Ewald at the Capitol

New Laws

Bills that do not contain an appropriation or have a specified date of enactment are effective Aug. 1 of each year. Some of the newest laws in Minnesota include:

SF395: Minnesota law agencies can now enforce protection orders that were issued in Canada.
HF652: Life insurers can no longer discriminate against people with a prescription for an opiate antagonist.
SF1315: The “Healthy Start Act.” Inmates who are pregnant or who just gave birth can now be placed in supervised alternative settings for up to one year post-partum in order to bond with their child. Prior to this, women who gave birth while serving a prison sentence would have to return to prison 2-3 days after giving birth.
SF443: Hospice workers will now be notified if they are caring for a registered predatory offender. Other types of in-home health care workers already receive this notice.

Census Data

On Aug. 12, the U.S Census Bureau released results of the 2020 census, and people got straight to work digesting the information. The Minnesota State Demographer promptly released formatted data to be used by the public and for redistricting purposes.

Some points of interest that have so far been shown in Minnesota’s census data include:

An increase in racial diversity. People of color now make up 24 percent of the population.
The state’s population increased by 402,000, with 78 percent of the growth in the metro area.
The population’s age has increased. The number of Minnesotans who are 18 and older has grown by 9.2 percent since the last census.
The Twin Cities population increased (10.7 percent) at a higher rate than the nation’s overall rate (7.4 percent).

Additional data will be released in September. The Minnesota Legislature has until February 2022 to use new census data to redraw district boundaries; otherwise, the courts will have to step in and make decisions instead.

Frontline Worker Pay Working Group

The Frontline Worker Pay Working Group is tasked with figuring out how to distribute $250 million in bonus pay to Minnesota’s essential workforce. They also must decide which of the estimated 924,000 essential workers will receive bonuses.

The group has been meeting twice a week to hear from various state agencies on logistics of distributing the funds as well as to hear testimony from the essential workforce themselves. They have heard from all sorts of sectors — such as education, child care, Metro Transit, long-term care, hospital workers and grocery store employees.

The working group has until Sept. 6 to decide who will get what amount and how. A special session is likely to be called in September to pass the legislation that houses the bonuses.

Washington Wildfire Response

The state of Washington put out a call for assistance in mitigating their wildfires, and Minnesota responded. Gov. Walz authorized the deployment of 10 National Guard members and a UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter to help with the efforts. They will be deployed for a minimum of two weeks.

The Emergency Management Assistance Compact is a mutual aid agreement between all 50 states in which a state can request resources and any state that is available and willing to help can respond.