 Dear Neighbor, The House returned to the Capitol this week ready to make the final push in the 2025 session so we can adjourn as scheduled May 19 with a new two-year budget in place and other important work done on time. Here is a look at the latest from St. Paul: Taxpayer-funded healthcare for immigrants here illegally skyrocketing The Democrats’ expansion of taxpayer-funded healthcare to cover immigrants who are here illegally is spiraling out of control and Minnesotans are paying the price. The Minnesota Department of Health indicates 17,396 immigrants who are here illegally are now enrolled in MinnesotaCare, more than twice the original estimate of 7,700 back in 2023 when Democrats expanded MinnesotaCare to provide free health care for immigrants here illegally. The original projected cost to taxpayers of $196 million over four years has now ballooned to $550 million and rising. These enrollment numbers weren’t released publicly and only surfaced after repeated inquiries from House Republicans. Unlike other MinnesotaCare enrollees, immigrants who are here illegally are not eligible for federal matching funds. Normally, the federal government covers 90 percent of program costs, with the state covering just 10 percent. Except, in this case, Minnesota taxpayers are stuck footing 100 percent of the bill. All this comes at a time when the state faces a $6 billion budget deficit. Minnesota families are struggling with rising costs. Critical funding for ambulance services, rural hospitals, and emergency care is on the line. Yet, instead of addressing those urgent needs, our state is diverting over half a billion dollars to provide free, comprehensive healthcare to individuals who are here in violation of federal immigration law. House Republicans are committed to restoring fiscal sanity at the Capitol. That starts with putting Minnesota taxpayers first and ensuring our healthcare dollars go where they’re needed most. Unemployment overpayments In a continued push for government accountability, I recently co-signed a formal letter to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development requesting clarity on the partial recovery of an estimated $430 million in unemployment insurance overpayments made since 2020. The letter follows a recent legislative hearing in the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee in which DEED officials acknowledged recovering only $77 million of the $430 million in overpayments to date. That is less than 20% of the total improper payments despite reporting a fraud rate below 1.4%. I have requested a full accounting of the recovery progress and the strategies DEED is using to retrieve both fraudulent and non-fraudulent payments. The deadline for DEED’s response is May 5, 2025. Between the Feeding Our Future scandal and these UI overpayments, Minnesotans have lost faith in the government’s ability to safeguard public funds. We’re asking for urgency, transparency, and results. Minnesotans are facing a $6 billion shortfall, and we need to cut out mismanagement in our state that continues sabotaging our bottom line. Even if these DEED overpayments were not intentional or fraudulent, our citizens deserve to know our government is working to take corrective steps to make sure this does not happen again. Here is a copy of the letter:  Higher Education The Higher Education committee, which I Chair, has put the final details in place on our omnibus finance bill. Even with a spending target of $0 over the base budget in this and the next biennium, this bill makes important progress towards addressing the $239 million shortfall in the State Grant program. One year’s worth of grants is $241 million. We are using a combination of policy changes (levers) and cuts to other areas of the $3.9 billion dollar budget, to apply towards the funding gap. Our number one goal was to put students and their families first. The bill also: - Reduces the cannabis industry dual training funds. The market isn’t up and running so there isn’t a reason for this appropriation.
- Eliminates funding to Lutheran Social Services, a nonprofit with a gross revenue of $260 million, 87% of which comes from taxpayers, their ED makes $420k and they have 10 employees who make more than the Governor. Here's a link to an X clip.
- Eliminates $3.5 million in funding for Mayo Clinic from the budget. A recent Star Tribune article indicates, "In 2024, Mayo saw $1.29 billion in operating (net) income, an increase of 19% compared with the previous year. Revenue grew more than 10% to about $18.8 billion in that time."
A number of other updates are included in the bill, such as: - Letting Minnesota State universities start offering applied doctoral degrees in cybersecurity.
- Making changes to how colleges handle campus sexual misconduct cases, aiming to improve the process.
- Giving the Office of Higher Education the ability to roll over any unspent operating money (that’s not for grants) into the next two-year budget period.
- Making sure Minnesota State provides in-state tuition to all students who qualify for the North Star Promise scholarship.
- Clarifying that once a student has completed all the coursework for their first bachelor’s degree, they’re no longer eligible for North Star Promise, even if they haven’t officially graduated yet.
- Raising the cost-sharing requirement for big employers using dual training grants – from 25% to 50% – to make sure they’re contributing more when benefiting from workforce training programs.
- Expanding financial support for Tribal colleges, so they can receive aid not just for students from Minnesota Tribes, but for non-Tribal Minnesota students attending these schools too.
 We had to make hard choices on this bill and reaching agreement in a committee with an even party split was not easy. I am pleased we have gotten this far and look forward to soon presenting our omnibus bill for a vote of the full body. For now, you can click here for a quick summary and more details, or click the above image for video of the Higher Education Committee discussing our omnibus bill. |