Dear Neighbors,
The pace continues to pick up as we near the end of the 2020 Legislative Session. The House passed several important pieces of legislation this week, including a strong economic security package to assist Minnesotans during the COVID-19 pandemic. I hope you and your family are staying safe and healthy.
This Sunday is Mother’s Day. COVID-19 and social distancing make it harder to connect with the people we love, but it’s also given us time to reflect on the relationships we treasure most — especially our family members. Thank you to all of our moms for all you do, and I hope you have a wonderful Mother’s Day.
Here’s a quick update on Minnesota’s ongoing response to COVID-19.
Minnesota House passes COVID-19 economic security legislation
On Thursday, the Minnesota House of Representatives passed a significant package of COVID-19 economic security legislation. The bill, HF 1507, contains provisions for housing assistance, a temporary wage increase for personal care assistants, funding to expand broadband access, and small business loans.
Minnesotans’ economic security has been hit hard during this public health crisis, and we have the resources to help them through the roughest patches of the pandemic. The Minnesota House took an important step to help Minnesotans keep a roof over their heads, preserve their small businesses, facilitate distance learning and telemedicine, and ensure we have the workforce we need to provide care for the vulnerable.
The legislation includes $100 million in assistance for Minnesota renters, homeowners, and landlords. In addition to support for rent and mortgages, qualified applicants can receive help paying utility bills and property taxes. The proposal has received broad support, ranging from the Homes for All Coalition, representing 250 Minnesota housing organizations, to the Minnesota Multi-Housing Association, which represents property management companies throughout the state.
Minnesota’s personal care assistants (PCA) serve Minnesotans with disabilities, our seniors, and other vulnerable populations. The bill delivers a 15 percent temporary rate increase for personal care assistance services during the COVID-19 pandemic and makes other program modifications to help ensure vulnerable Minnesotans get the care they need. In addition to the 15 percent rate increase, PCAs can now be paid for 310 hours of services per month, up from 275. The bill allows a parent or legal guardian of a minor PCA recipient, or a spouse of a PCA recipient, to earn wages for providing PCA services during the peacetime emergency.
HF 1507 invests $15 million in a new Distance Learning Broadband Access Grant Program to provide students with the equipment necessary to access learning materials on the internet and reimburse school districts for costs to provide broadband access. It also invests $10 million in the state’s Border-to-Border Broadband Grant Program to expand high-speed broadband, with the funding targeted to unserved areas. Finally, it invests $2 million in the new Telemedicine Equipment Reimbursement Grant Program to reimburse health care providers and counties that purchase and install telemedicine equipment to provide COVID-19-related health care services.
The legislation also appropriates $55 million to the Small Business Emergency Loan Program at the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), which was launched by Executive Order 20-15 from Gov. Walz on March 23. The program’s original $30 million has since been exhausted.
House approves bill ensuring compensation for hourly school employees
On Monday, the Minnesota House of Representatives approved the COVID-19 response legislation for hourly school workers.
Our teachers and hourly school employees have never been more important to our children and our families. We need to ensure that all school employees continue to get paid through the end of the school year. They deserve economic security and our support — especially during these difficult times.
The legislation provides compensation for hourly school employees and allows entities that contract with schools to provide services to be reimbursed for paying their employees, for changes in school employment practices as a result of COVID-19 related school closures and the conversion to distance learning programs.
The bill also addresses school finance formula glitches resulting from the conversion to the distance learning model. The legislation creates and legislatively approves certain waivers of state law regarding assessments, graduation and course requirements, and potential licensure issues faced by prospective and current teachers.
The legislation awaits action in the Minnesota Senate.
House approves utilization of federal Help America Vote Act funding
This week, the Minnesota House of Representatives also passed legislation allowing for the utilization of federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) funds, and additional measures to ensure Minnesota’s elections remain safe and secure.
Minnesotans deserve an election system that is safe to participate in and secure from hacking and foreign interference. I’m pleased we were able to reach a bipartisan agreement and use this federal funding for these critical needs.
Following the 2016 elections and threats of foreign influence, the Department of Homeland Security designated elections as critical infrastructure, and the federal government disbursed grants to help states update and improve election security. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, additional funds were made available for virus-specific measures through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
In addition to improving accessibility and modernizing election security, HAVA funds will be used to ensure the health and safety of election officials and in-person voters. This includes preparation for increased absentee voting, new polling place locations, the purchase of sanitation and disinfectant supplies, and public outreach for implementing social distancing guidelines related to voting.
The legislation can be found here, and video of today’s floor debate is available here.
Minnesota receives an updated budget projection
Minnesota Management and Budget released an updated budget projection this week showing a projected $2.426 billion deficit in the current biennium. Minnesota currently has $350 million in the state’s cash flow account and $2.359 billion in the budget reserves.
