 Dear Neighbors,
I hope this email finds you well and you have been able to enjoy some of summer in between the rain showers. My thoughts have been with our Minnesota neighbors who have been experiencing flooding. There have been 22 counties that have been approved for federal disaster relief dollars to help with clean-up. If you have friends and family in these areas, they can find information here.
Last week I spent five days at three back-to-back conferences focused on education hosted by the National Council of State Legislators. It is always helpful to hear investment approaches to education funding and policy from legislative colleagues around the country. There were sessions on literacy, absenteeism, artificial intelligence, funding formulas, and more. It was very informative! And while they kept us busy from 7:30 am to 8:30 pm in meetings, I was to enjoy a bit of Park City, Utah’s beautiful views in the evening. Senator Mary Kunesh, Chair of Senate Education Finance Committee, joined me for part of the conference as well.
 As we celebrate July 4th, we reflect on Americans’ ability to enjoy their life with dignity, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I would like to lay out how some of these fundamentals are reflected in the work we’ve delivered to Minnesotans in the areas of health and human services, veterans affairs, and state and local government.
Health and Human Services
In 2024, DFLers in the legislature took meaningful action to enhance health insurance coverage, improve health care access, and help address mental health in Minnesota. Legislators did this work in ways that consistently put patients first and protect the public interest. Everyone in the wealthiest country in the world, regardless of age, sex, gender, race, creed, or zip code, deserves access to affordable, quality, health care. That’s why we are now expanding insurance coverage to include reproductive care, wigs for cancer patients, prosthetics, and gender-affirming care. As other states become more hostile to LGBTQ+ people, we banned “conversion therapy” and made Minnesota a place where people can live their true selves. We also delivered new investments in services for people with disabilities, and other vulnerable Minnesotans.
DFLers are addressing health staffing shortages without compromising patient safety and making it easier for people to get support by reducing unnecessary paperwork. In 2023, legislators achieved a bipartisan agreement delivering an additional $300 million to nursing homes over the next four years. We're also requiring that nursing homes must disclose costs associated with leases, rent, and use of land or other real property, along with who owns the property they are leasing to increase transparency. One key measure we got across the finish line for our seniors this year includes enhancing counseling and planning services for seniors and their families who are considering moving into long-term care facilities.
Mental health care is health care. Many of our loved ones struggling with their emotional wellbeing, addiction, and more. To address these needs, we worked together to quickly went to increase access to mental health services, substance use disorder treatment, develop a covered benefit under MA to provide residential mental health crisis stabilization for children, more investments in respite care services, and school-linked behavioral health grants.
After the Dobbs court decision and the overturning of Roe. V. Wade, we quickly went to work in early 2023 establishing landmark reproductive freedoms. The first state bill in the entire country to protect these rights was in Minnesota, by passage of the Protect Reproductive Options (PRO) Act. The PRO Act specifies that every individual has a fundamental right to make autonomous decisions about the individual’s own reproductive health, including the fundamental right to use or refuse reproductive health care.
Veterans and State and Local Government Affairs
Our democrat majority is reversing decades-long spending cuts in our constitutional offices, our legislature, and across our state government agencies. We also invested in a more robust state grants management system to safeguard our taxpayer dollars while still providing needed support for programs in our communities that reach Minnesotan’s most in need.
Together we passed meaningful policy changes across our state and local government. We’re making sure elections are free and fair financed and decided by Minnesotans- not corporate special interests. We also are addressing problems caused by pension disinvestment and the growing crisis of PTSD-related duty disability claims affecting our first responders.
The DFL prioritized a portion of the surplus in our state budget of 2023, fully funding Veterans and Military Affairs, as well as providing funding to tackle veterans’ homelessness and expanding the post-9/11 veterans’ service bonuses.
New Laws Take Effect July 1
Our supplemental budget, which reflects many of the initiatives I mentioned above, took effect into law on July 1st. Summaries of all laws passed by the 2024 Legislature are available online from nonpartisan House Public Information Services at www.house.mn.gov/newlaws/#/search/2024.
Keep in Touch
Enjoy your Fourth of July!
Have a great holiday weekend,
 Cheryl Youakim
State Representative
|