The legislative session is set to adjourn on Monday, but we still have much work ahead. Earlier this week, we received news indicating Minnesota will receive additional federal money as part of the American Recovery Plan Act. Those funds will be factored into our budget talks as we go forward. Right now, legislative leaders are determining legislative ‘budget targets’ which will set the funding for each budget area.
Conference committees are still working to craft final budgets. This week in the Education Conference Committee, we discussed religious freedoms in schools and the significance of traditional tobacco for Native American students. We also reviewed similar provisions in the House and Senate bills for possible adoption.
Work on conference committees and in floor session will continue over the weekend as we get closer to our adjournment date.
Legislative Session Nears Its End, Special Session Possible
The end of the legislative session is right around the corner, and many areas of disagreement still remain. Some of the main areas I am most focused on reaching a compromise are:
Policing reform
Small business and worker tax relief
Passing the Veterans Restorative Justice Act
Protecting Minnesota’s environment and our Clean Car Rule
Fully funding public education
Providing paid family and medical leave
Ensuring access to healthcare for all Minnesotans
A special session to finish the budget is looking increasingly likely. Know that you can count on my support for passing a budget that works for all Minnesotans.
On Thursday, May 6th, Governor Walz held a press conference announcing the timeline to end COVID-19 restrictions in Minnesota. This includes ending nearly all state restrictions by May 28th, and ending the statewide mask mandate by July 1st, or when we reach the 70% vaccination threshold for those 16 and older.
This is great news! Hugs, handshakes, and regular human interaction are all on the horizon! I’m excited to see many of you in person again. You can watch my weekly video on this subject by clicking HERE.
COVID-19 upended our lives in ways we could not have imagined fourteen months ago. In response to the dire public health emergency, Minnesotans listened to experts, buckled down, and made sacrifices to protect themselves and others.
Yesterday, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announced a three-step timeline to end nearly all state COVID-19 restrictions by May 28, and end the statewide masking requirement once 70 percent of Minnesotans aged 16 years and older receive their vaccine – or by July 1. The state is on track to vaccinate 70 percent of Minnesotans by the end of June.
At the Capitol, we will continue to help our families and businesses recover and will work toward improving the lives of all Minnesotans going forward. Governor Walz’s announcement today gives us optimism for better days ahead. Let’s encourage everyone to get vaccinated so we can return to the activities we enjoy with friends and family.
I want to start off with a BIG thank you and congratulations to our community – Minnesota led the nation in responding to the 2020 Census with a total of 75.1% self-responding, and we managed to beat that in Eden Prairie with an 84.4% self-response rate!
In addition to ensuring that Minnesota kept all eight congressional districts, an accurate census also ensures our community gets the resources it deserves, so thank you again for taking the time to make sure you and your family were counted.
You can read more about Minnesota’s impressive and narrow census victory here.
On Monday this week we debated the Senate State Government and Elections omnibus bill. Included is the implementation of provisional balloting, restrictions on early voting, and a ban on localities being able to choose ranked choice voting. This type of voter suppression legislation runs contrary to our values as Minnesotans. Because of this, I voted against the bill.
We have to be vigilant in protecting our freedom to vote. On Monday, the Senate will once again be debating Voter ID. It is disheartening to see these continued attempts to make it harder for Minnesotans to exercise their civic duty. It will be a vibrant discussion, and I know that we will prevent this from becoming law.
Minnesota routinely leads the country in voter turnout because we trust that our elections are fair. What we should be doing is expanding the freedom to vote. We should be making it more convenient to vote, engaging more voters in the democratic process, and providing sufficient resources to our local election officials. Let’s keep working, and keep trying to increase voter participation until we reach that magical 100%.
Yesterday, the Minnesota House took action to prevent a wave of evictions while ensuring landlords are reimbursed for rent owed to them. We approved a roadmap to transition off the current residential eviction moratorium by ensuring renters have enough time to access federal funding for rental assistance when the COVID-19 related peacetime emergency ends.
Final Budget Bill Advances
Monday, the House approved the Health & Human Services budget. The measure will help make affordable health care and prescription drugs a reality for everyone. You can read the House Session Daily story here.
