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Minnesota Update
Budget Process Continues
Immediately following its return from its spring recess, the Minnesota Legislature launched into a flurry of budget activity as omnibus finance bills moved through the Senate Finance or House Ways and Means Committees and began the process of being debated by the full legislature. That work will continue over the next two weeks as the legislature has only five weeks to finalize the biennial budget before the May 22 deadline to adjourn.
House Budget Bills on the Move
Last week the House of Representatives passed its first omnibus finance bills, including legislation setting the budget in the area of elections, higher education, and Legacy Amendment funding. This week they are scheduled to continue the budget process, voting on the Omnibus Environment Finance, Omnibus Transportation Finance, and the combined Omnibus State Government and Elections Finance bill, as well as others. The House of Representatives is moving quickly to pass its various budget bills to maximize the time available to negotiate and resolve the differences with the Senate’s proposals. The bills passed by the House of Representatives this past week included:
- Democracy for the People Act (H.F. 3): Authored by Rep. Emma Greenman (DFL-Minneapolis), passed 70-57, and appropriates $1.06 million from the General Fund for FY24-25. Under the bill, individuals would automatically be registered to vote when they apply for an ID or driver’s license, 16–17-year-old youth would be allowed to pre-register to vote, and the language updates disclosure laws so individuals know better who is trying to influence their vote.
- Omnibus Higher Education Finance Bill (H.F. 2073): Authored by Gene Pelowski (DFL-Winona), is touted by the House DFL Caucus as making the largest investment in higher education in nearly four decades. Authored by Rep. Gene Pelowski (DFL-Winona), the bill passed the House on a vote of 69-58, and would appropriate $4.16 billion to the state’s public colleges, universities, and financial aid programs in the next biennium. This is an 18.5% increase over current funding levels.
- Omnibus Legacy Amendment Finance Bill (H.F. 1999): Authored by Rep. Leon Lillie (DFL-North St. Paul) passed the House on a vote of 69-59. The bill invests $820 million in the outdoors, clean water, arts and culture, and parks and trails. The largest spending item in the bill sends $317 million to the Clean Water Fund. The Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund would get $195.05 million. The Indian Affairs Council would receive $4.6 million to preserve Dakota and Ojibwe languages. For restoration, protection, and enhancement of 121,000 acres of wetlands, prairies, forests, and habitat for fish, game, and wildlife, the Outdoor Heritage Fund would get $171.79 million.
Senate Budget Bills on the Move
This week, the Senate will vote on several omnibus finance bills, including Legacy Amendment funding, higher education, human services, transportation, military affairs, state government, and the environment. Last week the Senate passed its Omnibus Commerce Bill, Omnibus Judiciary and Public Safety Bill, Omnibus Jobs and Labor Bill, and its Omnibus Agriculture, Broadband, and Rural Development Bill. A brief recap of each bill is as follows:
- Omnibus Commerce (S.F. 2744), Authored by Sen. Matt Klein (DFL-Mendota Heights) passed the Senate on a vote of 35-32 and spends $392 million from the state General Fund. A few of S.F. 2744’s key provisions include language that prohibits “excessive” price increases on generic or off-patent prescription drugs, a provision that limits enrollee out-of-pocket costs under private sector insurance, MA, and MinnesotaCare, for prescription drugs and related medical supplies prescribed to treat chronic disease and related medical supplies, and contains language that prohibits pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and health carriers from requiring that a clinician-administered drug or the administration of such a drug be covered as a pharmacy benefit. MA and MinnesotaCare are excluded from this requirement.
- Omnibus Judiciary and Public Safety, (S.F. 2909), Authored by Sen. Ron Latz (DFL-St. Louis Park), passed the Senate 34-33. This bill spends $880 million to raise pay for judges, support the public defender system, and increase resources for crime investigation and prevention. Funding for gun law changes was included, but the policy was left out of the Senate version of the bill.
- Omnibus Jobs and Labor (S.F. 3035), authored by Sen. Bobby Jo Champion (DFL-MPLS) contains language from both the Senate Jobs and the Labor bill that merged in the Senate Finance Committee. A large portion of General Fund spending in this bill goes toward various business development grants.
- Omnibus Agriculture, Broadband, and Rural Development (S.F. 1955), authored by Sen. Putnam (DFL-St. Cloud), passed on a vote of 58-7, and spends roughly $320 million of General Fund money, with a sizable portion of that, $125 million, going toward broadband programs.
Additional Notable Bills
The House plans to release its version of a Tax bill today, Monday. The Senate has yet to finish its bill, but they continue to work to put this key piece of the budget together. S.F. 2, Paid Family Leave, continues to move through the committee process, as does H.F. 100, Omnibus Cannabis.
Dates of Note:
The following are a series of committee deadlines that will guide the Minnesota Legislature’s process as they move through the session:
- Governor Walz will hold his State of the State address on Wednesday, April 19, at 7:00 pm.
- The Minnesota Legislature is constitutionally required to adjourn the regular session no later than May 22, 2023.
Federal Update
Congress is back! And there’s an enormous amount to do. The debt limit and spending, Ukraine, leaks, investigations, Trump, energy policy, the environment, crime, transgender issues, the 2024 race for the White House — everything will be in play.
