DFL House, Senate Republicans Contrasting Priorities
and everything happening in the Legislature this week.
House, Senate progress shows stark contrast in priorities The DFL-led House of Representatives passed bills to address the insulin crisis, data privacy concerns for voters, and access to firearms. The Republican-led Senate passed no major bills and discussed none of these urgent topics in committee. Read more >> |
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Continue reading “Senate DFL Week in Review: February 28, 2020”
Minnesota Senate DFL’s Opposition
to the Republican Tax Plan
and everything happening in the Legislature this week.
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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”
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”
Divided government highlights differences in values
The week kicked off with the Senate Committee on Banned Bills, where committee members reviewed a variety of legislation that have been refused committee hearings in the Senate. The committee heard bills to increase public safety, maintain vital health care funding, improve the quality of students’ education, support working families, restore the right to vote, and provide gender equality. Minnesotans deserve a real conversation on these bills, and this committee provided the platform to discuss issues that reflect Minnesota’s values.
A bill to combat opioid addiction through higher drug company fees passed off the floor of the Minnesota Senate with strong bipartisan support. Six Republicans sided with big pharma and voted against this important legislation to hold pharmaceutical companies accountable for their role in Minnesota’s opioid public health crisis. 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. Continue reading “Senate Week in Review: April 4, 2019”
Senate Republican budget targets miss the mark
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 “Senate DFL Week in Review: March 28, 2019”
At the close of another week of session, despite promises of working together and getting things done, Senate Republicans continue to obstruct, block, stall, and delay important legislation to move Minnesota forward.
Reducing the price of insulin is one of the issues waiting to be addressed. Both Republican and DFL legislators have been denied hearings on bills addressing the exorbitant cost of insulin despite strong bipartisan support. Continue reading “Senate DFL Week in Review: March 21, 2019”
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. As this deadline passes, many bills that benefit Minnesotans have been denied hearings. Continue reading “Senate DFL Week in Review: March 14, 2019”
February budget forecast is released
The big news this week was the release of the February budget forecast which sets the terms of debate for the two-year budget. The forecast projects how much money the state is likely to have for the upcoming biennium. Minnesota Management and Budget estimates a $1 billion budgetary balance which is $492 million less than the November 2018 forecast. It’s important to be cautious when the state’s budget balance decreases and diligent in working to balance any new investments with additional revenue.
In other notable action, after numerous delays and vigorous debate on the Senate floor, only $1.5 million of the $6.6 million in Help America Vote Act (HAVA) funds passed the Minnesota Senate. Minnesota was the only state in the nation that did not pass full federal funding to strengthen election security. Full funding for HAVA passed in the House on February 21, on a bipartisan vote of 105-23. Continue reading “Senate DFL Week in Review: February 28, 2019”
Week seven of the 2019 session was dominated by the news of Gov. Walz releasing his budget blueprint for the next two-year biennium. He focused his budget on the shared priorities of all Minnesotans: providing a high-quality education for all kids regardless of their race or zip code, providing access to quality health care at a price people can afford, making sure every community thrives across Minnesota, investing in the state’s crumbling infrastructure which is putting Minnesotans’ public safety at risk, and providing tax relief for all Minnesotans.
Committees were also busy. The electronic monitoring bill moved to the floor, the Taylor Hayden Gun Violence Prevention Act was heard, legislation on opioids moved through another committee, Regent recommendations were made, a bill to establish special taxing districts for fire departments was heard, the Help America Vote Act, MNLARs and MnPass were discussed, electric vehicle surcharges were heard in Transportation, and a number of veterans’ bills were considered – to name a few. Continue reading “Senate DFL Week in Review: February 21, 2019”