These last few weeks have been hectic for Minnesota. We have been in national and global news for all the wrong reasons with the killing of Daunte Wright, and just miles away the Chauvin trial was taking place. The guilty verdict in the trial is only the first step on the way to justice. While more will be decided in the courts, many of the next steps for true, meaningful change can be taken by us. We must continue to call out systemic racism when we see it, and not stop until all Minnesotans feel safe in our communities – no matter what they look like or where they live.
In the Minnesota House, we put forward strong, common-sense reforms last summer in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, and while some were passed into law, we’re continuing to fight for public safety reforms to hold bad actors accountable and build a better system where Black lives matter.
Today we hear our final budget proposal, the Health and Human Services bill. Here’s an update on our work.
Public Safety for ALL Minnesotans
Late Thursday night, we finished a lengthy debate on our Public Safety, Judiciary, and Civil Law Budget, which contains many of the sorely-needed reforms and measures being championed by our communities of color. I am proud to support the measures in this bill, including:
Allowing local governments to establish civilian oversight councils
Enhancing training and requiring the development of new model policies
Supporting community organizations working to prevent crime
Issuing body cameras and prohibiting altering, destroying, or withholding the footage
Prohibiting white supremacists from become police officers
Limiting the use of no-knock warrants
Strengthening the police officer misconduct database and building a more effective early warning system to identify bad officers and keep them off the streets
Limiting police officers’ authority to stop or detain drivers for certain violations
Despite efforts from DFL Senators and encouragement from the House DFL Caucus, the Senate majority has refused to hold a single hearing on police accountability measures this session. It’s safe to say the proposals we passed in the House face an uphill battle in negotiations with the Senate, but we can’t give up on an issue this important just because others are blocking the path to change.
The bill also includes a series of major updates to Minnesota’s criminal sexual conduct code as recommended by a survivor-led working group to address old approaches to these crimes which create barriers for survivors to receive justice. One such example closes the “voluntary intoxication” statutory loophole, which a recent Minnesota Supreme Court decision was forced to accept when prosecuting a sexual assault case where the law deemed “mentally incapacitated” to not include a person who became intoxicated after voluntarily consuming alcohol. It also prevents sexual extortion and includes a series of measures to protect children. I heard from a number of constituents on this topic and I am glad to say that I have signed on as a co-author in support of these updated provisions.
Our Budget Proposals
We’ve spent the past week passing other components of our House DFL Budget proposals, with more being debated on the House floor today. So far, in addition to the Public Safety, Judiciary, and Civil Law Budget, we’ve passed the following bills:
I’ve been working with my colleagues on all of these bills, but a good amount of my focus has been on the Commerce Budget, as I serve as the vice chair of the House Commerce Finance and Policy Committee. I spoke to the importance of this bill on the House floor, which you can watch below.
As we make our way out of this pandemic and help Minnesotans build back better, our budget takes steps to ensure consumers and businesses are protected from those who would seek to take advantage of them during these trying times. Three of my provisions I was proud to author in this bill include one that would limit the fees that third-party delivery platforms can charge restaurants and prohibits those platforms from decreasing compensation paid to delivery service drivers. I also authored the portion of the bill that invests $300,000 in the Minnesota State Council on Economic Education, which advances professional development programs in economics for K-12 teachers, and the section on Toxic Toys which allows for the Commerce Department to have additional regulatory enforcement on manufacturers who make unsafe cribs or toys that contain formaldehyde or BPA.
Rent Assistance Now Available
For renters and housing providers continuing to struggle during these challenging economic times, new funds are now available to provide assistance. RentHelpMN has opened for applications, making it possible for low- and moderate-income renters to get caught up on overdue rent and utilities dating back to March 13, 2020. It also makes provisions for those at risk of falling behind on rent payments due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We’re in for a wild ride through the end of session, with some days containing 12+ hours of debate on the House floor. This will likely calm down for a bit after this week as we enter negotiations with the Senate, but they’ll pick up again as we come together to pass our final budget bills before adjourning on May 17.
