Legislative Update - Tomorrow’s Town Hall

I hope to see you there!
 

Bipartisan Work Shines Through

With a special election in Roseville next week expected to return the Minnesota House to a tie, I’m happy to see that some bipartisan work is already beginning to shine through. Even in our current 67-66 split, 68 votes are required to pass legislation, so any serious bill needs to reach across the aisle for support.

We’ve seen that several times in the last week.

Last Thursday, we unanimously voted to reinstate the State Agency Value Initiative. Should this bill become law, state agencies could carry forward to the following biennium 50% of their unspent operating appropriations if the savings are attributable to unanticipated innovation, efficiencies, or creative cost-savings. The other 50% would go to the General Fund.

Basically, bipartisan innovation and cost-savings at its finest. You can read more about this bill here.

Yesterday, we passed several more bills off the House Floor with unanimous support. All related to public safety. Whether it was gathering data to combat child sex trafficking, allowing local governments to conduct background checks, or making it easier for law enforcement to accept gifts in relation to the death of a public safety officer in the line of duty.

The latter was in response to the outpouring of support for the colleagues of the slain public safety officers in Burnsville. These were all important bills that make Minnesota safer and support those who keep it safe.

Bipartisanship is present in the legislation I’m working on as well. Clean water shouldn’t be a partisan position, and I’ve been working with my Republican colleague Rep. Andrew Myers from Tonka Bay on ways we can keep Minnesota’s water clean for generations to come.

A couple weeks ago, most of the first-term class of legislators - 5 of the DFLers and 6 of the GOPers - met up for dinner after the floor session. It was nice to get to continue to learn more about each other on a human level outside the Capitol and also floating ideas around on how we as freshmen can work together on common issues.
 

The Bills We Voted Down

Maybe it’s the presence of all these bipartisan accomplishments that make the sudden lack of it in certain areas so frustrating. I’d rather be spending more time delivering bipartisan legislation that benefits all Minnesotans, but I believe it’s also important to highlight the bills my DFL colleagues and I voted down this week.

To start, as I mentioned in my previous update, Republicans pushed their bill to bully trans kids all the way to the House Floor on Monday. I voted against the bill in committee, and I did the same on Monday - all my DFL colleagues did. As probably the only member of the Minnesota House who had coached a trans athlete, I felt compelled to speak to my experience and the harm of this bill during debate.

You can watch my remarks here.

Another bill that did not receive any DFL votes was the Republicans’ “Shoot First” bill that was up for a floor vote yesterday. Amidst several bipartisan public safety bills, it was unfortunate we had to spend time debating legislation that would’ve rolled back so much of the hard-fought progress made against gun violence in Minnesota. You can read more about this bill here.

When we know it takes bipartisan support to pass anything this year, it’s frustrating we have to spend any time at all on hyper-partisan bills. My hope is that our focus on common-ground solutions only grows in the coming weeks. 
 

Stay Connected

Regardless of whether you can join us for tomorrow’s Town Hall, always feel free to reach out with any questions, comments, or ideas you may have on how to make our community and state better!

You can reach me at rep.alex.falconer@house.mn.gov or 651-296-3964. You’ll either hear back from me or my Legislative Assistant, Jared.  I also encourage you to follow along on my legislative Facebook page.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely,

Alex Falconer

State Representative

House District 49A