Friends and neighbors, The House continues to debate and pass supplemental budget and policy bills on the floor, covering important issues such as education, labor, housing, the environment, and more. This week, we passed the Labor Committee’s supplemental budget package as part of the Transportation, Labor, and Housing Budget Bill. The bill includes legislation to catch worker misclassification fraud, allow employees to access their employment records, strengthen prevailing wage laws, and create a new job training center for building trades. The Transportation and Housing portions of the bill also invests in railroad safety and public transit, improves housing stability for renters and seniors, and funds homelessness prevention. Democrats at the Capitol delivered historic progress for workers last year, but there’s more work to be done. Workers being fairly treated, compensated, and valued should never be up for debate, and today we took major steps to halt mistreatment and fraudulent workplace practices. The bill also ensures public dollars are not being used to exploit workers, which is a piece of fiscal responsibility that isn’t addressed enough. As the Chair of the Labor Committee, I’m incredibly proud of this legislation and want to thank the partners who worked diligently with us to ensure we pass a strong package that benefits folks all across the state. Our work this year builds on last year’s historic successes and works to improve the lives of working and middle class Minnesotans. Recently, the House also passed: - A broadly bipartisan bill investing $240 million in our outdoors, clean water, parks and trails, and cultural heritage from the Legacy Amendment fund.
- A K-12 Education bill that boosts resources for the READ Act to improve literacy, moves forward solutions for student wellbeing, and enhances support for teachers.
- An Environment and Natural Resources bill with new investments in tree planting, improving air quality, holding repeat polluters accountable, and tackling solid waste and recycling.
- A Children and Families bill that reforms our child protection system and builds on historic investments in economic support for families, food security, and emergency shelter.
 We also passed a Pensions and Retirement bill with bipartisan support, which prioritizes educators’ retirement security, improves our pension systems’ health, and strengthens the benefits retirees can expect. Also passed was a bill addressing the “kidfluencer” industry that safeguards young content creators with protections for safety, fair compensation, and future financial security. |