Legislative Update from Rep. Sandra Feist

Dear Neighbors,  

Last week, the 93rd Minnesota Legislature concluded its most consequential two-year session in state history. It’s a daunting but thrilling task to try and summarize our accomplishments in this session wrap-up.  

My main takeaway from the 93rd Legislature is that the DFL-led state government led long pent-up investments and reforms that had been stymied by divided government and resulted in a historic budget surplus. The resulting two-year period of legislative progress reflects the priorities of the voters of Minnesota and a host of accomplishments that will benefit Minnesotans for generations to come.  

This session ended with decisive action to increase compensation for drivers and keep Uber/Lyft in Minnesota, as well as improvements to the child care tax credit, new gun violence prevention laws, expanded health insurance coverage for reproductive care, wigs for cancer patients, prosthetics, and gender-affirming care – not to mention my “less glamorous but important” legislation to make Minnesota’s tax forfeitures laws once again Constitutional!  

On the last day of session, I got this photo with our House Chief Clerk, Patrick Murphy, whose incredible work facilitates the complex procedural steps necessary to enact new legislation.  

A key priority this session was to address the outsized share of wealth and power in the hands of large corporations and wealthy Minnesotans. This session, we focused on enacting policies reigning in abusive and anti-competitive practices of big pharma, big tech, big insurance companies, and predatory lenders. We are supporting and investing in workers, families, seniors, and the next generation. The Child Tax Credit is projected to cut childhood poverty by one-third. We are helping seniors keep more money in their pockets and delivering property tax cuts and an improved renters’ rebate program. We continue to invest in housing, early care and learning, food security, and child welfare. We reduced health care costs, including a cap on co-pays for prescription drugs to treat diabetes, asthma, and allergies at $25 for one month’s supply. In short – we are ensuring that the ALL Minnesotans have the ability to live a stable, secure life and families can thrive.  

This biennium, I also continued in my role as DFL House lead of the bicameral Civility Caucus, led by two Democrats and two Republicans in the House and Senate. We successfully hosted events throughout session encouraging our colleagues to develop relationships that would allow us to humanize one another and work together more effectively. I was gratified by the attention Civility Caucus received this year! Here is a nice Almanac interview that resulted from an article in the Minnesota Reformer. The coverage resulted in this longer article that explores Civility Caucus and related efforts to encourage broader civility and less polarization in politics. I’m really proud of these efforts and will continue them in future years. 

This session, I pursued diverse policy initiatives tied to enhancing K-12 education, protecting Seniors, and advancing youth justice and public safety. Here are some highlights of bills I authored, now signed into law! 

Addressing cell phones in our schools

As a mother and a legislator, I was compelled to address the impact of cell phones in schools on student mental health, behavior, and academic attainment. My bill simply requires schools to be proactive in creating a policy around cell phones and for the two Principals Associations to provide resources and best practices so that schools can make informed decisions.  

I had the opportunity to discuss this bill with Minnesota Public Radio and the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and this bill was also endorsed by the Minneapolis Star Tribune Editorial Board. I’m very excited to see the impact of this on student wellbeing and have been gratified by the many supportive emails I’ve received from teachers around the state. This past week, I was interviewed again by Minnesota Public Radio along with my Republican co-author, Rep. Kristin Robbins.  

Fixing our unconstitutional property tax forfeiture laws

This session, I collaborated with many interested parties and analyzed the U.S. Constitution to craft new tax forfeiture laws after the U.S. Supreme Court found that Minnesota’s laws were unconstitutional in May 2023. This was a complicated series of negotiations and decisions and the bill passed in the final minutes of the legislative session. This bill has been referred to by Minnesota Public Radio as “less glamorous but important,” which really sums up “my lane” in the Legislature. This legislation crafted a new system to ensure that property owners receive any value for their forfeited property and created new notifications and resources to help these property owners hopefully avoid tax forfeiture in the first place.  

Restorative Restitution for Kids

This bill creates additional mechanisms and funding to support restorative restitution for children who come into contact with our legal systems. This programming ensures that children are held accountable for their behavior in a way that is meaningful to them. These programs have the added benefit of providing affirming opportunities for children to feel connected to and supported by their community. As a result of the new law, victims of crime will be supported, and children will be held accountable in a way that will reduce recidivism and protect public safety.  

