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Now that the first round of budget bills has passed the House and the final Senate bill will be passed on Thursday, conference committees have been or will be formed consisting of members of both the House & Senate. These committees will iron out the differences -- since these bills are almost all very different -- and will come to a compromise that may earn the support of both bodies of the legislature.
Both the House & Senate must pass identical bills in order for them to go to the governor for his signature.
The legislature must adjourn on May 17 to avoid a special session to pass a budget and a budget must be signed into law before July 1 to avoid a government shutdown.
Radical Public Safety Proposals
As I mentioned in last week's update, the House Democrat Public Safety bill includes provisions to divert violent criminals from prison time, hides some offenders' sentences even from their victims, and would allow governing bodies to put activists in charge of law enforcement agencies in the form of citizen oversight councils, which could have very broad powers over law enforcement agencies and their officers. In short, the Public Safety omnibus bill would make it unsafe for our citizens and for our law enforcement officers.
This is opposed by all of the major law enforcement groups and is not a serious attempt at reforms. I spoke against this bill that not only is anti-law enforcement, but also doesn't do nearly enough to protect young victims from sexual predators.
Today, in a press conference House Democrats and the Governor Walz continued their partisan attack by pushing extreme partisan proposals that were crafted without input or support from law enforcement organizations or Republican members of the Public Safety Committee in the House or Senate. They also flatly refused to put any House Republican Public Safety Committee members on the Conference Committee, blocking out voices like myself, Representative Novotny, and Representative Johnson who could have brought our experience in law enforcement to this conversation.
No one wants to get rid of bad cops and bad policing more than good cops. We all share a goal of making sure law enforcement and the communities they protect have a great relationship, but we won't make serious progress on these important issues until Democrats drop their partisan approach and attacks on the men and women in our law enforcement community and start listening to voices beyond their extreme, liberal activist base.
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