While we expected the state’s financial picture to worsen, I am relieved that the size of the projected deficit was not larger. Thanks to prudent financial management of the state’s resources by the executive and legislative branches over the past decade, Minnesota has enough resources in the budget reserve and the cash flow accounts to weather the downturn. I’m pleased Minnesota has received $1.87 billion in federal aid, which allows us to take measures to provide economic security to Minnesotans to help them get through the COVID-19 downturn.
Investments are needed to make Minnesotans secure in their housing, help small businesses, facilitate distance learning and telemedicine, and to ensure we have the workforce we need to provide care for the elderly and people with disabilities. The federal assistance allows us to make these needed investments, while our state’s savings will cover our expected dip in revenue.
You can find more information on the budget projection here.
Governor Walz Announces New Five-Point Plan for Protecting Minnesota’s Long-Term Care Residents, Workers
As the state continues to take action to protect Minnesotans from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Tim Walz has unveiled a new five-point plan to provide more robust support to our state’s long-term care (LTC) facilities.
The Governor’s new five-point plan will be implemented in the coming days to bolster the significant work that has been taking place already within facilities and the public health sector. The comprehensive approach includes a range of priorities such as expanded testing, enhanced support for infection prevention, providing masks and other personal protective equipment when supplies run short, and ensuring adequate staffing even as facilities face significant numbers of COVID-19 cases among residents or staff.
Point 1: Expanded Testing for Residents and Workers
- Issue new guidance on testing, screening and monitoring, with requirements for long-term care facilities to:
- Institute consistent “active screening” practices for residents and staff
- Expand testing to all symptomatic residents & staff, as well as facility-wide testing when a case is confirmed or when multiple people develop symptoms
- Continue routine testing of residents/staff meeting specific risk criteria
- Amplify, expand and accelerate work on facilities’ action plans for COVID-19 cases among residents or staff, including steps for dealing with many cases
- Continue to ensure staff are trained on proper use of masks and other protective equipment
Point 2: Provide Testing Support and Troubleshooting
- Work with health systems to create “strike teams” that quickly conduct on-site testing and necessary follow up
- Coordinate with regional health care coalitions for immediate response and resources
- Coordinate with Testing Command Center to ensure testing supplies move efficiently where they are needed
Point 3: Get Facilities Needed Personal Protective Equipment
- Maintain state-managed cache of masks and other personal protective equipment for emergency use when a facility exhausts its supplies and is unable to restock
- Push out needed equipment for facilities facing outbreaks, and make it available to other facilities based on availability
Point 4: Ensure Adequate Staffing Levels
- Use a mix of strategies to get staffing support to facilities in crisis. These may include:
- Utilize the COVID-19 fund and contracts to support “bridge staffing teams” of health care workers to provide temporary staffing
- Aggressively advocating for increased state and federal resources.
- Activating the Minnesota National Guard
- Using databases to “call out” healthcare workers that can take on-call shifts
- Using incentives to encourage health care systems to provide crisis staffing to facilities
Point 5: Leverage Partnerships
- Partner with local public health to coordinate support and provide on-site technical assistance for facilities
- Launch a new case management model at facilities, leveraging local public health and regional coalitions to provide guidance, monitoring and support
- Make sure that facilities maintain strong preparedness plans, including plans to reduce disease transmission and limit exposure risks
- Require facility commitment to reduce transmission by excluding ill workers and those testing positive, and by excluding workers with unprotected exposure
In Minnesota, nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, and assisted living facilities, (collectively known as long-term care facilities, LTCFs) provide a variety of services, both medical and personal care, to people who may need assistance in order to continue their lives within these respective settings. Home care services are also provided in independent living communities, residential care facilities, and Continuing Care Communities.
National Nurses Week — Thank you to our nurses!
Wednesday, May 6 was National Nurses Day, kicking off National Nurses Week, which runs through May 12. I want to extend a special thank you to nurses on the front lines during this pandemic — you deserve our appreciation and gratitude now more than ever. Thank you for your courage & dedication!
Letter to congressional leaders on state and local government aid
This week, I joined a bipartisan group of presiding officers in states across the country urging Congress to provide aid to state and local governments struggling due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to responsible budgeting, we have a strong rainy day fund, but we will need additional federal help to ensure our states can provide the resources our people need and deserve.
You can find the letter here.
COVID-19 Resources
State and Federal Resources
Our excellent House team continues to keep a list of COVID-19 state and federal resources — you can find the full document here.
The State of Minnesota also has a great COVID-19 webpage. MDH has a public hotline that you can call at 651-201-3920.
MDH has set up webpages in several languages. Please continue sharing these links to help keep Minnesotans informed.
As always, please contact me anytime with your input. I appreciate hearing from you! You can reach me at 651-296-4280 or rep.melissa.hortman@house.mn. You can also keep up with what’s happening at the Capitol by liking my legislative Facebook page and following the Minnesota House DFL on Twitter and Facebook. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Melissa Hortman