) to implement a policy that will require every
executive department of the Culver-Judge Administration to institute
cost-effective and transparent practices that will track reimbursements paid to
state employees for meals, travel and other work-related costs.
I
am unable to approve the item designated as Section 38 in its entirety. This language directs that all out-of-state
travel for performance of official state business by state employees of the
Departments of Elder Affairs, Public Health, Human Services and Veterans
Affairs or agencies subject to this Act must be approved by the Executive
Council. While only certain out-of-state
travel must, by law, be approved by the Executive Council, this language would
extend this requirement to all out-of-state travel for the performance of
official state business by these agencies, including the University of Iowa
Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC). Extending
this requirement for all out-of-state travel for performance of official state
business by UIHC is not in the best interests of providing emergency medical
care and taking care of patients. This language would set a different standard
for these agencies. When economic conditions required such action last
December, I restricted out-of-state travel by Executive Branch employees.
For
the above reasons, I respectfully disapprove of the designated items in
accordance with Article III, Section 16 of the Constitution of the State of
Sincerely,
Governor
cc: Secretary of the Senate
Chief Clerk of the House
CJC:rco