Legislative Update - May 8, 2023

Dear Neighbors,

After the passage in the House of our budgets last week, we are now moving to conference committees with our Senate colleagues. Here we will reconcile the differences between the two versions of each budget bill. I am on the Environment, Natural Resources, Climate, and Energy Conference Committee this year. I look forward to the work to ensure we continue conserving our environment and mitigating climate change.

Paid Family & Medical Leave

The House has passed Paid Family & Medical Leave! We all deserve to be able to care for ourselves or our loved ones. These last couple of years have made that clearer than ever. Our Paid Family & Medical Leave bill is a model built over a decade of extensive research and is similar to highly successful models that have passed in 11 other states and Washington, DC, plus most of the rest of the world. PFML is not only a common-sense solution but also extremely popular, with 80% of voters supporting it across party lines. To boil it down, this means Minnesotans will have the ability to take time to be with their newborn child, keep themselves healthy if they get sick, or be with a loved one in the final weeks of their life, to name a few circumstances. Therefore, passing this bill this year is extremely important to bring us to a more equitable workforce.

Updates

On Friday, Governor Walz signed the Democracy for the People Act into law! It's our state's most significant improvement in voting rights in generations. The bill includes automatic voter registration, probits voter intimidation, incorporates my provision to pre-register 16 & 17-year-olds to vote, and much more! So here I am at the bill signing with SLP High seniors and voter pre-registration advocates Isaac Israel and Sebastian Tangelson, Secretary of State (and former SLP State Rep.) Steve Simon, and another great SLPer Lt. Gov Peggy Flanagan.

I recently appeared on Twin Cities Public Television’s Almanac at the Capitol program. They have a series of profiles on first-term legislators, and it was great to share my background and my reason for running. Fun fact: Host Mary Lahammer attended SLP High School! Watch the entire interview here.

A couple of weeks ago, I opened our local Sun Sailor and was upset by what I felt was an irresponsible and factually incorrect editorial about elections policy here in Minnesota. So, with the support of two of my colleagues, I submitted this response to push back on some glaring inaccuracies from the editorial board.

At the Capitol

It was Ice Cream Day at the Capitol with Minnesota Milk. It was great to see so many producers from across the state. (The ice cream was good… but not as good as mine)

I met with Debbie Reynolds from SLP, who is an advocate with the Audubon Society. The National Audubon Society protects birds and the places they need, today and tomorrow, throughout the Americas using science, advocacy, education, and on-the-ground conservation. Thanks for your advocacy for Minnesota’s wildlife, Debbie!

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