AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas House has voted to partially consolidate the state’s health and human services bureaucracy, but stopped short of creating a single, super entity as proposed amid a contract scandal.
Lawmakers Sunday approved 137-0 merging three agencies beginning next year.
Being combined are the Health and Human Services Commission, the Department of Aging and Disability Services, and the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services.
But consolidation of the Department of State Health Services and the Department of Family and Protective Services will only be studied.
Creating a single, super agency was proposed following a multimillion dollar, no-bid contract state health officials signed with an Austin tech firm in 2012.
That proved too ambitious, though.
The Senate already approved the plan, but House changes mean it can’t yet clear the Legislature.