{"id":3238,"date":"2024-02-18T13:13:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-18T13:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/?p=3238"},"modified":"2025-05-08T13:14:41","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T13:14:41","slug":"house-reconvenes-for-2024-session-rekindles-partisan-debate-on-hot-button-issues-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/2024\/02\/18\/house-reconvenes-for-2024-session-rekindles-partisan-debate-on-hot-button-issues-2\/","title":{"rendered":"House reconvenes for 2024 session, rekindles partisan debate on hot-button issues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On the first day of the 2024 legislative session Monday, the House took care of routine business, including introducing 246 new bills<\/a> and welcoming a new member.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then it was d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu as the partisanship of last year\u2019s session reemerged when two hot-button issues were brought up for debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth<\/a> (R-Cold Spring) moved to reject the committee report on HF1930<\/a>, which would allow people to request medical aid in dying under certain circumstances. That would have returned the bill to the House Health Finance and Policy Committee rather than allowing it to move to its next committee stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis irresponsible one-party majority has done enough damage already. Let\u2019s reject this committee report and instead start focusing on the real issues at hand for Minnesotans,\u201d Demuth said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Tina Liebling<\/a> (DFL-Rochester), chair of the health committee that approved the bill Jan. 25<\/a>, said Minnesotans want to have a debate on this topic and the committee process is the right place to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor maybe four or five hours we allowed people to testify, we took testimony from about 70 or 80 people,\u201d Liebling said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, the House voted to adopt the committee report on a 70-61 party-line vote, which moves the bill to the House Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Demuth also made a motion to suspend the rules to bring HF3489<\/a> to the floor. The bill would regulate how school resource officers use force on students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many Minnesota law enforcement agencies expressed confusion by language in a 2023 law that resulted in more than 40 pulling their officers from participating school districts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRepublicans are ready today to bring this bill forward, amend it to make sure we address all the issues raised by law enforcement and pass it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Demuth argued that changes to the bill\u2019s language in the form of a Republican amendment are needed now and said the bill can\u2019t wait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Cedrick Frazier<\/a> (DFL-New Hope), who sponsors HF3489<\/a>, agreed the legislation needs fixing, but said moving it through the committee process is the best way forward. That would allow all stakeholders to be heard, he said, especially the students the legislation would affect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The motion failed 69-62.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Changes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Bianca Virnig<\/a> (DFL-Eagan), a former school board member, won a District 52B special election<\/a> on Dec. 5 to replace former <\/a>Rep. Ruth Richardson<\/a>, who resigned Sept. 1, 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the House is still one member short as the 2024 session begins. Former <\/a>Rep. Kurt Daudt<\/a> (R-Crown), the onetime House speaker who announced his resignation<\/a> Jan. 10, was absent Monday, as his resignation became effective Sunday. A special election has yet to be called for the District 27B seat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until that seat is filled, the House will have 133 voting members, and the DFL will have a 70-63 majority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DFL, Republican priorities<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leaders of both parties met with the media after adjournment, outlining their goals for the session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

House Speaker Melissa Hortman<\/a> (DFL-Brooklyn Park) spoke about her desire for bipartisanship in the months to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven though we\u2019re not in divided government right now, you know I believe in the maxim that after the election you take off your red jerseys and your blue jerseys and you put on your Minnesota jersey \u2026 and you do the work of the people of Minnesota,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also spoke on Monday\u2019s parliamentary maneuvering on the school resource officer legislation, the 2023 law and this session\u2019s HF3489<\/a> with DFL-sponsored fixes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBoth these bills were debated in committee several times and then on the House Floor,\u201d she said. \u201cSo these didn\u2019t come from nowhere. But we will send them through the process again and we will clarify so that everybody has the clarity that they need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Demuth said fixing the school resource officer issue is a top Republican priority, but a long-standing concern is also no new spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The budget passed last year, which drew down the state surplus and made changes to some taxes and fees, is not sustainable, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we need to do is make sure Minnesotans\u2019 lives are affordable,\u201d Demuth said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bonding<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Legislature historically has taken up infrastructure bonding bills in even numbered years, and but legislation that authorizes state borrowing requires a supermajority of 60% in both bodies to pass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the moment, the Republican caucus does not have a position without seeing what such a bill would contain, Demuth said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt would require solid projects with statewide impact before we would even consider having a caucus position on it,\u201d she said, citing roads, bridges and infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Legislature must complete its work by May 20. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Session Daily<\/em> writers Margaret Stevens and Miranda Bryant contributed to this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the first day of the 2024 legislative session Monday, the House took care of routine business, including introducing 246 new bills and welcoming a new member. And then it was d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu as the partisanship of last year\u2019s session reemerged when two hot-button issues were brought up for debate. House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth (R-Cold Spring) moved […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2221,932,29],"class_list":["post-3238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-hf1930","tag-lisa-demuth","tag-minnesota","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3238"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3239,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3238\/revisions\/3239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}