Only three days are left of this year's legislative session and the Triumvirate of the Governor, Senate Majority Leader, and Speaker of the House, has not done its job of negotiating a budget for the State. For the remaining 199 lawmakers in St Paul, that means it is a game of sit and wait. This is the problem with the way we govern here in Minnesota. We allow for unilateral fiscal control of government by three individuals. 

Recent years have proven that their inability to get their job done and agree to a budget actually gives them more power. If there is no budget agreement and all bills passed by Monday at midnight, the legislature is required by our State constitution to adjourn until required to return next February. In this scenario, the legislature will return much sooner than that, as early as next month, in a special session to pass budget bills before the end of the fiscal year on June 30. 

Once we adjourn, the Triumvirate can sit behind closed doors with their lobbyists and special interest groups and re-write the entire legislation we’ve been debating all year. Each of the three members of the Triumvirate has veto power on any policy or spending provision. They can also add legislation that has never been heard in committee or had public input. They will write all-new bills and call the legislature back on June 14th to cram everything through in one, single day. There will be an agreement to not amend any bills and to limit speeches. This occurred last budget session, and without enough time for the 198 of us to even read the thousands of pages of legislation or solicit input from our constituents. 

We are expected to have a $4.8 billion surplus thanks to $2.8 billion coming from the federal government's taxpayer-funded "rescue plan." I re-introduced my “Give it Back” Act this year to return the surplus to Minnesota taxpayers. It’s your money and you know best how to spend it.

Expanding Medical Cannabis

On Thursday, the Minnesota House passed a bill to bring Minnesota's medical cannabis program in line with all 35 other medical cannabis states which allow the use of the plant material. The bill also put in place a legal framework for the personal use of cannabis. It is important to note that this bill will not become law this year, as the Senate is not interested in this issue being part of the budget deal. However, this bill starts the conversation in Minnesota about whether the legislature should be working towards decriminalizing cannabis and expanding the medical cannabis program. The bill also contained an important provision I authored that protects gun rights for Minnesotans who use cannabis lawfully, as the tens of thousands of medical cannabis patients currently do. 

Current law eliminates all gun rights, the right to carry a gun, or even buy or possess ammunition if you are on the medical cannabis registry. 

I also authored a provision of this bill which prohibits any State agency from sharing with the Federal Government, any name of an individual who lawfully uses cannabis, medically or otherwise, or who works for a company that processes CBD oil, grows hemp, or grows, processes, or retails cannabis products for a lawful industry under State law. We need to stand up for State's rights, and I was pleased my amendments passed and were added to the bill. 

A few months ago I created an online survey to find out what my constituents thought about this issue.  Over 1,600 individually identified people provided important feedback on this 10-question-survey with over 97% supporting medical cannabis and 73% supporting personal use. There is additional work to be done on the bill, and given the level of interest and concern about the issue, I will continue to participate in this discussion. 

My focus is on expanding medical cannabis, and I am pleased to hear the Senate appears to be open to adopting a large portion of those changes from this bill. It is important to also adopt the gun rights provisions with it. You can watch my Second Amendment amendment HERE, and my Data Protect Amendment HERE. Both of these amendments were added to the bill ensuring that Minnesotans’ private data and constitutional rights are not infringed by the Federal government. It wasn’t easy to convince Democrats to vote for gun rights, but it happened. 

Walz Grants us our Freedoms

The War is Over.

For 425 days Minnesotans have been forced to adorn the latest in fashion from the progressive left. Today Walz made it official with the approval of the executive council that Masks are no longer required for those who are considered “fully vaccinated” However there are some exceptions. Private businesses and local municipalities may still put in place mask requirements; Mayor Frey of Minneapolis has already announced he plans to keep the city masked. Additionally, Minnesota’s Safe Learning Plan, along with the existing mask mandate for schools and child care settings, remains in effect.

Just last week Walz announced his plan, based on vaccination rates, to reopen Minnesota by July 1 yet somehow in the past seven days we were able to expedite the vaccination rate by 2 months! Either Walz isn’t as good a teacher as he thinks, and forgot to carry a decimal, or all of these lockdowns and restrictions have been politically motivated. 

 In 20 years when we look back at this moment, I can only imagine what the history books will say….then again I guess that depends on which party is in control. 

Listen to my audio podcast of updates from inside the legislature. The podcast is now available to stream on Pandora.

Thank you for being engaged in Government,

Jeremy Munson

State Representative, 23B

Contact

If you have any questions regarding COVID-19, please don’t hesitate to contact my office or me. We are still attempting to provide regular contact remotely, so if you have other needs, please email my Legislative Assistant, Grayson, at Grayson.mcnew@house.mn.

Watch the Minnesota House on Public TV

Video: Streaming Website. Also, you can watch committees and Floor Sessions on YouTube.