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Dear Friends and Neighbors,
The 2025 legislative session adjourned on Monday just before midnight, which was our constitutional deadline. Due to the Democrat's boycott, among other things, we weren't able to complete everything. Therefore, we are anticipating a special session in the coming days to wrap up.
Bill Updates
Prior to adjournment on Monday, the following bills were passed in the House. Though I did not support all of these bills in their final passage, here is a summary of each of them with a few highlights.
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Agriculture: Invests in disease prevention for livestock and provides critical relief to Minnesota’s dairy industry, which has lost 40% of its farms in seven years.
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Housing: Targets the 100,000-unit shortage with investments in housing stock, increased affordable housing funding, infrastructure grants for underserved areas, and continued homeownership support programs.
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Legacy: Increases transparency by requiring IRS Form 990 from grantees, limits earmarks in favor of merit-based grants, and prohibits funds from being used on capital construction projects.
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Public Safety & Judiciary: Enacts tougher penalties for crimes against public safety personnel, mandates minimums for traffickers, holds adults accountable for fentanyl exposure to children, and halts early offender releases from Stillwater.
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State Government: Adds oversight capacity to the Legislative Auditor’s Office. Despite millions of dollars in new spending requests by the Secretary of State & the Attorney General, this bill passed with minimal increases for these agencies. I did not support this legislation as I believe we should be cutting spending in the face of our looming deficit, not growing bureaucracy.
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Veterans: Expands mental health services and funding for veterans' homes to better support Minnesota’s veteran population.
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Human Services Policy: Enhances behavioral health and substance use care, strengthens agency oversight, streamlines licensing, and reforms civil commitment for better coordination and rights protection.
As we continue through this weekend and into next week, there is a lot of work yet to do. The negotiating circumstances are definitely not ideal, as House Republicans are only one half of the three negotiating parties: the House, the Senate, and the Governor. We do not have details on the special session yet, since negotiations are ongoing, but I will keep you updated as I can.
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