Legislative Update – June 13, 2025
Dear Neighbors,
This week, we passed a state budget that funds our government for the next two years. Throughout the legislative session, DFLers have fought for a budget that shifts more power into the hands of working Minnesotans, and away from corporations and the wealthy.
We stopped Republican efforts to roll back the progress made in 2023 and 2024, protecting Earned Sick & Safe Time and Paid Family & Medical Leave which starts on January 1, 2026. Though Republicans and their corporate backers tried to repeal these laws, we know that people shouldn’t have to choose between their health and a paycheck.
Minnesotans will still have reproductive freedom and universal free school meals, and our state’s strong clean energy, pro-democracy, LGBTQ protection, and gun violence prevention laws remain intact because DFLers largely held the line.
You can listen to me discuss more of the details in my appearance today on Rich and Ryan in the Morning on KYMN here.
Special Session Recap
The budget bills negotiated between the House, Senate, and the Governor are all the result of compromise in divided government. 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.
We passed budget bills for Commerce, Energy, Environment and Natural Resources, Health, Children, and Families, Higher Education, Human Services, Jobs and Labor, K-12 Education, Taxes, and Transportation. We also passed 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.
As DFL vice-chair of the House Environment and Natural Resources Committee, I spoke on the Floor when we passed our Environment Budget bill, which keeps our Department of Natural Resources, Pollution Control Agency, and Board of Water and Soil Resources running.
In a tied legislature, each side should be equally unhappy with compromised bills like these. There are things I don’t support in the Environment budget, like modifications to Amara’s Law and the elimination of funding for research on fish kills. However, there are also good provisions, such as funding for Outdoor Schools for All and money for tree planting. You can watch my speech here.
I’m also glad to report that the Capital Investment bills included provisions I fought to include, allowing an extension for the skate park project in our district and funding for water infrastructure improvements in Forest Township.
Voting No on MinnnesotaCare Repeal
Unfortunately, in divided government, we also had to concede on some of the GOP’s most partisan demands. In order to prevent a government shutdown, Minnesota Republicans demanded to make it so that adult Minnesotans without legal status are ineligible for MinnesotaCare.
Their choice to prioritize this issue wasn't about numbers or fiscal responsibility. It won’t save the state any money, and hospitals, insurance companies, immigrant rights groups, and even the Catholic charities were opposed. Undocumented Minnesotans pay over $200 million in taxes already, and the so-called “savings” from this bill is a rounding error in the context of our overall budget.
As my colleague Dr. Senator Alice Mann explains here, this repeal was solely about cruelty. This repeal makes our healthcare system worse, it increases healthcare costs, increases ER wait times, and hurts hospitals, which now have to pay more in uncompensated care.
Our neighbors deserve dignity and the ability to see a doctor, and while I voted no on that bill, it did pass. I’m heartbroken that this bill will be signed into law, and that our neighbors will lose health care access, and people will die. This is the impact of Minnesota Republicans gaining power here, and we must continue to push back against their cruel agenda.
Federal Hearing on Minnesota Policies
In case you missed it, yesterday, Governor Walz and other governors were called to testify in front of the U.S. House Oversight Committee. One thing the Governor said especially stood out: “I did not realize how much anger there was here.”
While Republican politicians berated, yelled, and grandstanded for political points, it was clear that this hearing was just a distraction from the real crisis facing our Democracy right now. At a time when the Trump administration is using the government and military to intimidate protestors, silence dissent, and even detain a U.S. Senator from California, it’s important to call out what this is—an attempt to distract and deflect from their unpopular actions.
I’m proud to be a member of the Inclusive Democracy Caucus, which released a statement today condemning President Trump’s use of the military and silencing of dissent that you can read here.
As elected officials, we will not be bullied out of standing up for the democratic freedoms promised in the U.S. Constitution and protected by generations of servicemembers, activists, political leaders, and citizens. We will continue joining our fellow Americans in exercising our First Amendment right to lawfully protest the Trump Administration. We will not back down from the work to defend and to strengthen inclusive, representative democracy in our state and our country.
Stay Connected!
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