SF No. 794 establishes a block grant program that combines certain existing human services grants into block grants to counties, tribes, or tribal agencies.

Section 1 removes the county share for the costs of services for semi-independent living services programs under Minnesota Statutes, section 252.275.

Section 2 directs the Commissioner of Human Services to allocate funds for counties, tribes, or tribal agencies to carry out their duties under the listed grant programs as block grants in fiscal years 2020 and 2021. The commissioner shall allocate the same grant amounts that were allocated in fiscal year 2019 for those grant programs, except as single block grants instead of as individual grants. Block grant recipients may contribute additional funds to the block grant activities at their discretion. Each block grant recipient must report its use of the block grant funds to the Commissioner of Human Services by September 30, 2021. The report must include a comparison of the recipient’s use of the block grant funds to its previous use of individual grant funds. The commissioner shall provide a summary report to the legislative committees by December 31, 2021.