 Neighbors, The last few weeks have been difficult as we work to pass a budget for the State of Minnesota that advances and protects policies that reflect the conflicting priorities of a tied House. We knew it wouldn’t be easy, but the realities of what a tied House means for our budget are moving from the theoretical to a written-down reality. This week, we passed the Public Safety Committee's budget bill, which I am the co-vice chair of, through the House.  The next step, after the House passes our bipartisan budget bills off the House Floor, is to then to negotiate with the DFL Senate in conference committees. At that phase, we will see how things shake out. As the process continues, I hope that constituents will continue to reach out to me to weigh in on these budget bills. I aim to reflect these sentiments with my votes over the coming weeks. I'm happy to report that many of these budget bills represent good compromises that I've been proud to support. I’m ecstatic that we were able to fully protect the North Star Promise Act in the Higher Education budget bill! This program, which we created last year, is already making a huge difference for Minnesota families. It provides free college tuition at state colleges and universities for students whose families make under $80,000 a year. For many students, this has been life-changing. Defending this program was one of our top priorities, especially with our divided legislature. When we invest in education, we invest in Minnesota's future. I was also proud to vote for the Veterans budget, which contained funding to support county veterans service offices. This funding will directly help veterans access benefits and resources they’re entitled to, especially for our veterans who are women, justice system-involved, or in need of mental health care. On the House Floor, I fought for an amendment to protect veterans from predatory “claim sharks” who syphon off the benefits that they are entitled to and can receive assistance in applying for without charge. Unfortunately, House Republicans voted it down. You can watch my remarks here. While we've been securing wins in many of these budget bills, I had to vote “no” on a handful of them that did not align with our shared values. While the Commerce budget bill contained some good provisions, it undid an important law we passed last term that guaranteed seniors could buy supplementary insurance (called "Medigap") regardless of pre-existing conditions. Without this protection, many seniors who want to switch from Medicare Advantage to traditional Medicare can be denied coverage for health issues they already have. I couldn't support a bill that bows down to insurance company profits instead of prioritizing our seniors' healthcare needs, so many of my colleagues joined me in voting no. I also voted "no" on the Transportation budget bill, because it undoes an important climate protection we just put in place last year. The current law (which only went into effect in February!) requires MnDOT to balance out any projects that increase emissions by adding things like transit options, bike lanes, pedestrian access, or car sharing. This approach saves Minnesota money and makes our roads safer. My colleague Representative Larry Kraft proposed an amendment to keep these protections in place, which I strongly supported. Climate change is real, and we have a responsibility to address it. Just last week, I signed onto a letter urging Donald Trump and Congress not to grant big oil immunity for liability to communities they harm. This is just one example of the uphill battle we’re fighting under this administration, and we need to ensure that our State laws are helping us, not hurting us. We've set important clean energy goals for 2040, and we can't afford to backtrack now. Since this bill makes it harder to reach those goals and protect our environment, I couldn't vote for it. |