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Neighbors,
Please join Sen. Frentz and me for a virtual town hall tomorrow, February 20 at 10:30 a.m. You can view here: Senator Nick Frentz | Facebook. You can submit your questions ahead of time to justin.emmerich@senate.mn. We hope to see you tomorrow!
Take my legislative survey!
It’s an honor to serve Mankato, Mankato Township, Eagle Lake and Skyline at the State Capitol. As your Representative, I’m committed to helping our communities recover and rebuild from the pandemic and thrive in the aftermath. Please take a few minutes to go online to complete my legislative survey here. Your name and address are requested to make sure only constituents are weighing in directly. Thank you for your time and I appreciate your input!
Turning an Idea into Law
Today we continue our ‘idea becoming a law’ journey. In previous updates, we have reviewed working with a legislator on an idea, getting the bill in the correct form by the professional legislative staff who “jacket” the measure, sending the jacketed bills to the House and Senate author and having the jackets dropped in the ‘hopper.’
Once jackets get dropped in the hopper they are collected and assigned a House File number, and are routed to a committee. If the scope of the jacket is narrow it may only have to go to one committee. If broad, it could be sent to as many of the 31 House Committees as needed. My first bill featured last week initially passed out of Labor and Industry committee, then referred to the Judiciary committee to which I testified on Thursday. You can follow the path of the bill here: HF334.
Committee Work
In Human Services this week, we heard from several high school students who want to access mental health services without parental consent, which is currently required. Unfortunately, due to fear of stigma or other reasons, some parents do not provide needed consent. I voted in support of HF375 because I believe our youth should have unrestricted access to the mental health care they need.
In Behavioral Health, we heard a bill to help address the workforce shortage in the mental health community. When people seek help, they want to feel understood. That’s why it’s also important our workforce is representative of the people they serve. I voted in favor of HF970, which includes provisions focusing on our Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities to increase diversity in our mental health workforce.
Community Partnerships
This week I met with GreenSeam, a regional company working to support southern Minnesota’s agricultural community. I also met with the Minnesota Corn Growers along with the Minnesota Dept. of Agriculture to work on a bill supporting our farmers
Getting Students Back to In-Classroom Learning
This week, Governor Walz announced an updated plan to welcome more children back to the classroom. Many younger students are already back in school, and starting February 22, middle and high schools can begin offering hybrid or in-person learning. By March 8, all schools will offer some type of in-person learning.
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