Dear Neighbor,
The House is coming up on the final two full weeks of the 2024 session with a logjam of omnibus bills and other proposals and limited time to provide them due diligence and votes on passage.
Our state is fully funded through the biennium with the budget enacted last year, so there is no threat of a shutdown if the majority runs out of time with its various “supplemental” omnibus budget packages. The three issues which truly needed to be addressed with bipartisan solutions this session already have been taken care of: Allowing school resource officers to return to all the schools they previously staffed, and fixing two tax-related issues.
Here's more on the latest from the Capitol:
National Day of Prayer
Thank you to everyone who took place in National Day of Prayer events on Thursday. God bless America!
Palace for politicians
As of this week, Minnesota taxpayers officially are saddled with the first payment on the Democrats’ extravagant $730 million State Office Building remodel. I participated in a press conference Tuesday to reinforce the position we should not be making life harder and more expensive for Minnesotans so legislators can have fancy offices and a bigger building.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Numerous amendments were offered on the House floor regarding the following:
- Many school districts have seasonal residents whose property tax dollars don’t go towards school levies. Instead of using Minnesota tax dollars for an elaborate office building, we should be using these dollars to equalize the education funding inequities in our state.
- Instead of spending $730 million on a Palace for Politicians, we should be combating the childcare crisis by using even a fraction of that funding for Family Childcare Start Up Grants. We’ve lost 1,000 family childcares in the last few years, and it’s time to do something about it.
- The State Office Building is historic, and that history deserves to be preserved. The Historical Society should have the resources to preserve these historic features instead of letting them fall by the wayside as this fancy new Palace for Politicians is built.
Unfortunately, each of these amendments were defeated on the House floor and now Minnesotans are forced to pay for a building that will serve only a few.
Trooper Londregan event
It was my pleasure to attend an event this week supporting Trooper Londregan as he seeks a just outcome in a high-profile case.
Turmoil in the Senate
You may have seen the news of how a sitting Senator recently was charged with felony burglary. It’s a particularly tricky issue because Democrats currently have a once-seat majority in the Senate. Her voting absence means a 33-33 deadlock on partisan, party-line issues.
Allowing a legislator to participate in legislative business while facing felony burglary charges is unacceptable, but that’s what’s been happening this week. She even voted “yes” on the Senate floor to whether she, as a charged felon, should be voting at all – resulting in a 34-33 vote allowing her to continue.
There are two things to consider here: First, as a citizen, she is owed due process and shall remain innocent until proven guilty. On the other hand, our elected officials must be held to high standards. Allowing someone charged with a felony to vote on new laws is a black mark on our state and undermines the integrity of our Legislature as an institution. Her participation sets the stage for the unthinkable to happen by allowing an admitted home invader to potentially cast the deciding vote on new gun laws that compromise a person’s ability to defend their family during a home invasion.
It is my opinion this can’t happen. I hope the Senator gets the help she needs. In the meantime, Senators must be held to the standards set forth in the Senate’s rules and she should not be permitted to vote.
Second Amendment bills
I mentioned in my last update the House majority is moving multiple anti-Second Amendment bills though the process. All three of them passed this week, including new rules on storage, requirements for reporting stolen firearms, and a new “trigger activator” definition that may impact some commonly used guns and render them illegal.
Each of these bills was a “no” vote for me. H.F. 601 criminalizes victims of crime if they don’t report a stolen gun in a certain timeframe instead of going after the perpetrators of the crime. H.F. 4300 compromises someone’s ability to defend themselves at home with new storage requirements. H.F. 2609 includes changes to the definition of a “trigger activator” that may impact some commonly used guns and render them illegal.
Let’s focus on actually enforcing existing laws, issuing sentences that fit the crime and having our courts stop the revolving door that’s fueling Minnesota’s violent crime. I co-authored legislation in one of these bills (H.F. 2609) that would truly stiffen penalties for straw purchases, where someone transfers a firearm to a person who is ineligible to possess one. Unfortunately, the majority party buried controversial language in H. F. 2609 and that stopped any hopes for bipartisanship.
Omnibus bills
I’ve been getting a lot of questions about omnibus bills as they come up for votes on the House floor. These packages of proposals (usually) related to a single subject often are cause for confusion among citizens.
The goal of all omnibus bills should be to package together bipartisan provisions for the good of all Minnesotans. But all too often political games played with omnibus bills as controversial language is slipped into a larger package that otherwise contains a lot of stuff that we agree upon. Some legislators then vote against omnibus bills because of those controversial provisions, only to have the majority turn around and accuse the minority of voting against the good stuff. In omnibus bills, there are times legislators even have to vote against their own authored bills to keep from passing other bad legislation for Minnesotans.
For example, this kind of “gotcha” messaging has been deployed regarding public safety with the false claim House Republicans do not support funding for law enforcement. It goes without saying House Republicans do, indeed, support funding for law enforcement, but partisan language also tucked into the bill undermined bipartisan support for the package as a whole.
You can say it’s all part of the game at the Capitol, but it also does citizens a great disservice.
Please Contact Me
It’s an honor and privilege to work for you at the Capitol. Don’t hesitate to contact my office at any time this session to share your thoughts, concerns or ideas. You can call me at 651-296-6316, or email me at rep.bernie.perryman@house.mn.gov. I am here to serve you!
Bernie