Strengthening guardianship laws for vulnerable seniors and adults living with disabilities

I worked with Elder Voice Advocates and disability experts to correct a gap in the law created by a recent Minnesota Court of Appeals case. This case resulted in an elimination of all civil liability whatsoever for guardians in their provision of care, regardless of how reckless, dangerous, or harmful their conduct. Under the new law, guardians will be held civilly liable for conduct that causes harm to a person under their care that constitutes reckless or willful misconduct, or gross negligence. After hearing heartbreaking stories about guardians who denied relatives to be together, endangered lives due to neglect over dietary restrictions, and caused irreparable trauma, I am incredibly proud of this legislation.  

In addition, this legislation created a guardianship taskforce in order to explore all aspects of guardianship in Minnesota, with the goal of ensuring that seniors and individuals with disabilities who need additional supports can live their lives with optimal autonomy and dignity.  

Securing funding to address increases in homelessness

For the second year in a row, I worked with Hennepin County on legislation to support its innovative homelessness programming. The legislation that resulted created new $3.4 million in statewide funding to address increases in homelessness and shelters at risk of closure.  

Healthcare adverse events reporting

The Minnesota Department of Health was temporarily tasked with providing an annual report around adverse events in Minnesota hospitals. Adverse events are avoidable incidents that lead to patient injury. In its 2023 report, the MDH found that adverse events are historically high. This data is critical to understanding safety concerns in hospitals, and also correlating staffing levels to patient care. This is because the two most common adverse events are bed sores and falls, both of which have been demonstrated to be particularly connected to unsafe staffing levels.  

My legislation extended the annual reporting indefinitely. In future sessions, I will continue to work with nurses and other patient care staff to identify ways to address these trends around unsafe staffing levels. This is a critical labor issue as well as a critical healthcare issue for all Minnesotans.  

Ending juvenile life without parole

Last year, we passed a historic law to end the unconstitutional practice of juvenile life without parole. As a result, individuals incarcerated as children will be entitled to consideration for release by a supervised release board. After a number of individuals received hearings and were denied and set out for an additional 10 years before they could be reheard, we added a provision to permit a rehearing no later than three years after the denial. This will ensure that we don’t have a de facto unconstitutional system and that these individuals will have a meaningful possibility of release if they can demonstrate rehabilitation and that it is in the interest of public safety. 

Simplifying Legal Aid court fee waivers

Under this bill, clients represented by civil legal services, a volunteer attorney program, will be presumed eligible for court fee waivers based on poverty. This will save the courts and lawyers extensive wasted time and will ensure equal access to justice by low-income Minnesotans.  

TODD!!!

As a lawyer, it’s always fun to collaborate with the Minnesota State Bar Association on legislation to improve our legal systems. (There is a reason I am the founder of “NerdCaucus”).  

This bill addresses the transfer of property on death in instances where a “transfer on death deed” is used. These “TODDs” are often prepared incorrectly by individuals without attorneys. This law will create more protections for these TODDs so that the property can still avoid probate and pass as intended. In addition, this bill creates protections around insurance policies when a property is inherited. I’m proud of this bill because it is a “good governance” bill that makes our laws more clear, more fair, and more effective.  

Charter school policy

This bill enhances charter school board governance by creating more restrictions and guidelines to ensure that board members are qualified and to avoid conflicts of interest. In addition, this bill enhances the professional development requirements for charter school administrators. These provisions, in addition to clarification of the role of charter school authorizers and the Department of Education, will enhance charter school operations in Minnesota.   

Data bill relating to services for students with disabilities

This legislation ensures that the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) will be able to access information about graduating students with disabilities who may benefit from DEED’s programming to provide pre-employment transition services. 

It has been an exhilarating and emotional two sessions, as we worked to tirelessly act on the will of the Minnesota voters. Our goal was to invest and reform strategically and with an eye towards ensuring equal access to opportunity. Through it all, I heard from you, my constituents. Your passionate emails urging bold environmentalism, access to the ballot box, protections for reproductive healthcare, protections for workers, supports for students, teachers, and schools, and weighing in on the medical aid in dying, were all greatly appreciated. I’ve worked hard to reflect our collective values and priorities in all I’ve done in the House. I couldn’t have done that without your emails, calls, visits, and conversations around the community. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the honor to represent District 39B and for sharing your thoughts so generously with me to enable me to fulfill my responsibilities.  

Stay in Touch

If you have questions, ideas, or feedback that you’d like to share, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Although the session is over, I’m still around during the interim!  

Email me at rep.sandra.feist@house.mn.gov or call (651) 296-4331. Also, you can follow my official State Representative Facebook Page.

Sincerely,  

Sandra Feist  

State Representative