Compare versions
--- version:File No. 321+++ version:(document, no version)@@ -1,168 +1,4 @@-House of Representatives-sHB5255 / File No. 321 1--General Assembly File No. 321-February Session, 2026 Substitute House Bill No. 5255--House of Representatives, April 1, 2026--The Committee on Government Oversight reported through-REP. DATHAN of the 142nd Dist., Chairperson of the-Committee on the part of the House, that the substitute bill-ought to pass.-- AN ACT IMPLEMENTING THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE-AUDITORS OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS CONCERNING OVERSIGHT OF-STATE AGENCY GRANTS.-Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General-Assembly convened:--Section 1. (NEW) (Effective October 1, 2026) (a) As used in this section: 1-(1) "Legislatively earmarked grants" means grants of state funds 2-specifically authorized in a special or public act of the General 3-Assembly, and includes appropriated funds and bond funds; 4-(2) "Subaward" means an award of legislatively earmarked grants 5-through a pass-through entity to a subrecipient for purposes of the goals 6-or objectives for which the state funds were authorized; 7-(3) "Subrecipient" means an entity that is receiving an award of a 8-legislatively earmarked grant from a state agency or other pass-through 9-entity; and 10-sHB5255 File No. 321--sHB5255 / File No. 321 2--(4) "State agency" means any department, board, council, 11-commission, institution or other executive branch agency of state 12-government, including, but not limited to, each constituent unit. 13-(b) Not later than December 1, 2026, the Secretary of the Office of 14-Policy and Management shall develop: (1) A standard contract template 15-for legislatively earmarked grant awards, including, but not limited to, 16-audit specifications and required terms for subawards, (2) general 17-requirements for recipients of legislatively earmarked grant awards that 18-provide a subaward using such legislatively earmarked grant awards, 19-including, but not limited to, verifying that the subrecipient is not 20-suspended, disbarred or otherwise not eligible to receive a legislatively 21-earmarked grant award and obtaining an authorization for the state 22-agency or other pass-through entity to access relevant records, financial 23-statements and performance reports for purposes of monitoring the use 24-of the legislatively earmarked grant award to ensure that the subaward 25-was used for authorized purposes and such use complied with any 26-terms and conditions of the subaward and achieved the performance 27-goals associated with the legislatively earmarked grant award, and (3) a 28-general training program for state agencies in best practices concerning 29-legislatively earmarked grant awards and subawards, including on 30-using the applicable template and the requirements developed under 31-this subsection. The secretary shall offer the training developed 32-pursuant to this subsection not less than quarterly. 33-(c) On and after January 1, 2027, all state agencies shall use such 34-contract template for legislatively earmarked grant awards and shall 35-ensure that any of their employees responsible for awarding 36-legislatively earmarked grant awards and subawards attend the 37-training developed pursuant to subsection (b) of this section. 38-(d) Not later than December 1, 2027, and annually thereafter, each 39-state agency shall submit a report of all legislatively earmarked grant 40-awards and subawards disbursed by the state agency during the 41-preceding year to the Office of Policy and Management, in a form and 42-manner prescribed by the secretary. Such report shall include any 43-sHB5255 File No. 321--sHB5255 / File No. 321 3--evaluations conducted by the state agency of the recipient or 44-subrecipients of such awards or subawards and any concerns the state 45-agency has concerning such recipients or subrecipients and may include 46-any requests of the state agency for additional staffing or resources for 47-purposes of complying with the monitoring requirements of this 48-section. Not later than January 1, 2028, and annually thereafter, the 49-secretary shall compile such reports into a summary of all such awards 50-and subawards categorized by agency and shall submit such summary, 51-in accordance with the provisions of section 11-4a of the general statutes, 52-to the joint standing committees of the General Assembly having 53-cognizance of matters relating to appropriations and the budgets of state 54-agencies, finance, revenue and bonding and government oversight. 55-This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following-sections:--Section 1 October 1, 2026 New section--Statement of Legislative Commissioners:-In Subsec. (b), "grantees" was changed to "recipients of", "legislatively-earmarked" was inserted before references to "grant" for consistency-and in Subsec. (d) a reference to "Office of Policy and Management" was-added for clarity.