Legislative Update: June 10, 2025

Legislative Update: June 10, 2025

Dear Neighbors -

Yesterday, we finished up the work of passing a state budget that funds our government for the next two years. While our work does not end with the passage of a budget, it does mean I will have more time to spend in our community listening to our kids, families, small businesses, organizations, and residents about what is happening in our lives and the work we must do moving forward to support everyone in our community. 

Throughout the legislative session, DFLers fought for a budget that shifts power into the hands of working Minnesotans, not the wealthy, corporations, and the powerful few. I’ve spent this session fighting for a budget that invests in Minnesotans, not one that takes benefits and protections away from people. I’ve been fighting to defend and increase support for workers and families in the face of the cruelty and corruption of the Trump Regime that is working to dismantle protections at the federal level.

I pushed hard for a budget that forces billionaires and the corporate monopolies to pay their fair share and doesn’t leave our most vulnerable behind. In a tied House with Republican co-chairs who used their power to fight for the most powerful business, I always knew it was a difficult fight -- but the right one. Unfortunately Republicans followed Trump’s playbook, holding up the budget to scapegoat immigrants and get more for tax breaks for their billionaire benefactors. 

We protected much of the progress we’ve made to create a better Minnesota for workers, families and kids but could not stop the most harmful, hateful priority of the GOP--taking away healthcare from Minnesota adults without legal status.The fight is not over and I will never stop using my voice to protect our communities and to fight for our “we all do better when we all do better” values at the Minnesota Capitol. 

2025 Session Recap

DFLers blocked countless Republican efforts to rollback the progress we made in 2023 and 2024, especially worker protection measures like Paid Family and Medical Leave, Earned Sick and Safe Time and our ban on non-compete agreements. We protected reproductive freedom and universal free school meals, and our state’s strong clean energy, gun violence prevention, and pro-democracy laws because DFLers in the house and senate held the line from Republicans efforts to repeal these laws. 

We pushed to continue building a Minnesota where everyone can get ahead, fighting to unrig our economy by breaking up corporate power, lowering prescription drug costs, and making billionaires pay their fair share. But at every turn Republicans did the bidding of their corporate backers to uphold the status quo and hold Minnesotans back. 

At a time when Donald Trump and his MAGA allies in Congress are rigging the federal government and pushing to cut Medicaid to give tax breaks to billionaires, I will continue to stand up for everyday Minnesotans. Although the work of the 2025 session is complete, there’s so much more work to do. My top priority continues to be unrigging our economy and our democracy, so that it’s Minnesotans calling the shots. I will continue fighting so that Minnesotans can get ahead, not just get by, and afford things like housing, child care and health care, and daily essentials like groceries.

What Passed During Special Session

The special session agreement negotiated by House leaders, the Senate, and the Governor laid out what must be passed in order to fund the state government and avoid a shutdown. It was clear to us that Minnesota Republicans were willing to follow Trump’s lead and threaten a complete shutdown if their hateful, partisan policy priorities were not met.

As I said since the 2024 election that put the Minnesota House into a 67-67 tie, all our bills are the result of bipartisan compromise necessary to get bills through the House. Many of the budget bills we passed in the regular session and in the special session, contained provisions I do not support. As your representative, it’s my job to look at these bills individually and vote according to how they will impact our neighbors and district.

In addition to the bills I talk about in more depth below, I voted in favor of the budget bills for Commerce, Energy, Environment and Natural Resources, Health, Children, and Families, Higher Education, Human Services, K-12 Education, Taxes, and Transportation. I also voted for a pair of Capital Investment bills that improve our state buildings, transportation, and water infrastructure. You can read about each of those bills in more detail at the linked articles from House nonpartisan staff.

Protecting Workers from GOP Attacks

I was proud to vote in favor of the Jobs, Labor, and Economic Development Budget bill, which I helped negotiate as DFL vice chair of the Committee and a member of our special session workgroup. Thanks to the work of DFLers in the House and Senate, Minnesotans will continue to receive earned sick and safe time to use when they get sick and Minnesota’s Paid Leave program is on track to begin on January 1, 2026. One of the major accomplishments of this session is that we defended all of the historic protections we passed in 2023-24 to support Minnesota workers for Republicans’ effort to repeal and roll them back. 

I’m also proud to report that we beat efforts by the Minnesota Business Partnership to partially repeal our 2023 law banning the use of restrictive non-compete agreements. The business lobby fought hard all session and House Republicans held up the Jobs and Labor budget bill for nearly three weeks to roll back the nearly 2 year old law non-compete ban to give the biggest corporations in Minnesota more power over their workers and an anti-competitive advantage in the market.

Armed with the stories of workers, economists, and small businesses who spoke of the real-world harms of non-competes and the benefits of banning them, I fought all session long to protect our 2023 law. And I heard about the importance of this issue from many of you, including 63B resident and retired 3M chemical engineer, Jim Klein who came to the Capitol to share his personal experience with the issue and his opposition to changing the 2023 law. I’m proud to say that with your support, we protected the 2023 law and workers from being subject to non-compete agreements in Minnesota. 

This Jobs and Labor Bill also takes an important step forward in fighting worker misclassification, increasing enforcement to those who cheat workers out of worker protections and benefits and steal from our public coffers. There’s more work to do in our fight to unrig the economy, but this is a good step forward.

MinnesotaCare Coverage

I voted No on Minnesota Republicans’ cruel bill to strip MinnesotaCare healthcare coverage from our undocumented neighbors. Unfortunately, Republicans demanded taking away health insurance from Minnesotans without legal status as a condition for passing a state budget year. It was their number one priority and their choice to prioritize this issue wasn't about numbers (it won’t save us money and it won’t lower anyone’s healthcare costs) — it was about cruelty.

I spoke on the House Floor about how Republicans are scapegoating the 22,000 of our most vulnerable Minnesotans to protect the enormous profits of the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry. Their bill will cost the state more, not less, and does nothing to lower the cost of healthcare for Minnesotans citizens. Watch my comments here.

Minnesota Republicans are following Trump’s lead - trying to distract the public from their effort to shovel tax dollars into a broken system where big Pharma, health insurance companies, and CEOs make billions while denying care and coverage to Minnesotans of all stripes.

I’m heartbroken that this bill will be signed into law, and that our neighbors will lose health care access, hurt our health care system, and people will die. That’s the impact of Minnesota Republicans gaining power here, and bringing their MAGA agenda to the Capitol, and it’s something we must continue to push back against.

I’ll continue the work, both here at the Capitol and in our district, of building a Minnesota where everyone can get ahead, that supports workers, that doesn’t demonize people for who they are or where they came from. Please continue to stay active and stay engaged, and don’t let them divide us because we are much stronger when we work together.

Stay in Touch

Thank you for your time, energy, and all you do to make our community a great place to live, work, and play. Always feel free to reach out to me with your input and ideas, or if I can ever be of assistance. My email is rep.emma.greenman@house.mn.gov or you are always welcome to call me at the Capitol at 651-296-4200 and follow my Facebook page for updates.

It’s an honor and a privilege to be your State Representative. I'm very proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish together and look forward to the work we have ahead of us. Together, we can create a stronger, brighter future for all Minnesotans!  

Best, 

Emma Greenman
State Representative