Dear Granite City Neighbors, It’s a busy week in St. Paul, with much of it being spent on the House floor passing the culmination of this year’s committee work. Before I get into these House proposals, I’d like to share the recent news of the bipartisan compromise on the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Trust Fund and bonuses to frontline workers. In what has been two extremely high priorities for me this year, this week a deal was finally struck to replenish the state’s depleted UI trust fund and send checks to the Minnesotans who kept our state running during the darkest days of the pandemic. We’re one of the only divided state legislatures in the nation, but despite that, we continue to show work can still get done when we put our heads together and prioritize the people who sent us here to get this done. The nature of compromise is not everyone gets what they want, but this will ultimately be a step in the right direction for our state. You can read more on this issue here. The House ProposalsWe have already passed our House proposals on Legacy, Agriculture, Housing, Broadband, Transportation, State Government, Veterans, Pensions, Education, and the Environment (I encourage you to click these links to read nonpartisan reports on these bills). Today, we’ll be debating our Judiciary, Public Safety, and Higher Education proposals. Next week, we’ll be debating our proposals on Health and Human Services, Taxes, Climate, Labor, and Workforce Development. These are all incredibly important and impactful proposals, but as I serve on both the Early Childhood and Education Finance committees, I’d like to focus on that bill, along with the legislation I authored within it.  |