Legislative Update – March 28, 2025Neighbors, I hope you can join myself, Representative Ginny Klevorn, and Senator Bonnie Westlin for a Senate District 42 Town Hall coming up on April 5th from 10:30-11:30 am at the Plymouth City Hall Council Chamber (3400 Plymouth Blvd, Plymouth, MN 55447). We’ll give an update on the 2025 Legislative Session, including bills we’re working on to improve our community and the state of Minnesota. Constituents can submit questions prior to the Town Hall here. and RSVP on Facebook here. This is an official nonpartisan event, open to all constituents in District 42. I hope to see you there!  Community at the CapitolIn between all the committee hearings and legislative meetings, I always appreciate taking the time to meet with constituents, advocates, and organizations working to build a stronger Minnesota. Some of my recent meetings include meetings with Plymouth City Council members and city staff to talk about local priorities, advocates promoting cardiac emergency response plans and AEDs for schools and attending the State of the City last week with Mayor Jeff Wosje and local leaders.  This week at the House, we honored the Minnesota Frost with a resolution celebrating their historic victory in the inaugural Walter Cup PWHL Championship! Plymouth-native Kelly Pannek is a forward for the Frost and was a member of the gold-medal-winning American team at the 2018 Winter Olympics, playing again for Team USA in 2022. Keep making Plymouth proud, Kelly! Legislative UpdateRecently the House returned to the 67-67 tie voters delivered in November, and the previously negotiated co-governing agreement is now in effect. House committees will rotate gavels, with DFL and Republican co-chairs setting their respective agendas and bill hearings. I’m looking forward to coming together on the places we agree and finding compromises that move our state forward. I’m already working on multiple bills that can get bipartisan support, and I’m dedicated to fighting for a responsible state budget that helps working families thrive.  I’ve authored a bill to help the City of Plymouth with its City Center revitalization project, including money for stormwater infrastructure, improvements to the Plymouth Ice Center, and road reconstruction, as well as a bipartisan bill to improve our Hennepin County regional trail system. I’m also working in the Climate and Energy committee to pass legislation helping local governments speed up the permitting process for residential solar projects and a bill helping local school districts that have electric school buses get charging stations, building on federal investments in a greener transportation system. Prescription Drug AffordabilityAs a member of the Health Committee, I’m dedicated to fighting for a more accessible and affordable health care system to keep our families, children, and seniors healthy. For too long, drug manufacturers, pharmacy benefit managers (PBM), and health plans have taken advantage of flaws in federal drug policy to squeeze consumers for ever-increasing amounts of profit. I’m happy to say the DFL is pushing three bills specifically crafted to target the strategies keeping cheap and affordable drugs out of the hands of Minnesotans: - HF 1652 would prohibit a health plan from forcing patients to switch drugs in the middle of the year because they’re now getting a bigger rebate from the manufacturer of a competitive drug. If a patient and a doctor find a drug that works, they should be allowed to stick with that drug for the rest of the plan year.
- HF 1075 says that health plans and PBMs must use the rebates that they received when patients bought their drug to buy down their price at the pharmacy counter in the form of a “Point of Sale Rebate.” This will ensure these rebates are being used to make expensive life saving drugs more affordable to the patients who need them.
- HF 1076 is an innovative approach not yet adopted by any other state. It requires PBMs and health plans to include the low-price drugs in their formularies and construct their formularies so that the drugs with the lowest prices for the patient (rather than the drug generating the biggest rebates to the insurance company) receive the best placement in their formularies. The goal of this legislation is to redirect competition away from rebates towards lower prices.
If these were passed into law, you would see a significant decrease in the price of the drugs you rely on. I’ll be sure to keep pushing for their passage and let you know of any progress! |