 Dear neighbors, Here at the House, we’re working hard to pass budget bills that fund our state government and agencies for the next two years. This is our prime responsibility this session. While we’re making decent progress, there are some tough negotiations happening and difficult decisions being made. Due to the current reality of a 67-67 tied House, many of these bills include provisions I support and those I disagree with. However, we must compromise to pass a state budget. After budget bills pass the House, they then go to a conference committee with the Senate, where differences are ironed out to get to a final bill. That final bill then goes back to both the House and Senate for a vote, and if it passes both bodies, it will go to the Governor for his signature. While there’s a lot of good work happening and some conference committees have begun their work, there are still several bills that have yet to pass the House. If agreements are not reached by May 19th, a special session may be required. Here’s a quick recap of some of the bills we have voted on so far: - An Agriculture Budget that invests in Farm to School Programs, worker protections for bird flu, and supports new farmers with down payment assistance.
- A Higher Education Budget that makes it easier for Minnesotans to pursue higher education and protects the North Star Promise program.
- A Transportation Budget (I voted against this bill and explained my concerns in a previous newsletter. I’m working hard with my colleagues to ensure this bill improves in the conference committee).
- A Veterans Budget that invests in those who served our country and adds focus to increase veteran protections.
- A Public Safety & Judiciary Budget that improves and supports victim services, police training, and privacy protections for judges.
- A Legacy Bill that uses our lottery proceeds wisely to enhance our environment, protect our clean water, expand parks and trails, and celebrate arts, culture, and history.
- A State Government and Elections Budget that preserves key services, invests in the Attorney General’s capacity to fight consumer and Medicaid fraud, and supports the state workers.
- A Housing budget that takes steps to address Minnesota’s housing shortage crisis.
- An Environment and Natural Resources Budget that maintains our groundbreaking protection of Minnesotans’ land, water, and air from threats like PFAS, nitrates, and aquatic invasive species.
- An Energy bill that promotes proven clean energy sources, lowers energy costs for families, creates high-paying clean energy jobs, and builds a more resilient energy system.
I’ll expand on some of these bills below. DWI Legislation Passes House & SenateOne of my top priorities this session was borne out of the horrific tragedy at Park Tavern last September, when an extremely intoxicated man drove through an outdoor patio at Park Tavern, killing two and injuring nine others. That caused me to investigate our DWI laws in Minnesota and last week, the House passed my new bipartisan legislation to strengthen our approach to repeat DWI offenders. The legislation focuses on repeat offenders, because unbelievably, the driver had five prior Minnesota DWI convictions. I learned that most people who commit a DWI offense don’t commit a second. But if someone commits a second, the likelihood of committing more goes up - quite a bit. I also learned that, according to the CDC, ignition interlock, the kind of breathalyzer test for a car, reduces repeat DWI offenses by about 70%. I also learned that interlock is more effective than license suspension alone, as 50-75% of convicted drunk drivers continue to drive on a suspended license. And yet, Minnesota’s current approach to interlock time requirements is linear, meaning a second offense gets one or two years, a third offense gets three years, a fourth offense gets four years, etc. But this doesn’t match the date for repeat offenders - so the legislation ramps the interlock time a lot more aggressively while also reducing barriers to folks getting on interlock. This is a critical step toward justice, prevention, and safer roads for everyone. You can watch my floor remarks and the vote here.  On Wednesday of this week, the Senate also passed the legislation! There are some small differences in the two bills, which we’re working out now. Once those are worked out, and any tweaks approved by both the House and Senate, the bill will go to the Governor for signature. It was also good to see this week that the perpetrator pleaded guilty and will be serving quite a bit of jail time for the vehicular homicides and other offenses he committed. My thoughts are always with the families, friends, and partners of the victims impacted. Town HallThank you to everyone who attended our really engaging and thought-provoking trans rights town hall with my colleague and friend Rep. Leigh Finke, Carin Mrotz and Allan Aguilar from Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office. Trans people have been under attack by the Trump administration, as well as in many states around the country, simply for existing. Within Minnesota, we’ve already seen many harmful anti-trans bills introduced this session that have been rebuffed. We discussed how we’re pushing back in Minnesota and what’s going on around the country.   Energy BudgetOn Wednesday, we passed a very simple but important Energy budget bill. It’s referred to as “lights-on” because all it does is fund the agencies within the committee’s jurisdiction (Energy division of the Commerce department and the Public Utilities Commission). I was happy to vote yes for the bill because it allows us to stand firm and protect the progress we made in 2023 and 2024, for example on the 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040 law. It is the minimum we need to do to continue on the path to a cleaner energy system that ensures lower costs, more resilience, and protects our climate for future generations of Minnesotans. That said, I’m also disappointed because it is a missed opportunity. At a time when President Trump has pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Accord (the only other countries not part of that agreement are Iran, Libya, and Yemen… think about that) and seems hellbent on mortgaging the future of our kids and grandkids by increasing the use of fossil fuels, we need to do more. But most of what I see from my Republican colleagues is about stopping our progress. For more information, take a look at this Facebook post with some clips from my remarks. You can see my full remarks here. The House’s Higher Education BudgetAs the Trump administration seeks to control colleges and universities nationwide, Republicans sought to deploy that same playbook on Minnesota’s campuses while making it more difficult for students to access higher learning. In our Higher Education Budget, DFLers fought to keep right-wing extremism out of our schools and protected opportunities for all Minnesotans to continue their education after high school.  Since it was first introduced, the North Star Promise Program – providing free college tuition to students whose families make less than $80,000 a year – was highly targeted by Minnesota Republicans. Instead of giving a helping hand to those who face financial barriers to higher learning, they’d rather those hurdles stay in place. We know that Minnesota’s higher education system can be an effective path out of poverty, and we stood firm against cuts to this program in our budget that gives students access to a degree without taking on unsustainable debt. Last session, we prioritized breaking down barriers to higher education and are reversing a 10-year enrollment decline exacerbated by the pandemic. By protecting pathways to higher learning, we know we can continue to grow undergraduate enrollment and make it easier for all students to attend Minnesota’s colleges and universities.You can read more about our Higher Education Budget here. The House’s Housing BudgetEverything else in life is harder if you don’t have a safe and secure place to call home, which is why Republicans and Democrats worked together to put forward meaningful investments aimed at keeping people in their homes and creating new affordable homeownership opportunities. Our Housing Budget invests over $31 million in emergency rental assistance, which will help more than 8,000 Minnesotans stay in their home, $45 million towards the construction of new homes, and authorizes $100 million in Housing Infrastructure Bonds to fund the construction and renovations of affordable homes all over the state.  As the Trump administration claws back investments in affordable housing, Minnesota is stepping up to ensure more of our neighbors can afford a roof over their heads. We’ll do what we can, but with 100,000 housing units short of what Minnesotans need, we deserve a more serious partner in the White House. You can read more about our Housing Budget here. The House and Senate have both passed their own Housing Budgets, with significant differences. We’ll hammer out those differences in a conference committee before passing a final version in the coming days. |