An update on the special session.

The first week of the special session has wrapped, and I have come back to the Capitol to see the product of weeks of closed door meetings. I joined the Finance hearing to watch presentations, review budget spreadsheets, and learn the contents of the bills that are moving through the chambers. There is still work to be done.

The funding for Essential Workers Emergency Leave, a bill that I authored with my friend Representative Cedrick Frazier, remains excluded from the Jobs bill. Thousands of Minnesotans went to work on the frontlines of the pandemic without hesitation at a time when we knew little about the virus and how it spread. Nurses, janitors, retail, and food workers lost time and pay having to quarantine or care for loved ones, and it is only right that we pay them for their work. On Thursday I had the honor of accepting five thousand signatures from essential workers across the state urging action, and delivered them to Majority Leader Gazelka's desk.

We learned this week that in the current version of the Agriculture bill Market Bucks has been eliminated. Market Bucks is a low-cost high-impact program that allows SNAP benefits to be used at farmers markets, helping put fresh carrots, tomatoes, and berries into the homes of our hungry neighbors, money into the hands of our farmers’, and stimulating our local economies. It is a win-win-win for our state, with federal dollars available to match. The cost for the state is only $325,000 a year - not small potatoes but rather important potatoes for those who rely on this program. Minnesotans across the state continue to raise their voices in support of it, and I remain hopeful. There is still be a path forward with a possibility for Market Bucks if we continue to push.

Also on a hopeful note, we learned on the Senate floor that the Higher Education Finance Bill includes funding for campus sexual assault prevention, the result of many years of work from student advocates. It is good news.

Over the next ten days, bills will go through the House and the Senate and we will have an opportunity to debate them. I look forward to floor debates. A good faith effort to express our ideas, rooted in shared values, is fundamental to democracy. House Republicans, on the other hand, have used their power to grind the process to a halt with a filibuster. Even while serving in the minority, progress on important issues is possible if we keep working and using our voices together for change. The GOP filibuster is the opposite of working together.

It is my hope that we will finish our by the end of this week. We have been through a difficult 18 months and a government shutdown is no good for any of us. That means another week of intentional and persistent work, pushing for progress for Minnesotans, in pursuit of our bright future.

With joy in the fight,

Erin