Minnesota Senate DFL’s Opposition
to the Republican Tax Plan
and everything happening in the Legislature this week.
Republicans tax plan makes promises that state can’t keep Senate Republicans outlined their 2020 tax bill proposals this week, a wish list that spends more than $1 billion in the first year, with mounting, ongoing costs. Read more >> |
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Continue reading “Senate DFL Week in Review: February 21, 2021”
SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Yesterday, at the State Capitol, Minnesota lawmakers and St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell launched an effort to remove references to slavery and involuntary servitude from the Minnesota Constitution. Despite being banned since statehood was achieved in 1858, the Minnesota Constitution still contains outdated permissive language regarding slavery.
Article I, Section 2 of the Minnesota Constitution reads, in part, “there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the state otherwise than as punishment for a crime of which the party has been convicted.” The proposed amendment would remove the clause “otherwise than as punishment for a crime of which the party has been convicted.”
“Our state constitution should reflect our values. In Minnesota, it’s inappropriate that language mentioning slavery still exists in our constitution, even if it’s narrowly constructed and obsolete,” said Rep. John Lesch (DFL – Saint Paul), chief author of the amendment in the Minnesota House. “While we’ve undoubtedly made progress in expanding civil rights, racial bias remains persistent, and it’s unacceptable that people of color continue to face such significant disparities. By amending our constitution to remove this troublesome language, we have the opportunity to make Minnesota a more inclusive state.” Continue reading “Lawmakers, St. Paul Police Chief Axtell announce effort to remove reference to slavery in Minn. Constitution”
SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Today, the Minnesota DFL sharply criticized Republican Senators for holding a fake hearing on gun safety.
Despite the fact that 84% of Minnesotans, including 75% of Republicans, support universal background checks, Senate Republicans won’t be debating background checks or any other gun safety bill. They will not be taking any public testimony from experts or concerned citizens. Instead, Senate Republicans convened a hearing to lecture concerned families on current gun laws.
Ken Martin, Chairman of the Minnesota DFL, released the following statement in response to the inaction of Senate Republicans:
“Today’s hearing was a sham designed to hide the fact that Senate Republicans like Dan Hall and Jerry Relph have spent the last year blocking all gun safety reform. An overwhelming majority of Minnesotans across the state and the political spectrum support reforms like universal background checks, yet Senate Republicans refuse to take action and protect Minnesotans from gun violence.
“After today’s hearing, one thing remains perfectly clear: Republicans will continue to block any new gun safety legislation as long as they control the State Senate. Minnesotans that want safer schools and more secure communities should remember this when they cast their votes in 2020.”
SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA — House Speaker Melissa Hortman and Representative Michael Howard, chief author of the Alec Smith Emergency Insulin Act, released the following statements on the Senate Republican insulin proposal.
“Minnesotans have asked for legislation to provide emergency insulin to those who need it while holding the pharmaceutical industry accountable — which is why the Minnesota House passed the Alec Smith Emergency Insulin Act,” said Speaker Hortman. “While I appreciate that Senate Republicans have put a proposal forward, it is disappointing that this work was done without input from the advocates most directly impacted by insulin costs and instead with the pharmaceutical industry. House DFLers will continue to hold conversations with community members. We will have any proposed modifications to the legislation we already passed ready for consideration at our hearing on September 26th. We stand ready to partner with the Governor and the Senate to provide an emergency insulin program to Minnesotans as soon as possible. There is no need to wait until next February for the regular session. Minnesotans need emergency insulin now.” Continue reading “Statement from House DFL on Senate GOP insulin proposal”
SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Tuesday, Senate Republicans have convened the Health and Human Services Committee for a hearing. Unfortunately for the thousands of Minnesotans struggling to pay for their insulin, that hearing is not be on the topic of emergency insulin access. Instead of addressing the important issues our state is facing, Republicans are convening a partisan political fishing expedition.
DFL Chairman Ken Martin released the following statement:
“Despites repeated pleas from Minnesotans who are suffering due to the skyrocketing price of insulin, Senate Republicans have not once held a hearing on the Alec Smith Emergency Insulin Act. Senate Republicans have also completely refused to hear any common-sense gun safety reform bills, despite the broad support these safety bills have among Minnesotans.
