Dear Neighbors,
The legislative session has a constitutional deadline to adjourn tomorrow at midnight, but there are many unresolved issues that remain before that set time arrives. As this weekend continues, legislators will be at the Capitol working to complete several remaining issues. I hope the legislature will be able to complete this work on time.
This is the time in the session that is most partisan. It doesn’t need to be that way. There are a number of issues – elder care concerns, school safety, the opioid epidemic, hands free cell phones – that have bipartisan solutions that are broadly supported by the public that we should just get done.
Gun Safety
I’m heartbroken to see that this week brings news of the tragic school shooting in Santa Fe, TX. I’m frustrated that the Republican leadership have blocked every attempt to move forward on common sense gun safety measures even though the proposals have bipartisan and broad public support. The least we can do is pass a stand-alone bill to help our schools increase safety measures protecting our students. I rose on the House floor yesterday to ask Republicans why we weren’t taking action on a clean bill that Governor Dayton could sign immediately. Today I joined Minority Leader Melissa Hortman to send a letter to Speaker Daudt, asking him to bring forward a clean stand-alone bill. We will wait to see if Republicans do anything before we adjourn on Sunday night.
Thank you to everyone who attended the recent town hall that Rep. Wagenius, Sen. Torres Ray and I held around the proposals to advance gun safety at the Capitol. It was a good conversation, and I appreciate all of the community input. If we continue to work together and build a coalition of Minnesotans that want common sense responses to senseless gun violence, we can pass criminal background checks and extreme risk protection orders that will have a meaningful impact.
Taxes and Emergency School Aid Funding
Governor Dayton has been very clear that delivering Emergency School Aid was his first priority, and he has vetoed the Republican tax bill that prioritized corporations and the wealthy as a result. We can conform our state tax code to the federal tax law changes and afford to help struggling school districts at the same time. Recently I spoke on the House floor about the weaknesses of the Republican tax bill, focusing on the provisions that would allow corporations to avoid paying taxes at all while also critiquing the Trump tax bill that is now law.
Minnesota schools are facing projected budget shortfalls that force them to lay off teachers, support staff and cut important programming for students. We know this to be true in Minneapolis. We need to invest in our students, and I hope a compromise on a tax bill and emergency education funding can be reached.
Sexual Harassment
There was a push this session to change both legislative and statewide sexual harassment policies, including a measure from Republican House Majority Leader Joyce Peppin to effectively nullify a long-used "severe or pervasive" legal standard to determine if a sexual harassment case could be heard in court. Over the last several decades, judges had interpreted that standard so narrowly that cases rarely made it to trial. Republican leaders in the House deserve recognition for taking a meaningful step to impact the culture of sexual harassment. It easily passed the House but sadly the measure failed in the Senate after it was aggressively lobbied against by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce.
Opioids and Elder Abuse
The conference committee finalizing the omnibus supplemental budget bills passed by the House and Senate took up provisions relating to the ongoing opioid epidemic and the issue of elder abuse last night. The bill doesn’t go far enough by letting big pharmaceutical corporations off the hook for paying for the addiction problems they helped create. Furthermore, it only passes a task force for elder abuse, instead of meaningful changes to make senior care providers crack down on the problem.
Bonding Bill
The House passed a bonding bill to fund approximately $825 million in capital investment infrastructure projects throughout Minnesota this week. I opposed the bill because, while it had several positives, it failed to adequately fund affordable housing needs, metropolitan regional parks, and had no money at all for important transit improvements. MnDOT announced it would be closing the Stone Arch Bridge this summer because of needed repairs that could have been included in a larger bill. A fully funded Bonding Bill creates thousands of jobs while improving state infrastructure assets, and it’s important to make these investments now while interest rates continue to be low to get the most value for our investment. The Senate bonding bill failed on Wednesday, and I hope we will see an improved larger bill come back to the House floor for a vote before we adjourn.
Healthcare
A House and Senate conference committee, with five members of each chamber, is hashing out differences in each area of the state budget. The Governor is certainly weighing in as well, and he has identified at least 63 provisions to which he has strong objections. One area of unresolved disagreement is the DFL proposal to expand affordable healthcare for Minnesotans with the MinnesotaCare Buy-In. This would allow people to take advantage of premiums less expensive than on the private market, and with access to a vast network of quality doctors. I support this initiative as an option to improve the health insurance market.
Hands-Free Cell Phone Use
On Wednesday, DFLers renewed the call for debate and a vote on the ‘hands free’ cell phone bill on the House floor. This bill has earned broad bipartisan support and would ban handheld cell phone use while operating a motor vehicle. With numerous co-authors from each party and the support of 80 percent of Minnesotans, this bill deserves to be heard and voted on. Unfortunately, the effort has been blocked by Republican leadership.
REAL ID Update
Good news came recently from Department of Homeland Security on REAL ID compliance. The federal government has said Minnesotans will be able to use standard driver’s licenses or identification cards for domestic air travel or access to federal facilities until 2020. Minnesota is on track to start issuing compliant licenses by October 1, 2018, even though the federal government won’t require them to be REAL ID-compliant until two years later on Oct. 1, 2020.
As always, it’s a pleasure representing our community at the Capitol. Don’t hesitate to reach out with any concerns, questions or thoughts.
Sincerely,
Jim Davnie