Capitol Letter for February 24, 2023
The Capitol Letter™ is a recurring publication that provides reports from LWV Minnesota volunteer Observer Corps and Lobby Corps members on what is happening in the current legislative session.
Lobbying by LWVMN
Restore the Vote passed in the Senate 35-30 with all DFL members & GOP member Sen Jim Abeler voting yes. Plus, 2 GOP members, Weber & Lieske, were not present (while having the option to vote virtually). Restoring voting rights is at the heart of who League is, and to achieve this great milestone is also a tribute to all our members who volunteer day in and day out to ensure our democracy is strong, equitable and inclusive. In addition to Restore the Vote, the Drivers Licenses for All bill passed after two decades of hard work and organizing across the state. The work of LWVMN has only begun this session, but we should all celebrate these victories!
Observer Reports
House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy - Tuesday, February 14
LWVMN Observer Corps Member Melanie Willett
HF1000 (Brand) Non-Essential Use Ban of the sale of PFAS in products in MN. This hearing focused upon the three-step blueprint consisting of 1). Mitigation 2). Management 3). Clean-Up which was suggested in a 2021 report from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) who supports the bill. The general theme is to proactively ban PFAS products such as cosmetics, dental floss, and menstruation products for reasons of consumer and environmental protection measures. PFAS (forever chemicals) were developed in Minnesota and have been detected in rainwater, drinking water, snow, fish, ducks and deer. In 1967 the FDA rejected a proposal by Dupont to put PFAS in food as they knew the harmful health impacts to humans then. 3M settled a lawsuit in 2017 paying $850M to clean-up PFAS production sites. It could cost $400B to remove PFAS from the sixty water systems that exceeded EPA advisory level standards in Minnesota. There were three testifiers in support of the HR1000 who lived in a ‘cancer cluster’ in Oakdale and attended Tartan High School. Avonna Stark, Director of Clean Water Action, supported the ban as well as Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA) lawyer Jay Eidsness and David Pelikan with Conservation MN. Engineer R. Rodger Ruan from UMN supports the ban and spoke about the methods for cleaning up. Tom Johnson from the MPCA stated his support for the ban and the need to focus upon prevention more than clean-up. Tony Kwilas (Dir. Environmental Policy) from the MN Chamber of Commerce was one testifier in opposition saying that small businesses would be too stressed with the task of seeing if a product had a part that contained PFAS which would “trigger a reporting nightmare”. Josh Heintzeman (R) stated his concern for small companies and warned about “the people who want to do the right thing, but could get caught up in a regulatory nightmare”. The arguments of those opposed were concern and confusion about what other states were doing in regards to PFAS. Author Rep. Brand (DFL) closed by saying that the landfills are filling with these products and poisoning Minnesotans. He said that now is the time to start somewhere and cited an article about the dangers of PFAS from Industry Today. HF1000 as amended was re-referred to Commerce Finance and Policy with no opposition on the vote.
Senate Energy, Utilities, Environment & Climate - Wednesday, February 15
LWVMN Observer Corps Member Audrey Kramer
SF1296 (Mitchell) dealt with the purchase of electric vehicles (EV) for state fleets. This bill includes required certified training for auto dealer employees, rebates for EV purchases, requirements for utilities to promote EV purchases, and grants to auto dealers. Both SF1296 and its House companion, HF413, are authored by DFL legislators; stated opposition from Republicans was: the 10% hierarchy choices of the chosen EV; out-of-control fires by EVs; utilities will pass higher costs on to constituents; the poorer entities cannot afford high prices of EV purchases; it costs more to charge an electric vehicle than to fill a gas powered vehicle; and the PUC is given too much power in the bill in determining costs allowed to the utilities. Senator Nicole Mitchell had an answer for every pushback; especially profound was when she pointed out a record comparison about gas vs. EV fires: for every 100,000 gas powered cars a record showed there had been 1,531 fires; for the electric vehicles only 25 fires per 100,000. The bill prevailed and was sent to the Transportation Committee.