Lawmakers return to Washington this week seeking answers about the leak of classified defense documents and the arrest of a National Guard airman who is charged with accessing and disclosing them. On Wednesday, all senators are scheduled to receive a classified briefing on the intelligence leak. According to a spokesperson, the Senate Armed Services Committee has requested a briefing of its own, with Chairman Jack Reed, D-RI, promising a further congressional response.
On the House side, Armed Services is investigating the matter, according to a spokesperson for the committee. "The committee wants to know how this leak happened and what can be done to prevent it from happening again," the spokesperson said. House Intelligence Chairman Michael R. Turner, R-OH, said in a statement that his committee is also probing how the leak happened and "why it went unnoticed for weeks." An Air Force National Guardsman was arrested in Massachusetts on Thursday. The FBI took Jack Douglas Teixeira into custody "for his alleged involvement in leaking classified U.S. government and military documents," according to a statement from the agency. Federal prosecutors charged him Friday with two criminal counts.
In Other Defense News
House Republicans are expected to bring a blistering critique of the Biden administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan in two separate hearings this week. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko will testify alongside investigators for the Pentagon, State Department, and the U.S. Agency for International Development to House Oversight on Wednesday on the U.S. pullout. A House Homeland Security subcommittee holds its own hearing Tuesday with two former officials. Lawmakers are likely to come armed with new questions and Republicans with repeated rhetoric on the withdrawal being "disastrous" and "catastrophic," after the White House release of a public document and a classified “after-action review” sent to lawmakers. Democrats, meanwhile, argue no path out of Afghanistan would have been easy, and that partisan attacks on Biden ignore that it was President Donald Trump who pledged to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by May 2021.
Fiscal 2024 Budget Hearings Resume
Biden administration officials are back on Capitol Hill this week to make the case for the White House's fiscal 2024 budget request.
A House Appropriations subcommittee hearing Tuesday with Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Director Steven Dettelbach could run hot. Tensions were high over the issue of gun legislation before lawmakers left town for a two-week recess. Democrats, in the wake of last month's Nashville school shooting, voiced once again the need to pass tougher gun laws. House Republicans showed no sign of making it a legislative priority.
Biden's budget proposal includes $1.9 billion in funding for the ATF to expand “multijurisdictional gun trafficking strike forces” to heighten firearm industry regulation and implement last year's gun legislation.
FDA Commissioner Robert Califf testifies Wednesday to Senate appropriators and is likely to get questions on the case before the Supreme Court regarding the agency’s approval in 2000 mifepristone, a commonly used abortion drug. Some lawmakers are warning that a lower court order that suspended the agency's approval would upset decades of other approvals by the FDA.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona testifies to House appropriators on Tuesday, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testifies to the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday.
House GOP Tees Up a Ban on Transgender School Athletes
House Republicans return to Washington with plans to pass several measures this week that are unlikely to be enacted but may provide them fodder for the 2024 campaign trail. The Rules panel meets on Monday to prepare two of the measures for the floor. The first bill would effectively ban transgender women and girls from participating in women and girls' school sports programs. The legislation ranks as a top priority of the party’s conservative base, along with a parental school oversight measure that passed the House last month. Democrats argue the bill does not protect women's sports but instead attacks transgender children.
The second measure is a disapproval resolution that would reverse a police overhaul bill passed by the D.C. Council. It follows the passage of another disapproval resolution that overturned a D.C. bill that would have overhauled the city's criminal code, which Biden signed last month, marking the first time in over three decades that Congress invoked its authority over bills passed by the D.C. Council.
Additional Legislation Under Consideration
GOP leaders could also bring to a vote an attempt to override Biden’s veto of a resolution disapproving of a rule that revised which bodies of water are subject to federal regulations.
House Republicans are drafting legislation offering Democrats a debt limit increase combined with discretionary spending caps, tougher work requirements for food stamps, rescinding unspent pandemic aid and more.
On the Radar: McConnell Returns to the Senate After Fall
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY returns to the chamber Monday after recovering from a fall that left him with a concussion and fractured rib. Senator John Fetterman, D-PA also returns to the Senate this week after an absence due to treatment for depression.
Meanwhile, California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, amid calls from within her party to step aside, has asked Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-NY, to ask the chamber to select another Democrat to temporarily serve in her seat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. She has been absent from the Senate for roughly two months after a case of shingles that had her hospitalized in early March.
Debt Limit Talks
There's a debate brewing on how quickly the House needs to act to avert a debt limit crisis, with some Republicans urging a vote this month and others cautioning against self-imposed deadlines.
House Republicans are fleshing out details of a debt limit bill, but have so far been unsuccessful in convincing Biden and top congressional Democrats. Democrats are insisting on a clean debt limit increase to even discuss their conditions. Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-CA, has said there’s no scenario in which Republicans will accept a clean debt limit bill.
Should Thomas Testify
It’s rare for Supreme Court justices to testify before Congress. Some advocacy groups have urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to call Justice Clarence Thomas to testify about his relationship with a billionaire GOP donor, a move experts say would escalate the conflict between two branches of government and could lead to a separation-of-powers showdown.
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