SPRINGFIELD – A bill aimed at reducing waste and bureaucratic red tape for social service providers in Illinois cleared a House committee Wednesday.

The legislation (HB 1485) is sponsored by Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, and requires state agencies such as the Departments of Children and Family Services and Human Services to establish joint rules, also known as cross-agency agreements, for streamlining licensing and other regulatory matters.

It was approved in committee 11-0.

Also approved was a companion piece of legislation, HB 1488, which creates a management improvement initiative committee to require state agencies to incorporate the streamlining processes into their departmental operations. It also was approved 11-0.

The first piece of legislation, Rose said, would benefit both taxpayers and providers.

"Obviously this is an expense to the taxpayers but it's also, in these tight budget times, it means that we can't actually devote resources to treatment," Rose said.

"With this they shall have the authority to collaborate so that they're not doing the same job twice or thrice or even four times, as is currently the case. That allows us at the local level to provide a better level of service to our (developmental disabilities and mental illness) community because we're now responding to real issues instead of bureaucrats looking for the same thing four times."

That's a real problem for service providers, Rose said.

At a service provider in Charleston, he said, three different state agencies showed up to order three separate corrective actions after reviewing a "slip and fall" accident at the facility.

"Here's a local provider who wants to do the right thing and make sure that they have safe residents, but what are they supposed to do?" Rose said. "They now have three different state agencies telling them three different things and, oh by the way, if they comply with one they can't comply with the other two so they're subject to a fine and penalty in some cases.

"What we're saying here is that the state agencies, through these agreements, will agree among themselves to send one person to respond to that situation and make sure the residents are safe."

Frank Anselmo, chief executive officer of the Community Behavioral Healthcare Association, said different state agencies don't even share accreditation reports.

The problem developed as state agencies consolidated and took on new duties but didn't coordinate regulatory functions, he said.

"It would be atypical for somebody not to have to do multiple reports," Anselmo said. "This has been going on forever because good-intended people would say, 'If you get money from the Department of Mental Health, they have to inspect you. And if you get money from substance abuse they have to be inspect you.'"

The legislation originated in meetings last summer among representatives of social service providers and state agencies. They were asked to develop a report and a timeline for delivering services more efficiently, according to Rose.

"I consider this a big success," he said after the bills were approved in committee. "Unlike the way things sometimes work here where something comes out of nowhere with just 12 hours of sunlight, this was worked on all summer and fall. And we're actually starting to consolidate some functions."