Dear neighbors, I hope you and your family are doing well! If you’ve had a chance to watch some of the Olympics, you may have seen Tabitha and Tara Peterson of Eagan competing in women’s curling. It’s great to see local athletes representing our community on the world stage. 2022 Legislative Session Begins The first two weeks of the 2022 legislative session have kept me busy. My colleagues and I are introducing legislation, considering new bills, hearing from experts, and gathering input from Minnesotans. Some of this work happens during public hearings that each House committee holds a few times a week. You can watch all of these hearings and our floor sessions on House Public Information Services’ YouTube channel. House Public Information Services also publishes daily updates at https://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/sessiondaily/ and on their Facebook page. Strengthening Dental CareI presented two bills to the House Commerce Finance and Policy Committee on Tuesday. One of them, HF 2673, changes requirements for contracts between dental providers and dental plans. It makes basic information available to dentists and patients and gives dental providers more power over their business practices. These are commonsense steps to help dentists run their businesses and prevent patient confusion. The second bill, HF 2916, acknowledges that there are limits on dental benefits. These limits can affect the services patients receive, as well as the services dentists can perform. My bill will help Minnesotans get coverage for necessary dental services. If you’d like to learn more about these bills or hear testimony from dental providers, you can watch the public hearing here. Advocating for Minnesotans with DisabilitiesHF 2017, another bill I wrote, would help ensure that the state of Minnesota is a workplace where people with disabilities can thrive. It adopts several straightforward recommendations from the Advisory Task Force on State Employment and Retention of Employees with Disabilities, such as modernizing outdated and potentially discriminatory language, providing more clarity and consistency, and adding capacity for equity work. Passing this bill would demonstrate Minnesota’s commitment to hiring, supporting, and retaining workers with disabilities. I presented it to the State Government Finance and Elections Committee on Thursday. You can watch my presentation here. Stay Connected If you’d like to receive updates from me throughout the 2022 legislative session, you can subscribe to these emails here. I also post regular updates on my Facebook page. If you have questions, ideas, or feedback, please feel free to reach out. You can contact me by email at rep.liz.reyer@house.mn or call (651) 296-4128. I look forward to working with you this session! Sincerely, Liz Reyer
State Representative |