 Neighbors, Spring seems to be here, and while I’m really enjoying walking outdoors from the Centennial Office Building (where our offices are) to the Capitol, it did feel like we were short changed again on winter. I really enjoy cross-country skiing in the winter, and while better than last year, it still felt there was very little time to do any skiing on anything other than man-made snow. Anyway, with the way the session started, it is moving even faster than normal. Next week is our “first deadline week,” which means that we are entering the phase of the legislative session where we see which bills will clear the needed committees to continue to advance through the legislative process. DFL members are now sharing committee gavels (I’m vice-chairing the Energy Finance and Policy Committee) and are putting forward our vision to help working families.  Expanding Energy AssistanceIn 2024, more than 91,000 Minnesota households had their power shut off because residents were behind in their utility bills, the highest annual total since anyone started counting. Past-due bills for heat and electricity currently total about $130 million. That’s why this week I introduced legislation establishing a supplemental energy assistance grant program that would help low-income households pay for heating, cooling, and other home energy costs. It builds on the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which has been helping Minnesotans for decades, but only meets about ¼ of the demand. While the bill has broad support, even from organizations that don’t typically agree on much, the likelihood of it passing this year is low. We’d need $36M over three years for the program extension proposed to be viable, and given our budget situation, it’s hard to see it happening. That said, you never know, and I wanted to take the opportunity to educate some of my colleagues on the program, especially those from greater Minnesota where the need is even greater. You can view the presentation from the Energy Committee here.  Bonding for St. Louis ParkBonding, or Capital Investment, is where the state uses its borrowing capacity (and AAA bond rating) to help fund important and long lasting infrastructure projects around Minnesota. It always makes me happy to work with my dear friend, Mayor Nadia Mohamed (and amazing SLP Engineering Director Deb Heiser) to support our great city. We spoke to the Capital Investment Committee this week about HF1229, for an important regional road project in St. Louis Park near the intersections of Zarthan Ave, 16th Street, and Gamble Dr. As it's adjacent to Costco and directly west of the West End area, the vast majority of the users of the project area (13,000 - 21,500 vehicles per day) are from outside St. Louis Park. This project will repair existing infrastructure that was last constructed over 30 years ago and does a couple other exciting things: - It improves walkability and connections to transit in an area where there are over 900 affordable housing units.
- It will also put new infrastructure in place to connect the Luce Line trail, North Cedar Lake trail, and South Cedar Lake Trail. We're partnered with Three Rivers on this part of the project.
We’ll see whether this project gets selected this year. There are two projects within St. Louis Park that are up for inclusion in the bonding bill - the other is in Rep Youakim’s district, but we often collaborate to improve the odds. Bonding bills require 60% of the votes in each chamber to pass, so they have to be bipartisan.    How Will Federal Education Cuts Impact You?Last week, President Trump advanced plans to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. In response, the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) launched a public feedback portal at education.mn.gov for parents, students, teachers, and community members to submit detailed accounts of the ways recent Executive Orders and abrupt federal education cuts are impacting schools and children across our state. More than 860,000 students in Minnesota depend on stable partnerships that have existed between their school communities, MDE and the U.S. Department of Education across administrations. For decades, the federal investments facilitated through those partnerships have played a key role in ensuring students in Minnesota receive the support they need to learn and thrive, including: - $256 million for students with disabilities
- $192 million for students from low-income backgrounds
- $27 million for academic enrichment
- $6 million for students in rural schools
- $38 million to support children living on military bases or Native American reservations
- $100 million for Career and Technical Education workforce development programs
If any of these cuts impact you and your family, please let us know! Prescription Drug Affordability For too long, drug manufacturers, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) 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 address some of these activities: - 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 kick-backs 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, they could help decrease the price of the drugs folks rely on. Sovereignty DayRecently, we had Sovereignty Day at the Capitol! Sovereignty Day features presentations about history, culture, tribal law, and our government-to-government relations with Tribal communities directly from Tribal leaders. I’ve now participated in two of these, and I find them so valuable. In Minnesota, there are 11 federally recognized tribal nations: seven Anishinaabe (Chippewa/Ojibwe) reservations and four Dakota (Sioux) communities, each with its own government and independent relationship with the U.S. and state governments. Each has their own history and perspective. Thank you to our Native leaders who made the trip to Saint Paul to participate.   Federal Chaos Brings Uncertainty for MinnesotaThis week, the Minnesota House Ways and Means Committee heard presentations from Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB) and the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) on federal interactions with the state budget. The State of Minnesota receives 687 federal awards, totaling $23.3 billion, comprising roughly one-third of Minnesota’s resources. Since late January, dozens of state investments have been disrupted, and as of the afternoon of March 20th, 24 state awards were unable to access federal funding. This would have broad-ranging effects on vital programs that help Minnesota’s children and families, like TANF, Medicaid, and SNAP. For decades, federal investments have played a key role in ensuring Minnesotans receive the support they need to learn and thrive. Under the Trump/Musk administration’s chaos, the state of Minnesota is receiving unclear federal guidance, inconsistent access to funds, and uncertainty about the federal budget. This roller coaster of budget decisions creates challenges for our local governments, jeopardizing our ability to navigate an economic downturn. Government has a responsibility to protect people and create a fairer, safer Minnesota for all. That means working to ensure consumers are protected, our kids are safe, and our policies are lifting up working families. I’m committed to working with allies to ensure Minnesota is resilient to any potential budgetary fallout due to short-sighted federal actions. Our top responsibility this session as a Legislature is to pass a balanced budget, and I am committed to doing so. However, I fear that we will do so, and then the Trump administration will make some unforeseen cuts later this year that will blow a hole in our budget and will require us to come in for a special session. We’ll see. Bill to Support Service Dogs in Training I was proud to vote ‘YES’ for a bill that would extend existing law prohibiting restrictions on active service dogs in homes or rental units. This bill would include service dogs in training and allow accredited service dog organizations in Minnesota to recruit more volunteers and ultimately change more lives.  Constituent meetingsAs I’ve written before, I do really love to have constituents visit me at the Capitol as they advocate for important issues. Here are some photos from this week (including ice cream when the meeting is near my office).     Minnesota FrostThe Minnesota Frost professional women’s hockey team stopped by the Capitol this week, and two of the women live in St. Louis Park - one in Rep Youakim’s area and the other in mine! Was super fun to meet these young women, who are the reigning champions of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL).  |