--GOS Joint Favorable Subst. -LCO--sHB5255 File No. 321--sHB5255 / File No. 321 4--The following Fiscal Impact Statement and Bill Analysis are prepared for the benefit of the members of-the General Assembly, solely for purposes of information, summarization and explanation and do not-represent the intent of the General Assembly or either chamber thereof for any purpose. In general,-fiscal impacts are based upon a variety of informational sources, including the analyst’s professional-knowledge. Whenever applicable, agency data is consulted as part of the analysis, however final-products do not necessarily reflect an assessment from any specific department.--OFA Fiscal Note--State Impact:-Agency Affected Fund-Effect FY 27 $ FY 28 $-Policy & Mgmt., Off. GF - Cost 92,900 90,770-State Comptroller - Fringe-Benefits1-GF - Cost 37,700 37,700-Note: GF=General Fund--Municipal Impact: None-Explanation-Explanation-The bill requires the Office of Policy and Management (OPM) to meet-certain requirements associated with legislatively directed funds (LEGs)-which results in a cost of $92,900 in FY 27 and an annual cost of $90,770-beginning in FY 28 to OPM and correspondi ng fringe benefit costs of-$37,700 to the Office of the State Comptroller beginning in FY 27 for a-Fiscal Administrative Officer.-This position will develop a contract template, create requirements-for certain grantees of LEGs, develop a best practices training program-for state agencies, require state agencies to annually report to OPM, and-compile a summary of the agency reports as required in the bill.-Background on OPM Policy on Legislatively Directed Funds--1The fringe benefit costs for most state employees are budgeted centrally in accounts-administered by the Comptroller. The estimated active employee fringe benefit cost-associated with most personnel changes is 41.82% of payroll in FY 27.-sHB5255 File No. 321--sHB5255 / File No. 321 5--The bill is similar to the recently announced, statewide executive-branch policy on legislatively -directed or earmarked funds (LDFs).-There are potential fiscal impacts associated with that policy which are-noted below.-The implementation of the policy may increase an agency's-administration workload based on (1) the volume of LDFs, (2) the-complexity of any particular L DF, and (3) agency resources already-dedicated to managing LDFs. Some additional staffing (e.g., temporary,-part-time or full -time) may be required by certain agencies to-accommodate this workload.-For context, PA 25 -168, the FY 26 and FY 27 budget, includes 321-LDFs across sixteen executive branch agencies totaling approximately-$89 million in FY 27. The number of LDFs each such agency administers-in FY 27 ranges from one to 200 administered by the Department of-Economic and Community Development (DECD).2-To the extent that some designated recipients are unwilling or unable-to comply with the new requirements under the policy, some L DF-appropriations in FY 27 and beyond may go unspent and lapse.-The Out Years-The annualized ongoing fiscal impact identified above would-continue into the future subject to inflation.--2 The Governor's recommended revised FY 27 budget includes three additional-positions within the DECD to enhance oversight of LDF grants and contracts.-sHB5255 File No. 321--sHB5255 / File No. 321 6+Researcher: SP Page 1 4/1/26OLR Bill AnalysissHB 5255@@ -193,11 +29,11 @@3. develop a best practices training program for state agencies;4. require state agencies to annually report to the OPM secretary onLEG awards and subawards; and-sHB5255 File No. 321+5. compile the agency reports and send a summary of them to the+2026HB-05255-R000321-BA.DOCX-sHB5255 / File No. 321 7+Researcher: SP Page 2 4/1/26-5. compile the agency reports and send a summary of them to theAppropriations; Finance, Revenue and Bonding; andGovernment Oversight committees.EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 2026@@ -228,12 +64,12 @@The bill requires state agencies to submit annual reports beginningby December 1, 2027 , detailing all LEG awards and subawards theydisbursed in the past year, in a form and manner set by the secretary.-sHB5255 File No. 321--sHB5255 / File No. 321 8-The report must include state agency evaluations of the recipient orsubrecipient and any state agency concerns, and may include any state+2026HB-05255-R000321-BA.DOCX++Researcher: SP Page 3 4/1/26+agency requests for additional staffing or resources.OPM Annual Summary ReportUnder the bill, the OPM secretary must compile all the state agency@@ -263,11 +99,11 @@subawardee fails to comply with various policies;4. use a standard process for making payments on an invoice basis;and-sHB5255 File No. 321+5. follow other OPM best practices for LDFs.+2026HB-05255-R000321-BA.DOCX-sHB5255 / File No. 321 9+Researcher: SP Page 4 4/1/26-5. follow other OPM best practices for LDFs.Related BillHB 5039 (File 66) contains similar provisions addressing themanagement of LDFs by creating requirements for LDF recipients,
Diffs are computed deterministically from extracted bill text and show additions, deletions, and section moves. Scanned-PDF text extracted via OCR is flagged where confidence is low; see methodology.