Legislative Update - April 21, 2023

Dear Neighbors, 

We’re building off of last week’s success, and so far we’ve passed our budget proposals in the following areas: Higher Education, Legacy, Environment and Clean Energy, Housing, Veterans, Elections, State and Local Government, K-12 Education, Agriculture, Transportation, and Early Childhood. 

These are all great bills, and I’d like to highlight a few for you, starting with our K-12 Education budget proposal. All Minnesota students deserve a world-class education. House DFLers deliver on this promise with historic new investments in education while also ensuring stable funding in the future by tying formula increases to inflation.

Included in our K-12 Education budget is my proposal to invest $25 million for high quality after-school programs, focusing primarily on underserved communities and providing opportunities for academic enrichment. Other notable highlights of our budget include the following:

The Environment and Natural Resources Budget

We passed our Environment and Natural Resources budget proposal this week, which was included with our Climate and Clean Energy plan. This is a crucial component of our overall budget, focusing on building a cleaner, greener Minnesota.

There are a lot of important components in this bill that I, as a member of the Environment and Natural Resources Committee, worked on. I’m especially proud of my proposal on the cumulative impacts of pollution. Specifically, it requires a cumulative environmental impacts analysis to be conducted for certain permit decisions that may affect an environmental justice area, and requires the commissioner to deny a permit application if the analysis shows that issuing it would contribute to cumulative adverse environmental stressors in the area.

We can't allow our communities to carry the burden of pollution. Other components of the bill include:

Our Housing Budget

Another important budget proposal we passed this week would invest in Housing throughout the state. 

This budget makes our state’s most significant commitment to end family and child homelessness through the creation of state-based rental vouchers. This innovative form of housing assistance will create housing stability for 7,000 low-income Minnesota families all across the state. 

In addition, we’re pursuing the state’s most ambitious agenda yet to create pathways to homeownership and address our state’s racial home ownership gap. The bill includes a new first generation down payment assistance program that will create 4,000 new homeowners.

State of the State

We paused our work for a brief moment this week to join with guests and our Senate colleagues to attend Governor Walz’s fifth State of the State Address, which you can watch here. 

I applaud Governor Walz, and his commitment to working with us to ensure Minnesota is a great state for everyone - regardless of where they come from or what they look like. This is in stark contrast to some of the news we’ve seen coming out of other states, including our neighbors, but it’s crucial Minnesota remains a place where everyone can achieve the American Dream.

The state of our state is strong, and getting stronger. 

Stay Connected

We’re in the final weeks of the legislative session, and I’m looking forward to all that we’ll be able to accomplish together. 

If you have any questions about the bills we’re working on, please feel free to contact my office. You can contact me at rep.fue.lee@house.mn.gov or 651-296-4262, and I will be happy to help. 

I look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely, 

Fue Lee

State Representative