Neighbors, In action long anticipated, Monday night the Minnesota House passed the Judiciary and Public Safety conference committee report. The bill supports law enforcement and victims, and juvenile justice reforms. It also invests in community violence prevention grants, acts against crime, and improves the rehabilitation process. Governor Walz signed the bill into law today. The bill contains two common sense gun violence prevention measures supported by most Minnesotans. The death toll from gun violence keeps rising. For years, House DFLers have worked with law enforcement, community members and advocates to craft a bill to make Minnesotans safer, and for years our efforts have been blocked in the Senate. This year both the House and Senate acted, and I am extremely proud of this legislation. The measures we passed will save lives, support our law enforcement professionals, assist victims of crime, and help everyone feel safer where they live, work, study, recreate and worship. Video of the floor debate will be uploaded to the House Information YouTube page. The spreadsheet of complete investments for the Public Safety and Judiciary budget can be downloaded here. Education Conference Committee Report ApprovedThis week, the House approved the E-12 Education conference committee report budget, which delivers meaningful investments to support our students and school staff, and stabilizes our public-school funding. In addition to increases in the per-pupil education formula, the bill also links the formula to inflation in all future years to help school districts have more predictability in their financial outlooks. The budget bill also reduces the Special Education cross-subsidy and eliminates the English Learner cross-subsidy by 2027, targeted to the school districts serving students with the highest needs. The bill also increases investments to recruit and retain teachers of color, so those at the front of the classroom better reflect students they teach. In addition, we boosted investments in The Read Act to expand access to evidence-based literacy instruction. Yesterday, Speaker Melissa Hortman signed the enrollment for the Education Finance & Policy Bill. Next stop – Governor Walz to sign the bill!  Further investments in our children occurred this week when the House passed the Early Education conference committee report. The measure delivers a historic $300 million over the next four years in learning for the youngest Minnesotans, including in early learning scholarships. These investments will increase access to high-quality early care and learning programs for lower-income and vulnerable children (those with the highest needs) to improve school readiness and allow parents to access employment and education opportunities. Legalizing Adult-Use Cannabis Closer to Becoming LawThursday night, the House passed the conference committee report for the legalization of adult-use cannabis in Minnesota with a bipartisan vote. This session, the bill was reviewed and approved by 16 committees before reaching the House Floor. Our cannabis laws are not working and disproportionally impact Black Minnesotans, even though people of all races use cannabis at roughly the same rate. This legislation provides for automatic expungement of prior petty misdemeanor and misdemeanor marijuana convictions and creates a Cannabis Expungement Board to review other cannabis convictions and determine whether a person is eligible for expungement. Once signed into law, Minnesota will become the 23rd state and the third state in the Midwest to legalize adult-use cannabis. Created with this bill is the Office of Cannabis Management, which will oversee the regulation of cannabis, cannabis products, hemp edibles, and hemp-derived consumer products. Stay connected with the legislatureThe Minnesota House of Representatives Public Information Services offers nonpartisan recaps of high-profile bills, committee hearings, and floor sessions with their Session Daily publication. Subscribe to receive these here. To track bills of interest through the legislative process, I encourage you to utilize the MyBills feature on the Minnesota House of Representatives’ website. Please continue to reach out with any input, ideas, or feedback about the issues important to you. I value hearing from you, so please don’t hesitate to call or email me any time. You can also connect with me on Facebook here. It’s an honor to represent you at the State Capitol. Sincerely, Laurie Pryor State Representative |