Friends and neighbors, Bills cannot pass the house floor without 68 votes, and neither party has 68 votes. I was hopeful that this would mean that we would see bipartisan bills coming to the floor to unite us. The Speaker of the House is a Republican and controls what bills come before us. Right now, House Republicans are choosing to waste time bringing harmful, bad-faith bills that do not have bi-partisan support to the floor. In a time where we must be focused on bipartisanship, it’s disappointing to see so much energy going towards political theatre on the House Floor meant to sew division among us. I'm particularly concerned about the so-called “Parent’s Bill of Rights” proposal. This bill, like so many proposed by the GOP, is dangerous and harmful to our kids. It removes all confidentiality protections from children’s mental health care, which is key to ensuring kids get the help they need. For example, when a teen and their family seek help for substance abuse disorder, which affects over 2 million American kids according to the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the first step towards treatment is a confidential substance use disorder assessment. This confidentiality is absolutely essential to ensuring teens get the right type of treatment, medication, and programming to be successful. Currently families are told that the teen has a problem and what treatment is recommended. They are part of the process and in many cases required to participate in the treatment plan, but the teen’s exact conversation is confidential. If the teens don’t feel like they can be honest about their use, they will not get proper care. This bill, while well intended, would be absolutely detrimental to the safety and wellbeing of teens.  I had three bill hearings this week (which just might be a record for DFLers this session!) Despite GOP control, I have not stopped fighting for legislation to support people with disabilities, southeastern MN, children, and families. Here’s a snapshot of what I’ve been working on: - HF661 – supporting Bridges to Healthcare, a program that provides students with things like career counselors and scholarships to help them overcome hurdles to education and career goals. (With bipartisan co-authors!)
- HF1276 – supporting Northstar Early Childhood permanence to support families.
- HF728 – bipartisan support for out-of-home respite care.
In addition to some of my bills, something DFLers and some Republican legislators have found common ground on is major concern over cuts to Medicare and Medicaid by the Trump administration. Minnesota has a cost share so any cuts made by the Trump administration will hurt Minnesotans. A small handful of Republican legislators sent a letter to their DC counterparts urging them to stand up to these cuts, as they’ll hurt people who depend on these services in all corners of Minnesota. I hope this show of support for public health means they’ll join us this session in strengthening healthcare and MinnesotaCare, rather than cutting it as some have proposed. As legislators, our job is to listen to constituents and work to reduce costs and make life easier for our communities. I’m looking forward to working on bills to do just that. Constituent CornerThank you to everyone who stopped by over the past couple of weeks to talk about your legislative priorities. To name a few, I sat down with Kyle from Bridges to Healthcare, ISAIAH, Head Start (funding for which I'm authoring this session), a group of Physician’s Assistant students, students from the University of Minnesota, Cradle2Career, and ChoosePT.  Community Town Hall Thank you to everyone who joined us last weekend for our Rochester town hall! There were a lot of concerns raised about the chaos and calamity coming from Washington, how we protect our kids, and how we can support education. We also discussed housing at length, so I’m including some helpful information on the Tenant’s Bill of Rights that we passed last term. The Attorney General’s office has a helpful guide to rights and responsibilities of both tenants and landlords. You can find that here. If you were not able to make it to last week’s event, Attorney General Keith Ellison will be joining us for another town hall on March 15th at 1pm. You can register to attend here. The location will be provided to registrants by email before the event.  For Your Recipe BookIf you’re like me, the news coming out of Washington has been overwhelming lately. In between calling my congressmembers and working to protect our progress here in Minnesota, one thing that keeps me going is cooking food for my friends and family. Food connects us, comforts us, and fuels us to continue to fight extreme MAGA policies that hurt people. In the name of community and longevity of our fight, I want to share some of my favorite recipes that are staples in our household. This week’s is my Roasted Pepper Dense Bean Salad, adapted from Violet Witchel! You can download the recipe card here.  Stay Connected with the LegislaturePlease continue to reach out with any input, ideas, or feedback about the issues important to you. I value hearing from you, so call or email any time. You can find my information on my House website. You can also like my Facebook page. It is an honor to represent you at the State Capitol. Sincerely, Kim Hicks State Representative |