Dear Neighbors,
I hope this email finds you well as the 2022 Minnesota Legislative Session is set to kick off this week. Here’s an update from the State Capitol.
Legislative Session Preview
The Minnesota House of Representatives will convene at noon today. Our main focus will be helping our working families, schools, and main street businesses recover from the challenges we’ve all experienced over the last two years. By many measures, our economy is recovering strongly, and we have a $7.7 billion positive budget balance. Still, too many Minnesotans are struggling, and our budget surplus gives us a good opportunity to make a significant difference in people’s lives. House DFLers will be bringing forth several solutions to strengthen economic security, including Earned Sick and Safe Time, Paid Family and Medical Leave, and premium pay for our front line workers who have faced increased COVID-19 exposure throughout the pandemic. We’re also committed to shoring up the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund in a manner that both protects small businesses and ensures assistance will be there for workers who need it.
Our health care workers are stretched to the max, with nurses, long-term care workers, and other dedicated heroes overworked and exhausted. We need to direct resources to this crisis that existed long before COVID even arrived. The pandemic deeply disrupted learning, and our classrooms are counting on additional investments to deliver a world-class education to our students. Rural communities are facing growing child care shortages, which pose big barriers for families and our local economies. Investments in child care and early learning come with big dividends so I hope we can take this opportunity to help young Minnesotans and their families succeed.
I’m also hopeful we can enact a robust, bipartisan capital investment bill to fund public infrastructure projects across the state. This week, Governor Walz announced his Local Jobs and Projects proposal, and the House will develop our own in the coming weeks. As chair of the House Agriculture Committee, I’ll be working to deliver relief to farmers who experienced drought impacts last year, and explore opportunities to grow, innovate, and diversify meat processing opportunities.
Insulin Safety Net Program
In 2020, lawmakers came together to enact the Alec Smith Insulin Affordability Act. The bill, named after a young adult who died when he was forced to ration his insulin, gives Minnesotans access to an emergency supply along with a program to make affordable insulin available on a long-term basis.
Alec’s mother, Nicole Smith-Holt, is featured in this video where she shares Alec’s story. Please take a few minutes to watch and learn more about Minnesota’s Insulin Safety Net program. It’s unconscionable that someone could lose their life because they can’t afford lifesaving medications, and this session I’ll support additional solutions to address the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs.
Stay in Touch
To stay up to date with what’s happening at the State Capitol, the Minnesota House Public Information Services office has a variety of timely, non-partisan resources. You can subscribe to Session Daily which provides regular updates of legislative activity, watch live and archived floor sessions or committee meetings on YouTube, and check out informative publications with information about the legislature and our state government.
It’s extremely important to me to receive input and ideas from those I have the honor to represent. Please don’t hesitate to contact me with your viewpoints, feedback, or if I can ever be of assistance. My email address is rep.mike.sundin@house.mn and phone number at the Capitol is 651-296-4308. Feel free to be in touch any time.
Sincerely,
Mike Sundin