Volume 5, Issue 16                                 May 3, 2019

Weekly Review Video

A weekly message from your Senator

Dear Constituents and Friends,

This week the Senate spent overtime hours late into the evening and early hours of the morning to pass all major budget bills off the floor and send them to conference committee. These omnibus bills include: Jobs, Energy & Commerce; Health and Human Services; Taxes; Transportation; and E-12, respectively. Unfortunately, I was not able to vote for these bills because they include controversial policies like preemption, school vouchers , and an abortion ban. I included at the bottom of the email a side-by-side summary of the House and Senate language for your convenience. I hope to vote for these bills after conference committee with these provisions removed. Continue reading “Sen. Melisa Franzen (SD49) Update: May 3, 2019”

Volume 5, Issue 15                         April 26, 2019

Weekly Review Video

A weekly message from your Senator

Dear Constituents and Friends,

With just over three weeks left of the 2019 session, legislators have worked long hours to debate, discuss, and pass budgets in Finance or on the floor for various issues from agriculture to transportation. All budget bills need to pass the House and Senate by May 1 and head into Conference Committee where differences between the two budgets will be worked out. Because the bills are so different, it is expected to be a drawn-out process. Continue reading “Sen. Melisa Franzen (SD49) Update: April 26, 2019”

Volume 5, Issue 14                                April 12, 2019

Celebrating Women’s History Month

A weekly message from your Senator

Dear Constituents and Friends,

There are officially only six weeks left of the 2019 Legislative Session. This week marked the third committee deadline before the legislature goes on a week-long break. Committees were working overtime to mark up lengthy omnibus bills to get them ready to send to the floor by adding and deleting language through amendments. Both Transportation and HHS met this week to go through their omnibus bills.

We voted on 5 bills on the floor, all of which passed. Notably, the Senate voted to pass SF 75, which increases penalties for those who cause accidents as a result of being on their phone. The legislation increases the mandatory fine for a first offense from $50 to $150, from $275 to $300 for the second offense, and from $275 to $500 for a third or subsequent offense if the three offenses are within ten years of each other. It also provides that a third or subsequent offense within ten years would require a court appearance resulting in a 30-day driver’s license suspension. A driver would be eligible to apply for a limited license under court-imposed conditions. Continue reading “Sen. Melisa Franzen Update: April 12, 2019”

Weekly Review Video

A weekly message from your Senator

Dear Constituents and Friends,

It was a busy week, as we approach the upcoming third deadline next week. Committees are starting to “mark-up” large omnibus bills to get them through the process on time. A bill to combat opioid addiction through higher drug company fees passed off the floor of the Minnesota Senate with strong bipartisan support. The House passed this bill last month, which sets up negotiations to work out differences in the two bills before sending the final compromise to Governor Tim Walz, who has indicated he would sign the bill into law. Bipartisan legislation to license key players in the pharmaceutical industry, called pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), unanimously passed the Senate floor this week in a 67-0 vote. Continue reading “Sen. Melisa Franzen (SD49) Update: April 5, 2019”

Volume 5, Issue 12                      March 29, 2019

Weekly Review Video

A weekly message from your Senator

Dear Constituents and Friends,

It was a busy week at the Capitol. The Senate passed the hands-free cellphone legislation off the floor which requires drivers to use their cellphones in a ‘hands-free’ mode, only allowing voice-activated commands or other actions that need one-touch activation. The bill would enact enforcement and penalties for using a cellphone outside of hands-free mode. The differences between the House and Senate bills will be worked out conference committee, but this initiative is one step closer to becoming law.

The Snow Days conference committee also closed up this week, and the bill passed off the floor with strong bipartisan support and will likely be signed into law by Gov. Walz. This bill would aid Minnesota schools struggling with snow days by shortening their academic calendar without penalty amid the extraordinary winter of class cancellations. It will also ensure hourly school workers are compensated for their work. Continue reading “Sen. Melisa Franzen (SD49) Update: March 29, 2019”

Volume 5, Issue 11                          March 22, 2019

Weekly Review Video

A weekly message from your Senator

Dear Constituents and Friends,

This week we passed 2 bipartisan bills on the floor, which provided much needed relief to both disaster funds and deputy registrars. SF 307 makes a one-time $10 million appropriation from the general fund to the disaster assistance contingency account. SF 621 appropriates $13 million for grants to reimburse private deputy registrars for costs incurred due to lost business productivity from the rollout of MNLARS.

Yesterday in Health and Human Services, we had a hearing for SF 1070, a bipartisan bill which would modify the existing medical cannabis program in Minnesota. The bill seeks to expand access to the program by including telemedicine, allowing use in schools for students who need it, and permitting medical cannabis manufacturers to subtract certain business expenses that are not allowed for federal income tax purposes. I introduced 3 amendments in committee. The A-2 amendment passed which simply adds to the qualifying medical conditions the conditions that have been approved of by the commissioner and are currently considered a qualifying medical condition under the program.  This updates the statute to include these conditions. Continue reading “Sen. Melisa Franzen Update: March 22, 2019”

Weekly Review Video

A weekly message from your Senator

Dear Constituents and Friends,

The legislature is at the halfway point of the 2019 session, with the first committee deadline closing out the week. The first deadline requires policy bills to have had their first hearing in the committee of origin unless the companion bill in the House has been heard. Finance, tax, and capital investment bills do not have to meet this deadline.

Committees were busy working into the end of the week to ensure that bills meet the deadline in order to continue through the legislative process this session. In the upcoming weeks, the House and Senate will work to come to a consensus on a number of issues through the conference committee process, so that Governor Walz can sign legislation into law. Continue reading “Sen. Melisa Franzen (SD49) Update: March 15, 2019”