Legislative Update - 1/30/2023

Dear Neighbors,

Join me, Rep. Cheryl Youakim, and Sen. Ron Latz for our first joint Senate District 46 Town Hall of 2023. 

When: Wednesday, Feb 8, 6:30pm - 8:00pm

Where: St. Louis Park City Hall, 5005 Minnetonka Blvd, St. Louis Park, MN 55416.

It has been a really productive few weeks at the Capitol. It’s a tremendous amount of work, especially getting up to speed on being a legislator, but I hear that we’re moving a historic amount of bills through the process. I’m thrilled to be working on so many initiatives that are going to make a real difference for Minnesotans. And as a DFL caucus, we are united and moving effectively and efficiently on our progressive agenda. 

Our Progress and My First Floor Speech!

We passed HF1, the Protecting Reproductive Options Act last week! This bill enshrines the fundamental right to reproductive health care in law. We are hoping the Senate will pass the bill, and Governor Walz has signaled to us that he will sign it into law. I was proud to vote for this bill and thank my DFL colleagues for their green votes. 

Late on Thursday, the House DFL majority passed the 100% Clean Energy by 2040 bill, a landmark piece of legislation that will help our state address climate change head-on and prepare for a carbon-free future. This legislation would require that the state’s utilities use entirely carbon-free sources for electricity production by 2040. This is foundational to hitting our climate goals because firstly, we have to make our electricity clean and then electrify most everything else (i.e. buildings & transportation). I spoke on the House floor during the final floor vote. You can watch my speech here. 

New Bills

This week, I filed two new bills related to our climate crisis. HF 597 provides climate action grants to local units of government. This should help local governments create or implement climate action or climate adaptation plans. I’m happy to tell you I already have 28 co-authors in the House. 

Second, HF 772 would put in place a process to update statewide commercial building energy codes every three years, with energy efficiency improvements at each step, and would require reaching net zero energy for new buildings by 2036. This is important, because Minnesota’s building sector consumes about 40% of the total energy consumed in the state, and about half of that comes from commercial buildings (including large multifamily buildings).

Stay tuned for more action on these bills!

Updates

Representative Youakim and I participated in the League of Women Voters - St. Louis Park legislative interviews and chili lunch! It was great to see so many people involved in our local government and keeping us accountable. 

Being on the Commerce committee, I have a lot of community members and lobbyists wanting to meet with me, because so much goes through the Department of Commerce. A group representing MN Credit Unions set up a meeting with me. But instead of a “lobbyist”, Megan Hammock from  St. Louis Park’s SharePoint Credit Union came to my office. This was Megan’s first meeting with a state legislator - I learned a lot about credit unions, and we got to share some ice cream (yes - I have homemade ice cream in my office!) Here’s a picture of Megan and me.

Lastly, my legislative office is coming together nicely, so I made a TikTok so folks could have a sneak peek!

Redistricting Update

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Stay in Touch

If you have questions, ideas, or feedback that you’d like to share, please don’t hesitate to reach out. You can email me at rep.larry.kraft@house.mn.gov or call (651) 296-7026. For more regular updates, you can subscribe to these legislative updates if you haven’t already, here, and you can also “like” and follow my official State Representative Facebook page.

Sincerely,

Larry Kraft

State Representative