Legislative Update: First week of Session!

Dear Neighbors,

I hope you are staying warm! The legislative session is now in full swing - we returned to St. Paul last Tuesday. The excitement and being back in the House chamber was a reminder what an honor and privilege it is to serve our district at the Capitol. It's great to be back and I hope to deliver results for Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park! 

Last year, the Minnesota House DFL put forward a bold, progressive agenda to build a Minnesota that works better for all of us. While some bipartisan progress was made to enact wage theft protections, invest in our schools, and protect affordable health care access for more than one million Minnesotans, we have a lot of work left to do to ensure our state works for everyone. 

We are working to pass long-overdue legislation to provide emergency insulin access and reduce the price of prescription drugs, to eliminate education opportunity gaps and invest in early childhood education, to provide paid family & medical leave and earned safe & sick time to all Minnesotans, to deliver investments in communities across the state through local jobs & projects, and our new Climate Action Caucus is working on a plan to improve our clean energy economy and protect our natural resources.

Ballot box accessibility is incredibly important and helps ensure all communities are represented. I'm working on bills to: 

• Make Election Day a holiday so that working families aren't prevented from making their voices heard
• Require voting instructions in languages other than English
• And lift restrictions on assisting people at the polls to ensure the ballot box is accessible to all eligible voters, including people facing language barriers, the elderly, and those with disabilities 

This year, as a member of the Capital Investment Committee, I will put together an infrastructure package called a Bonding Bill. I will work to ensure it is regionally-balanced, and that projects with the most need are prioritized. That includes supporting bridges and roads, clean drinking water, and projects that serve regional needs, access to services, and community improvement. 

Nonpartisan Resources for Following the 2020 Session

The nonpartisan House Public Information Services office is a great resource for staying updated on committee schedules, a bill’s status, or watching live coverage of Floor Sessions or committee hearings. You can sign up to receive nonpartisan news about the Legislature here. Give them a ‘like’ or a ‘follow’ on their Facebook and Twitter pages for quick snippets and real-time updates.

Ask your friends to subscribe to my email list

Thank you for subscribing to my email list! If you have friends, neighbors, or coworkers who follow the Legislature, now is a great time to ask them to subscribe and stay in the loop with everything we're working on at the Capitol! Forward this email to your network and let them know they can sign up here. You can also follow my official Facebook page here. 

As always, if you have comments or questions feel free to reach out any time! 

Sincerely,

Rep. Samantha Vang