Legislative Update – March 27, 2026
Dear Neighbors,
The 2026 Legislative Session is in full swing, with committees busy debating bills to lower costs, protect our civil rights, reform our healthcare, promote affordable housing, and prevent gun violence.
It was an emotional start, as for the first time in 20 years, the Legislature met without Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman. On our first day, we honored Melissa, her husband Mark, and their dog Gilbert with a remembrance ceremony, by planting seeds, baking cake and bread, and visiting service dogs to remember the joy Gilbert brought to the Hortman family.
We’re also moving forward with several bills to honor Melissa’s service to her district and our state, including a bill renaming the Community Solar Garden Project after Melissa, who authored the original bill. The bill passed unanimously, and I was proud to vote “green” and honor Melissa’s dedication to building a stronger green energy economy.
Community at the Capitol
One of my favorite parts about returning to session is meeting with constituents and seeing the Capitol bustling with energy. To all the students, teachers, nurses, local leaders, union members, and advocates who have visited, thank you all for coming to Saint Paul and making your voices heard!
Session Priorities
We have a lot of work to do this session. My DFL colleagues and I are focused on passing legislation to rein in federal overreach and protect Minnesotans’ rights, gun violence prevention proposals, and healthcare reform. We also introduced a package of bills to strengthen oversight, prevention, detection, and enforcement to prevent fraud and protect our government services. Here’s a quick rundown:
Helping You Afford Your Life
In the House, I’m working with my colleagues to deliver on a package of bills designed to make day-to-day living more affordable in housing, health care, child care, and more. House DFL leaders recently held a press conference to cover some of our proposals. Unfortunately, so far Republicans have largely rejected these efforts.
Too often, the playing field is slanted toward giant corporations and billionaires. I will work to reverse that trend by passing legislation that directly improves your quality of life by making sure hard work means you can actually get ahead. Read more here.
Gun Violence Prevention
House DFLers are proposing bills banning assault weapons, high-capacity magazines, and binary triggers. We also are working on requiring safe storage and mandating the reporting of lost or stolen guns.
We’re serious about working across the aisle on this. Governor Walz has included Republican priorities—like mental health support and school safety—in his gun violence prevention package.
But we need Republicans to also stand with the families of Annunciation and the nearly 70% of Minnesotans who are calling for action on guns. With a tied House, all it takes is one person to join us, say “enough,” and advance these and other key solutions that will make a difference in our communities.
Fighting and Preventing Fraud
Minnesotans deserve a government they can trust. One that ensures public funds are actually going towards helping our neighbors, not lining the pockets of fraudsters. This year, we’re building off the work of previous sessions and introducing a broad agenda to increase accountability, transparency, and program integrity.
We’ve started hearings on bills to hold fraudsters accountable, strengthen government oversight, modernize our outdated IT systems, and legislate these programs differently going forward. You can find our full agenda here.
This session, I’m focused on passing these bills, preventing fraud, and protecting the programs that serve the most vulnerable Minnesotans.
ICE Response and Recovery
Since Operation Metro Surge began in earnest in Minnesota, my colleagues and I have been working on state-level solutions to not only triage the damage from ICE’s lawless actions but also to prepare our state for future overreaches by the federal government.
We’ve introduced bills to ensure accountability for Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and all the Minnesotans whose rights have been violated by ICE, bills to keep ICE out of essential spaces in our community like schools, and proposals to unmask and rein in the invasion into personal privacy we’ve seen from federal agents.
These are just a few of the areas we’re focused on this session, in addition to passing a bonding bill that invests in our local communities, protecting our environment and natural resources, and improving our education system. I’ll keep working on behalf of our district, making progress wherever we can!
If you have any questions, ideas, or feedback on the bills mentioned above, or other proposals in front of the Legislature this session, please don’t hesitate to email me at rep.leon.lillie@house.mn.gov or give me a call at (651) 296-1188.?
It is an honor to represent our communities at the State Capitol.
Sincerely,?
Leon Lillie
State Representative