Montana Senator Al Olszewski serves on the Children, Families, Health, and Human Services Interim Committee and says the Governor and leadership of the State Department of Public Health and Human Services have had severe communication problems with the legislative branch.
“The agency was just going to do a straight across the board cut of 5.4 percent and we said whoa, whoa, based on legislative intent and the law that’s over double of what was expected or what we anticipated,” Olszewsik said. “We started with an informal objection and they refused to acknowledge us and didn’t answer us.”
Olszewski says the communication issue is so severe, it guts the committee’s ability to provide true oversight.