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Rep. Mary Kunesh-Podein (41B) - Legislative Update
Neighbors,
I hope you’re staying warm! Our weather forecast may be gloomy but things are heating up here at the Capitol. Inauguration doesn’t get any less hectic – or exciting – the second time around.
We have been meeting with our committees and hearing from our constituents. Please continue to share with us your perspective, concerns, and ideas. I work for you, and want to make sure we are doing everything we can to involve you in your government’s law making process.
Education
On Thursday we listened carefully to students across Minnesota as they shared their learning experiences, their hopes, and their ideas on how Minnesota can best educate and prepare our students for the joys and challenges of learning. One group that testified in my Education Finance committee was the Minnesota Youth Council, a collaboration of youth and adults working to empower and mobilize young people across the state to exercise their voices, opinions and ideas. It was a delight to listen to Ava Kalenze, a student at St. Anthony High School, share her learning experiences and emphasize the need for increased school safety, education around opioid and addiction, the need for a more diverse teaching staff and consent education. All the students who testified stressed the need to fully fund our schools in order to meet our students’ diverse needs and learning styles.
Safety
Looking ahead to next week, I’m excited that my bipartisan Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Bill will receive a public hearing on Tuesday. The bill, HF70, creates a task force that will provide data and analysis regarding the systemic causes behind the number of missing and murdered Native American women in the state. The task force will include the indigenous community, law enforcement, policymakers and the public. The bill begins it's journey at a hearing set for January 25 in the Public Safety committee.
I also authored a bill this week which would better define sexual harassment. Minnesotans deserve to feel safe at work, at home, in school and in our public spaces. Both of these bills are an important part of a conversation about making Minnesotans safer.
Equality
One of the most important values that guides my work here at the Capitol is making sure all Minnesotans and all people are treated fairly. That’s why I have authored an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) bill that would add gender equality under the law to our State Constitution. Assumed equality is not enough. Our state should work for all of us, no matter what we look like or who we are. This bill is scheduled for its first hearing this next week on January 24th.
Read more about the history of the Equal Rights Amendment and what the bill means for gender equality in a column in the Star Tribune written by ERA Minnesota Founder Betty Folliard here.
Thank you!
I’m honored to begin my second term as your state representative. Please stay in touch by writing, calling, and following me. You can reach me by phone at 651-296-4331, email at Rep.Mary.KuneshPodein@house.mn. Stop by our office – you can find us in room 445 in the State Office Building in St. Paul.
Best,
MaryKP
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