Legislative Update - Supporting Our Frontline Workers

Dear Neighbors, 

Throughout this pandemic, frontline workers have put their own health and safety on the line to provide child care, treat COVID patients, teach our kids, respond to emergencies, process and cook our food, keep buildings clean, and so much more.

While our gratitude knows no bounds, we can provide a small token of our thanks by sending bonuses to more than 650,000 of these Minnesotans. Our state’s economic recovery is largely built on their backs, which is why I voted yesterday to approve checks of up to $1,500 for our frontline workers.

For all their talk of supporting these workers and wanting to give back our budget surplus, hardly any Republicans could bring themselves to vote for this bill. Republican Leadership in the Senate isn’t even hearing the legislation. It’s time for them to put their money where their mouth is and step up for these workers who continue to keep our state running during a global pandemic. 

Rent Help for Minnesotans

As part of our $1.8 billion housing proposal, we’re dedicating $330 million in emergency assistance to reopen RentHelpMN, which just passed our Housing committee yesterday with bipartisan support. 

With federal funds for RentHelpMN running out last month, families have been caught in the lurch as many still struggle to pay rent amidst an ongoing pandemic and its economic impact. The funds we’re proposing aren’t meant to solve this issue - in fact it would only cover us until June 1, 2022 - but it would get emergency assistance to renters and landlords that need to be made whole as soon as possible. 

Here’s hoping the bipartisan support we gained in committee can build, and we can quickly get this support out to Minnesotan. 

You can read more about this proposal and our committee hearing here. 

Stay Connected

Next week, I have a series of bill hearings I wanted to put on your radar:

• Tuesday, in Education Finance, I’ll be presenting my bill on permanent funding to support family, friend and neighbor child care providers
• Wednesday, in Education Policy, I have legislation that would get lead out of school drinking water and provide resources for remediation
• Wednesday, in Higher Education Finance and Policy, I have a bill to increase funding for state grants to make college more affordable
• And finally, I’ll also be presenting my insulin copay cap bill that you can learn more about here

If you have any questions about the bills we’re passing in committee or on the House floor, please feel free to reach out. In the coming weeks, we’ll be passing more key pieces of legislation and working with our Senate colleagues and Governor Walz to sign them into law. 

In partnership, 

Michael Howard