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Dear Neighbors,
We’re in the final days of the 2025 Legislative Session, with our work required to be completed by midnight on Monday. This week saw meaningful progress, and our noses will be to the grindstone all weekend at the State Capitol as we wrap up our work.
Much of this progress is thanks to legislative leaders finally reaching a deal, setting the outline for our final budget work that’ll take place this weekend. The meat and potatoes of this deal sets the amount each area of our budget is able to invest or reduce in funding, but there were also more specific compromises that were made, including some I believe to be harmful.
The nature of a tied Minnesota House meant we were always heading towards a state budget that would be a compromise - no one would get everything they want. Before I dive into the bitter pills of this compromise, I want to highlight the significant accomplishments.
Following last biennium with a DFL trifecta and historic, generational legislative accomplishments, this year’s budget was focused in many ways on protecting that progress. We ensured Paid Family & Medical Leave will remain a benefit for Minnesotans starting next year, our kids are still able to get free breakfast and lunch at school, funding for our schools remains indexed to inflation, and we kept attacks on our environment and the Boundary Waters at bay. These are just some of the areas where Republicans fell short of dismantling progress, and they came at these wins with everything they had.
That being said, negotiations reached a point where Republicans made it clear they would shut down the state government, and all the services Minnesotans rely on, if they did not strip healthcare access away from our undocumented neighbors.
Republicans held the budget hostage so that undocumented immigrants, people who contribute more than $200M in taxes to our state’s budget, and were critical workers during the COVID pandemic, would not be able to access the care they need when they get sick.
These individuals are part of the fabric of our state. They live in every community across Minnesota - they are our neighbors, our friends and our family. They go to church, synagogue, mosque, school and work with us all. They have jobs, are raising families and deserve to live with dignity. Taking healthcare away is a literal death sentence for many of our neighbors - some of whom I’ve spoken to and are “undocumented” only because they came here seeking asylum and are awaiting their process to become citizens.
Not only is this morally barbaric, it is terrible fiscal policy. Preventative check-ups keep people out of the ER - where hospitals are obligated to treat regardless of ability to pay, meaning we end up paying the costs one way or another via higher premiums, longer wait times, and direct payments or subsidies with our tax dollars.
The so-called savings the GOP is touting over denying healthcare to immigrants could be solved and even eclipsed many times over by repealing the tax giveaways to data centers. Companies like Facebook and Amazon with billions at their disposal are demanding our tax dollars to pay for their data centers. Here again, Republicans are digging in and subsidizing billion-dollar corporations over the health of our communities.
The fight isn’t over and I will work to make sure Minnesota sees a day in which every person has guaranteed access to healthcare. I firmly believe our healthcare system is broken and will fight for a single payer or universal system as the legislature progresses next year and into future sessions.
Advocating for Housing
As we work to finish up our budget bills, I’m always glad to step off the House Floor to meet with constituents like Martin and Larry who are volunteering with Habitat for Humanity and advocating for affordable housing.
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