“Instead of actually doing their jobs and taking up these life-saving bills, Senate Republicans are holding a hearing designed to score cheap political points. It’s truly shameful that Senate Republicans would ignore the urgent needs of their own constituents to embark on a transparently partisan and ill-conceived fishing expedition.
“Right now, we have the unique opportunity to pass legislation that will save lives across Minnesota. DFL leaders are ready to seize that opportunity and work with Republicans to get things done. Unfortunately, Senate Republicans have chosen politics over people.”
SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA — Today, it came to light that the political stunt website Minnesota Senate Republicans set up to confidentially collect stories from whistleblowers has been vulnerable to hackers for days due to Senate Republicans’ failure to update the website’s security certificate.
A Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate encrypts data you enter on a given website, making it harder for hackers to intercept that information. The Republican failure to update their security certificate means that, as Google Chrome notes, “you should not enter any sensitive information on [that] site because it could be stolen by attackers.”
This completely contradicts information on the Senate Republicans website, which tells potential whistleblowers that “your submission, as well as your identity, will NOT be disclosed to the public without your express consent.”
DFL Chairman Ken Martin released the following statement:
“By failing to secure their whistleblower website, and by not taking that site down while it is vulnerable to hackers, Senate Republicans are betraying the trust of Minnesotans. They promised that any identifying information submitted to their website would remain private, but whether through gross negligence or disregard, Senate Republicans broke that promise when they failed to take the most basic steps to protect that information from hackers.
“It was clear from the start that this whistleblower website is nothing more than a stunt designed to score political points. Now we know that Minnesota Republicans are willing to expose whistleblowers’ private information to hackers and risk ruining careers in order to score those political points.”
SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Representative Hunter Cantrell and Senator Scott Dibble today released the following statement in response to Genna Gazelka, one of Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka’s five children, expressing their support for a conversion therapy ban. Genna Gazelka is a member of the LGBTQ community, who was sent to “therapy” that “exacted a sense of shame.”
“Young people struggling with sexual orientation and gender identity need protection from the extreme, harmful, and discredited practice of conversion therapy. We call on our colleagues in the Senate to pass our comprehensive conversion therapy ban language that was passed in the House. Minnesota’s commitment to delivering the highest standard of supportive, credible health care should extend to all Minnesotans, regardless of sexuality or gender identity.”
A rocky road to the finish line
With just ten days left of the 2019 legislative session, the lack of agreement between leaders could imperil the goal of finishing on time. Joint budget negotiations hit a roadblock this week when leaders of the House and Senate and Governor Walz failed to reach an agreement on budget targets by their self-imposed deadline of May 6. Governor Walz made a substantial offer to close the gap in overall spending, but Senate Republicans made no meaningful offer, stalling negotiations.
Although global targets have not been reached, conference committees have been working to review the differences between the House and Senate budgets; however, without budget targets, it will be difficult to negotiate the deep differences in earnest because budget targets set the funding parameters for the bills. Time is running short: leaders in the House and Senate agreed to a self-imposed deadline to post conference committee reports by Monday, May 13. Adjournment is constitutionally set for midnight May 20. Continue reading “Senate DFL Week in Review: May 10, 2019”
The Senate passed the 2019 Jobs, Energy, Commerce, Health and Human Services, Taxes, Transportation, and E12 bills this week. With their passage, all major budget bills have passed off both the House and Senate floors and are heading for conference committees. Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman, and Governor Tim Walz agreed to provide conference committees with fiscal targets on May 6. Once the budget targets are established, negotiations between the very different budget bills will begin.
Budget bills reflect the state’s values. While the Senate DFL tried to improve the budget bills to help families, farmers, businesses, and schools, it is disappointing that too often the Republican majority’s budgets prioritized corporations, the wealthy, and insurance companies over the people of Minnesota. Senate DFLers are particularly concerned the Senate budget grossly underfunds schools, transportation, health care, and Minnesota’s judicial system. There is also disappointment in the Republicans’ irresponsible use of shifts and gimmicks to achieve their budget numbers. This smoke-and-mirrors way to budget will result in future unsustainable budget deficits. Continue reading “Senate DFL Week In Review: May 3, 2019”
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