Legislative Update - The 2020 Session is Adjourned

Dear Granite City Neighbors, 

Sunday night, the Minnesota Legislature completed the 2020 Legislative Session, and I finished my first biennium as your state representative. This year’s session, like many of our lives, had to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic quickly. Though this time usually marks the end of our legislative work for the rest of the year, it’s highly likely my colleagues and I will return for a special session in June to vote on virus-related legislation and other unfinished business from this year’s session.

When the first COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Minnesota, the Minnesota Legislature was able to muster a swift, bipartisan response to ensure that our public health infrastructure was prepared for the virus. One piece of legislation I’m extremely proud of is my bill, now law, that better ensures the health care and public safety workers that keep us healthy and safe would have access to workers’ compensation benefits if they were to contract COVID-19. These are our friends and neighbors that continue to be on the frontlines of this pandemic, and I’m grateful my colleagues on both sides of the aisle shared my goal of ensuring these frontline responders were properly supported. 

Though we were able to quickly get an initial round of support for a package of legislation that invested in housing assistance, food security, child care, and small business loans, differences on key issues began to arise towards the end of the session. 

Important legislation, like the Jobs and Local Projects Plan, was not able to garner enough Republican support before the session adjourned. This was especially disheartening because there are important projects in St. Cloud and across the state that are worthy of capital investment right now. Investments in the Northstar extension to St. Cloud, as well as updates to the MAC, St. Cloud Correctional Facility, SCSU and SCTCC were included in the House version of the Jobs and Local Projects Plan. While it’s disappointing to see Republicans choose partisanship over projects, my efforts to bring these projects to St. Cloud will continue. We need to create good-paying jobs today and invest in projects that will benefit our community for years to come

Next Steps

While we’re no longer constitutionally required to conduct additional legislative business this year, Governor Walz has asked for legislative approval to extend the peacetime state of emergency during the pandemic, which means we would likely need to convene for a special session around June 12. Though my colleagues and I would need to meet to vote on this measure, it’s possible other legislative issues, such as the Jobs and Local Projects Plan, will be brought back as well.

More needs to be done to deliver support to Minnesotans during this pandemic, whether it’s housing assistance, a raise for home health care workers, loans for our small businesses, or state investment in local projects such as the MAC and the extension of Northstar. Regardless of the status of a special session, these are issues I continue to champion for St. Cloud and our state. I’ll be sure to keep you posted. 

#StaySafeMN

With the “Stay at Home” order expired, the newly implemented “Stay Safe” order allows for Minnesotans to gather in groups of 10 or less, and many retail stores are able to operate at 50% capacity, provided they follow public health guidelines. Governor Walz also announced this week that bars and restaurants would be able to open patios and other forms of outdoor service starting on June 1. You can watch that press conference here. 

While lifted restrictions are a relief to many, it’s important to remember that the pandemic continues, and the measures we’ve been practicing for the past few months remain incredibly important to keeping Minnesotans safe and healthy. This remains a difficult time for local businesses, and though we’re now able to support them in different ways, we need to remain mindful of public health.

Legislative Accomplishments & Goals

While the pandemic certainly took up much of our time in the Minnesota House this year, there were plenty of accomplishments for Minnesotans that were not strictly virus related. For one, we finally were able to secure a bipartisan agreement on the Alec Smith Insulin Affordability Act, ensuring that Minnesota’s diabetics will have access to an emergency supply of insulin when they need it. We’ve also increased the purchasing age of tobacco to 21 to curb teenage tobacco addiction, expanded resources for mental health and safety for our farmers, improved cybersecurity and expanded absentee voting for our elections, and made the pricing of prescription drugs more transparent. 

While these are all great new laws for our state, there are more than enough goals to keep us occupied as we strive for a more inclusive and prosperous Minnesota. In addition to the measures I had previously mentioned (local projects, small business loans, housing assistance), I’ll also be fighting for better broadband access across our state, compensation for hourly school workers, aid for low-income families, and House File 10 - a bill that more clearly defines “sexual harassment” in state law so that perpetrators are held accountable. 

House File 10 was one of the first bills introduced during this legislative biennium in January of 2019, and is a bill I’m proud to co-author. We managed to pass this in the House with bipartisan support, but it remains ignored in the Republican-controlled Senate. We need to ensure that perpetrators of sexual assault are properly held accountable in our state, and I’ll keep fighting for this legislation until it beocmes law. 

Stay Connected

Minnesota’s COVID-19 Dashboard remains the best source for accurate, updated information. House Speaker Melissa Hortman announced the formation of a Select Committee on Minnesota’s Pandemic Response and Rebuilding to explore the pandemic’s impacts and address any issues that may arise, which had its first meeting this week. You can follow the committee’s work here. 

There’s a lot we don’t know about the status of our future legislative work right now, but I’ll continue to update you as I learn more. Please feel free to continue to reach out to me with any questions or comments you have on our accomplishments this session, or what the future holds. You can reach me at (651) 296-6612, or email me at rep.dan.wolgamott@house.mn. I’ll also be posting frequent updates on my Facebook page.  We’re going to get through this together, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Rep. Dan Wolgamott