SF1622 (Frentz) sets the parameters of the selection of beneficiaries to federal funds available to utilities, communities, cities, and counties, thereby establishing the MN State Competitiveness Fund. The Department of Commerce will be the decision maker in awarding various MN applicants. There was overwhelming support for SF1622 by no less than 15 testifiers. The testifiers represented various entities such as co-operatives, clean energy organizations, Sheet Metal Workers' Local 10, intergovernmental agencies, MN Power, CenterPoint Energy, MN Rural Electric as well as the Chippewa Tribe and the Leech Lake Association, all of whom might apply for these enticing federal funds. The bill will go next to the Finance Committee.
Senate Education and Policy - Monday, February 20
LWVMN Observer Corps Member Cindy Holker
SF476 - Climate Justice instruction required for school districts and charter schools. Senator Mitchell introduced the bill and the motion to pass it onto the Senate Education Finance Committee. Testimony was all in favor and included representatives from Climate Generation and MN350, Faculty from Hamline, UMN, and St. Paul Public Schools, and students from Bloomington Jefferson, UMN, Lower Phalen Creek Project and others. Testimony included the need to introduce today's students to climate change and its impact, understanding the reality that they will have to deal with it as they age. Fear, hopelessness and helplessness were some of the adjectives used to describe students' thoughts on climate change. Better education can introduce hope into the situation and get kids excited about being empowered to impact climate change and move into the growing field. Questions and comments came mainly from Republicans. Sen. Duckworth was concerned about putting more on the plates of teachers, who are already stretched and was very concerned that the inclusion of instruction on the social injustices of climate change introduces a political topic into education. He later seemed to clarify that he is not a climate change denier but was concerned about the politics of social injustice. Sen. Coleman felt the focus should be on literacy and not additional topics. Sen. Wesenberg, who shared that he has a degree in biology, claimed that human impact to climate change is not proven and felt geology had a bigger impact. He also stated that Barack Obama bought a house at ocean level but was a big climate change proponent. Chair Cwodzinski felt the definition of "program" allows for local interpretation (another concern brought up) and felt that education should empower youth and give them the skills to critically analyze the issues. The bill passed and was referred to the Education and Finance Committee via voice vote with majority yeses and a few nos.
House Public Safety and Finance and Policy - Tuesday, February 21
LWVMN Observer Corps Member Pamela Anne Mercier
Representative Emma Greenman, author of HF3, described the parts of her bill that came within the jurisdiction of this Committee (Article 2, Section 2). This was the third stop so far for the ‘Democracy for the People Act’. HF3 proposes changes to laws governing voter registration, election administration, election security and campaign finance and disclosure laws. Article 2, Section 2, the part of interest to this committee, addresses Intimidation and Interference with the Voting Process. After being introduced by Chair Kelly Moller, Rep. Greenman enthusiastically described HF3 as a bill that "defends and strengthens Minnesota's best traditions of inclusive voter participation, sound elections administration, and grassroots people-powered democracy." Rep Greenman then explained why Article 2, Section 2 is needed now. There is, she said, a rising climate of risks, threats and disinformation directed at voters. Different organizations, including some National Law Enforcement groups, have reported serious increases in attempts to intimidate voters and to provide them with, for example, false information about voting rules, polling place hours and more. While most of the widely reported examples of such efforts did not occur in Minnesota, there was, according to Greenman, at least one example of a plan to intimidate voters by having armed security personnel, recruited by the private firm, Atlas, stand outside polling places. Implementation of this particular scheme was prevented by the Secretary of State and the Attorney General. The provisions of this bill, Greenman claimed, will better protect voters from such practices by clearly defining what is unacceptable and criminal behavior. A person who violates this section will, furthermore, be guilty of a gross misdemeanor. There was a little discussion following Greenman's presentation. Rep. Hudson (R) commented on what he believes is lack of specificity in the bill as to what constitutes intimidation and misinformation. If this is not very clear, he averred, these provisions could be used as a tool for political ends to curtail speech like whatever side is in control does not like and could be interpreted as intimidation. Rep. Greenman responded to assure Rep. Hudson that in the criminal context, a violation of intent would need to be established. For example, if someone was accused of a deceptive practice, it would need to be clear that the person knew that the information he/she was distributing was false. In her closing comments, Rep Greenman said that the benefit of this new law will be that it will provide law enforcement and election administrators very clear rules about what is and what is not permitted. The motion to re-refer the Bill to the next committee, Human Services Finance, was passed.
All Committees on Wednesday (2/23) and Thursday (2/24) were postponed due to the snow storm
Minnesota House News
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