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Dear Minnesotans,
The Legislature is taking a one-week break after an action packed month of 10-10 House committee votes and 67-67 House floor votes. I am working on a legislative reset piece for when lawmakers return Monday, but here’s a few updates on key issues.
Remember One Big Beautiful Bill?
Donald Trump’s signature domestic policy legislation puts work requirements on childless adults who use Medicaid for their health insurance, and makes recipients re-enroll every six months instead of each year.
The Beautiful Bill also reduces the federal cost share for administering the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, transferring that burden onto states. Minnesota Management and Budget estimates the state will spend almost $200 million more in fiscal years 2028 and 2029 to run the popular food assistance program.
Capitol Conversations: What are we doing here? The agonizingly repetitive theater of legislative committee hearings
The Legislature is obligated to pass a measure to comply with the Trump policy bill by Dec. 31, or Minnesota, again, risks losing federal money.
Legislative committees have held informational sessions on the federal law’s impacts. But no bills have advanced despite the legislation’s must-pass nature.
Hennepin County Medical Center
Whether the Legislature authorizes extending a Hennepin County sales tax hike (currently used toward paying off Target Field) to Hennepin County Medical Center is poised to emerge as one of the biggest Capitol issues over the next six weeks.
Countless advocates have declared that the hospital is financially struggling because it accepts patients, particularly for emergency care, who do not have health insurance (or have Medicaid, which reimburses providers less than private insurance). My newest colleague Maddie Robinson – our community health reporter – is covering the Minnesota Nurses Association’s focus on the hospital’s finances as its top legislative priority.
Capitol Conversations: 3 (quite) unrelated but meaningful developments from the start of Minnesota’s legislative session
Before recessing last week, Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, told reporters that Hennepin County Medical Center is a “statewide asset” and “important to take care of.”
It bears watching if this proposal also dies in a tied House, or if DFLers do Republicans a few favors on the bonding bill, or elsewhere, so as to help the hospital.
Getting mileage out of Elliot Engen’s arrest
As readers of this newsletter have likely seen, Rep. Elliott Engen, R-Lino Lakes, was arrested last week for allegedly driving while impaired by alcohol.
The story gained new life when it turned out that Rep. Walter Hudson, R-Albertville, was also in the car, had been drinking, and carried a registered firearm. The lawmakers apparently decided earlier that day to go to a bar and watch the Twins opener.
House DFL Leader Zack Stephenson issued a statement yesterday cataloging various concerns and questions about the lawmakers’ behavior including if they were actually inebriated while Engen voiced his opposition to a high-capacity magazines ban on the House floor. (I would be curious what longtime legislative observers would say about how common drinking while legislating is. In my irregular forays covering the Illinois Legislature, lawmakers were known to haunt a couple of Springfield bars. Email me.)
Engen is in a purple district, 36A, which includes Lino Lakes, Circle Pines and Centerville in Anoka County. He won election in 2024 by less than three percentage points and is running for state auditor instead this year. (Hudson is in a strongly Republican district.)
As one bill after another withered on the vine in the House last week, leadership on both sides is (I would guess) turning their focus to the election and how to untie the House. DFLers gaining the open seat in district 36A is one such path.
Questions? Timberwolves lamentations? Email me at mblake@minnpost.com.
Sincerely,
Matthew Blake
The post Capitol Conversations: An action-packed month of tie House votes appeared first on MinnPost.
