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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Dan Schoen (DFL)

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Legislative Update - April 29, 2016

Friday, April 29, 2016

Dear Neighbors,

This has been a busy week in the Minnesota House where we considered the three omnibus budget bills brought by the House Majority. Monday we passed the E-12 and Higher Education Bill, which fell short of supporting our youngest learners, and contained no tuition relief or other steps to address the student debt crisis. Wednesday we passed the Jobs, Agriculture and Environment Bill which contained an embarrassingly inadequate investment in broadband for Greater Minnesota while raiding funds that have been successful in growing businesses and creating jobs. Late last night we passed the Health and Human Services, State Government and Public Safety Bill. Unfortunately, with a $900 million budget surplus, the action (or in many cases, lack of action) taken by these bills was uninspiring, to say the least. I’d like to mention some highlights from the bill we considered last night.

During the debate on health care a majority party member of the Minnesota House implied women may be too emotional while pregnant to make important health care decisions. Some days I have to wonder what year is really on the calendar when certain issues like this pop up on the Minnesota House floor and we hear rhetoric like this. To be clear, my concern isn’t about the particular stance of another legislator, but rather the reasoning they use to get there. It’s 2016, and women can vote, own property, earn their own money, and they should have a choice in their health care decisions. That’s just one aspect of the Health and Human Services bill that illustrates how flat it falls.

One of the things I’ve heard from many constituents about this year is the need to increase the reimbursement rate for foster parents. I had an amendment to the bill to double the reimbursement rate, however because the target given to the health and human services area of the budget allowed for no new money, this amendment couldn’t go forward on procedural grounds. Also absent from the bill were prescription drug cost relief, lower child care costs, a much needed raise for home and community based care workers (the “5% campaign”). With a budget surplus, we should be able to deliver on these important items for Minnesotans.

On the public safety front, the Minnesota House of Representatives continues to fail to address the issue of body cameras. Police officers all over the state are preparing to roll out the use of this technology but there is a major delay in many communities because of the uncertainty surrounding requirements for retention and accessibility of the data captured. The Minnesota Senate has a bill which has already passed and been agreed upon. The Minnesota House has had informational hearing after informational hearing in committee, task force, work group and more. Why we can’t get a chance to vote on this in committee is beyond comprehensible. This is just a failure of leadership by the majority to protect police officers and the communities they serve. 

This session we’ve also seen an alarming inaction to address dark money in campaigns. The House majority has repeatedly blocked attempts to correct this wrong in campaign finance regulation. Right now, it’s next to impossible for the public to find out who is funding certain campaign material put out by corporate special interests, and trying to make sure the public knows who is funding campaign ads and mail is a priority for Minnesotans. Rep. Laurie Halverson has attempted to get a hearing on this legislation and cannot get any traction from the House majority. When she attempted to bring this up last night so every member of the House could get a chance to vote on it, the GOP leadership in the House used a tool they’ve used a lot in the last two years: they hid behind a technicality in the House Rules and wouldn’t allow it to come to a vote.

We have just over four weeks to go in this legislative session, and I hope that we can reverse course on some of these items. Not only that, but we have many other priorities to make progress on this session, including transportation, a tax bill, and a capital investment bonding bill. Heavy lifting remains; I hope we can start picking up the pace.

Sincerely,

Dan Schoen

State Representative