Legislative Update

Good morning,

We have just over a week left of the legislative session, and we are coming down to the wire considering the amount of work we have left to do. This week we had pushed forward with several omnibus bills, including Human Services, Environment, Cannabis, and more. I will dive into the details for you here, including the reasons why I voted NO for two of these bills, as well as what the process looks like and where we are at.

Omnibus Bills

For those of you following our debates and voting record on the House floor, you may notice that I did not support SF 2370, the Cannabis Policy bill, and HF 2434, the Human Services Finance bill, introduced earlier this week.

With the hasty rollout of the original Cannabis bill during the DFL Trifecta many errors were discovered. While this bill attempts to fix some of the original implementation concerns, it still fails to acknowledge cannabis use is illegal at the Federal level. Thus, I voted NO as Minnesota is driving way out ahead of our headlights on the topic of cannabis legalization, protecting our children from exposure to cannabis, and effectively providing law enforcement professionals the tools needed to determine when an automobile driver is definitely impaired by cannabis use. Just so you know, the bill passed, and it was transmitted back to the Senate. The Senate non-concurred with our amendments to the bill, so it will go to conference committee.

In addition, I voted NO to the Human Services Finance bill this week. As a reference, this is one of the largest budget items within the overall State of Minnesota budget. For Fiscal Year (FY) 2026: $8,836,144,000 and FY 2027: $8,882,498,000. These budgets represent a forecasted FY 2026-2027 decrease of $300,000,000 and a forecasted FY 2028-2029 decrease of $1,000,000,000. Finding $1.0 Billion dollars by 2028 will be difficult. Of course, these are initial target budget numbers, and these numbers will change. Our goal continues to be no new taxes or tax increases. However, passing down the mandates to our counties and asking them to make the tough Human Services decisions is unacceptable too. This is the primary reason I voted NO. Our seniors and adults in need deserve better. As an update, this bill passed out of the House and must now be compared to the Senate’s bill. As we all know, much more work needs to be done to find funding without raising taxes.

Overall, the truth is that we are facing a $6 billion deficit, and we must start to address it now. The way to do this, however, is not by raising taxes or making the type of cuts that pass the burden of tough decisions onto counties and ultimately the taxpayers. We must focus on crafting responsible legislation that addresses the problem of overspending at its root, rather than passing the burden onto others to make those difficult decisions.

A Little Bit About the Process

I want to also clarify the process of bills moving through the process to become law. As you’ve heard, we are in the process of passing bills off of the House floor. After our House budget bills are passed, they (almost always) enter conference committee. In the conference committee, we reconcile language differences between the House bill and Senate bill. As you probably know, the committee is made up of members of the Senate and House as well as an equal number of members from each party. If the two bills are already identical, there is no need for conference committee, but that is rarely the case. After a bill leaves conference committee, it is voted on again in both the House and the Senate. Once it passes in its final form, the bill reaches the governor’s desk to be signed into law. This timeline shows just how much work we have left to do, and with less than 2 weeks to go, it is past time to get to work.

Waseca 6^th Grade Class

I had the great pleasure of meeting a group of 6^th grade students from Waseca this week. It was fun to show them around and share a little bit about my job as a legislator. These young minds are the next generation, and it is very important that we educate them about their opportunities and civil responsibilities. Thank you for visiting!

Page from Owatonna

This is the second week in a row that a high schooler from our district has participated in the page program. It was great to meet Ayoub Farah, who spent the week entrenched in the legislative process. Just as I said for the middle schoolers, this program is another great opportunity for young people to get involved in the legislature and learn more about what we do and how we do it. Thank you, Ayoub, for taking the time to learn about the legislative process by participating!

Coffee with Tom

Just a reminder still that our ‘Coffee with Tom’ meetings are on pause until session wraps up. Due to the rigorous nature of the budget bill season and schedule, we are usually meeting on the floor on Fridays, so I am unable to meet back in district. However, we are in the final stretch of session, and I look forward to resuming our meetings as soon as I can. I will keep you updated on when that will be.

Correction: On Monday, April 28^th, Father Glenn Frerichs from Sacred Heart in Waseca provided the blessing to the entire House of Representatives. I inadvertently stated Father Greg Frerichs. Thanks Team! Great feedback!