After an opening day of somber ceremony, the Minnesota Legislature saw a jolt of action Wednesday as lawmakers used 19 committee hearings to start tackling the workload, and hundreds of Minnesotans filled the Capitol to raise top concerns.
Front and center were two issues that will define the legislative session: Fraud and immigration.
Lawmakers have three months to weigh policy changes, do budget touch ups and consider a package of publicly financed construction projects. The deeply split legislative makeup and upcoming elections for all 201 seats could make passing anything a challenge.
Several bills have already gotten knotted up in tie votes, leading them to be set aside for now.
Faith leaders, advocacy groups and Minnesotans affected by the federal immigration enforcement operations in recent weeks packed the Rotunda to urge passage of relief measures for people financially stung by the crackdown.
“Minnesotans deserve recovery now. We need relief for the harm that's been caused,” said Amber Jones, a minister at Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in Minneapolis. “We need relief for our kids. We need relief for our neighbors. We need relief for our businesses. We need relief for our renters.”
Jones and others said mutual aid efforts helped provide rent, groceries and other supplies to people scared to leave their homes due to ICE actions. But the fundraising efforts could only go so far.
They urged Gov. Tim Walz to put a moratorium on evictions and lawmakers to set aside funding for rent support.
Aides to Walz have said an eviction moratorium would be legally shaky. But they said Walz is weighing proposals that could help those in need.
The House Housing Finance and Policy Committee reviewed a bill by Rep. Liish Kozlowski, DFL-Duluth, to provide $50 million in emergency rental assistance. It’s aimed at helping people who stayed away from workplaces during the protracted presence of immigration agents.
"This bill, while it is not an entire solution, it is a really important, immediate stabilizing tool that we can act now to prevent more dominoes from falling and help us stave off these evictions on the horizon,” Kozlowski said.
Rep. Jim Nash, R-Waconia, questioned adding costs as the state is trying to rein in spending, especially as the Legislature awaits an economic checkup due next week.
"We're getting out over our skis on this. Wait for the (economic) forecast,” Nash said. “We don't even know what the February forecast is going to say. So I just think that we are getting well ahead of ourselves here.”
The panel also considered other measures that would protect renters from eviction tied to the federal crackdown.
This year will bring discussion over other immigration-related bills. One would allow Minnesotans to sue federal agents over deprivations of rights. There’s also a push to block federal immigration agents from entering a child care center without a judicial warrant.
Protests are also under the microscope. Rep. Walter Hudson, R-St. Michael, proposed making it a misdemeanor to protest at someone’s home.
“In recent years, we've seen a troubling trend of coercive agitators cloaked in the guise of activism, deliberately targeting private residences,” Hudson said. “Not to persuade, not to make a credible argument, but to intimidate the individuals and families who reside there, along with their entire community.”
Hudson noted his own family had also experienced protest activity at their home.
Democrats warned the proposal was too vague and could lead to unintended consequences.
“Just a group that is walking down the street, as have been the protests against ICE community members themselves, expressing what's happening in their community as they can pass in front of anybody's home. That is a violation of how this is written,” said Rep. Dave Pinto, DFL-St. Paul.
The committee set the bill aside for possible consideration later.
Several lawmakers expressed concerns about protest activities at residences, especially after their colleague Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were killed at their home in June and other lawmakers were targeted.
Earlier in the day, fraud was center stage in the House Human Services Committee.
“We are at this crisis now where we are the laughing stock of the nation, all the news stories about all the fraud that is taking place in Minnesota,” Republican Rep. Mary Franson of Alexandria told the committee.
The panel backed a bill to strike from law references to Minnesota’s Housing Stabilization program. The Department of Human Services moved to terminate it last year after reports of potential fraud.
Rep. Joe Schomacker, a Luverne Republican, said he wants to ensure lawmakers have more say if the program gets rebooted.
He said it was important “so that when we're ready to bring that program back to the Department of Human Services that the Legislature has a check on that again.”
Democrats raised concerns. They said lawmakers should be putting in place tools to prevent fraud rather than dwelling on things that have been addressed already.
“This is not the legislation that is going to stop fraud, it's not,” said Rep. Mohamud Noor, DFL-Minneapolis. “What we have to be able to do first is stop fraud before it happens. It's our responsibility to put those safeguards, and if we fail and start finger-pointing at each other, we have failed the state of Minnesota.”
Other committees got updates from state agency officials about how they’re implementing laws passed last year to combat fraud. A proposal to create an Office of the Inspector General will come up for a House hearing Thursday.
A similar bill easily passed the Senate last year but didn’t make it out of committee in the House. Walz has indicated he would sign it into law if it reaches his desk.
Lawmakers are also set to unveil a variety of additional anti-fraud measures this week.
MPR News reporter Cait Kelley contributed to this report.