As we’ve done all session, much of our work continues to be done remotely which means I am able to be present for storytime with the fam during breaks. I’m wholeheartedly supporting our House budget because it contains proposals that better ensure all Minnesotans can gather at the end of the day in a home they can afford, in a community where they feel safe, with the economic security to be there for their family, and for children to have access to high quality education from cradle to career.
If you have any questions about the bills we’re passing off the House floor this week, please feel free to reach out to me. The best way to touch base is through email (rep.carlie.kotyza-witthuhn@house.mn) or phone (651/296-7449). I appreciate hearing from you.
This week, Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murdering George Floyd. The tension around this and the uncertainty of what the verdict would bring shows just how much work we have left to do. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that the arc of the moral universe is a long one, and that it does bend towards justice. We are on that arc, but we still have more work to do.
In the past year, hundreds of you have engaged in the political process, asking the legislature to make fundamental changes to the way our state does policing. Some of your ideas have been:
Directing mental health crisis response away from the police-only and towards mental health professionals
Requiring independent investigations and prosecutions of critical incidents
Stronger civilian oversight of policing
There have been many others as well, and I want you to know that you can count on my support. This is about restoring trust in our policing, and I know we will be all the better for it.
A Unique Experience with Hennepin County EMS
Coincidentally, I had a planned ride along with Hennepin County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) that occurred just after the verdict was announced. It was the experience of a lifetime. Not only did I get to learn about the work they do, but I also got to witness countless reactions to the verdict’s announcement. On peoples’ faces I saw sadness, hope, relief, and a wide range of other emotions. I was also accompanied by a member of the national guard, and I deeply appreciate his service.
This week I also met with:
The National Guard and the Hennepin County Sheriff’s office
Children’s mental health advocates
Supporters of requiring ethnic studies to graduate high school
I also heard from a lot of you by phone and email this week. Police reform was by far the biggest subject. Some other subjects include:
Equality for transgender students
Environmental protection
Taxation of unemployment insurance benefits and PPP loans
Standing Up for Transgender Youth and Fully Funded Public Education
One of the hardest parts for me during floor debate this week was during the education omnibus bill. The legislation contains language that bans students assigned as male at birth from competing in women’s sports, and vice versa. This was done as more and more of our youth are feeling comfortable coming out as transgender. As adults, we have a choice. We can either show them compassion or show them the same bullying that they have had to live with ever since coming out. My DFL colleagues and I offered an amendment to show them compassion and remove this harmful language, but unfortunately it was voted down. You can view my speech during this debate by clicking HERE.
Also related to the education bill, many school districts across the state announced layoffs this week, and my heart sank. Fully funding public education is not only the legislature’s constitutional duty, but it is also a moral imperative. The Senate Education bill lacked any increase in the state funding formula to even keep pace with inflation.
For these two reasons, I voted against the bill.
As I have in the past, I also offered an amendment to require all high schoolers to take a course in American Government during their junior or senior year. You can view my floor speech on this by clicking HERE.
It was a long week on the Senate floor, filled with vibrant discussions and interesting conversation. Though I disagreed with much of what the GOP majority put forth in their budget bills, I still appreciated every moment of spirited debate.
Recapping an Emotional Week
This has been an incredibly emotional week for all of us. Between the Chauvin verdict, continuing tensions between law enforcement and demonstrators in the wake Daunte Wright’s shooting, the passing of Walter Mondale, and some of the emotionally charged debates on the senate floor, it is understandable to be feeling exhausted. Take care of yourself, and know that our work continues. You can view my weekly video on this subject by clicking HERE.
The guilty verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial is just, but it will not bring George Floyd back. George’s family and friends are in our thoughts and we wish them well as they move forward. We must continue our work at the Capitol to pass meaningful reform and ensure all Minnesotans arrive home safely every night.
Budget Bills Advance
Monday, we passed the Omnibus Higher Education Finance and Policy Bill and the Omnibus Education Finance Bill. Both measures look to the future by preparing students for success and planning for our 21st century workforce. I serve as vice-chair of the Early Childhood Finance and Policy Committee and just yesterday was appointed as a House conferee to work out differences between the House and Senate versions of the Education bill.
