Category: SD44

Week-in-Review Video

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A message from your Senator

Constituents and friends,

We still have a large amount of work to complete at the Capitol with only a few days remaining in the legislative session, which is scheduled to end on Monday at midnight – it’s almost certain that we will return for a special session in June such that we can pass Minnesota’s two-year budget in time to avoid a government shutdown.

None of the conference committees have yet completed their work, which is unfortunately almost entirely thanks to my Republican colleagues in the Senate, who have spent these last few weeks setting ultimatums for their DFL House counterparts and refusing to negotiate on budget targets (the spending agreements that must be reached by the House majority, Senate majority, and Governor as a prerequisite for conference committees to complete their omnibus bills).

Continue reading “Sen. Ann Johnson Stewart (SD44) Update: May 14, 2021”

Week-in-Review Video

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A message from your Senator

Constituents and friends,

Yesterday, Governor Walz announced a three-step timeline to end nearly all COVID-19 restrictions in Minnesota by May 28, and end the statewide masking requirement once 70 percent of Minnesotans ages 16 and older are vaccinated, or by July 1. This is very positive news as we move into what we hope will be a safe and close-to-normal summer! The full details of that announcement can be found here.

Conference committees for each of the Legislature’s omnibus budget bills have been appointed, and they began working this week to iron out the differences between the Senate and House versions of each respective bill before they’re sent to the Governor for consideration. I’m paying particularly close attention to the Transportation conference committee, given my position as the DFL vice-lead on the Transportation Committee and my career as a transportation engineer, as well as the Taxes conference committee, which, if negotiations go well, will contain one of my own bills related to the City of Plymouth.

Continue reading “Sen. Ann Johnson Stewart (SD44) Update: May 7, 2021”

A message from your Senator

Constituents and friends,

You’re all likely aware of what happened at our own Plymouth Middle School on Monday morning – a student took their father’s handgun to school and fired multiple gunshots into the ceiling of a hallway. Thankfully, no students or staff were hurt, and the student was detained safely, but it was a truly horrifying event for our community and the state as a whole.

Every time shots are fired in a school anywhere in the U.S., I think of our critical need for basic gun safety legislation in Minnesota, including universal background checks and “red flag” laws – and, more directly related to Monday’s events, our need for a safe storage law like the one that exists in Massachusetts, which would require that all firearms be stored with a lock in place and that locks must accompany both dealer and private firearm sales (and that anyone found in violation would be prosecuted and liable for any damages). Despite my Republican colleagues’ stated unwillingness to engage on these issues or even hold hearings in the Senate, we will continue to urgently push these initiatives both publicly and privately.

Continue reading “Sen. Ann Johnson Stewart (SD44) Update: April 30, 2021”

Week-in-Review Video

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A message from your Senator

Constituents and friends,

We returned from our mid-session break this week to a busy schedule of budgetary hearings. Our primary job in this year’s legislative session is to reach agreement between the Senate, House, and Governor’s administration on an approximately $50 billion state budget for Fiscal Years 2022 and 2023, which will require significant negotiation given our divided Legislature.

After both chambers pass their own versions of omnibus bills that have been created by nearly every Senate and House committee (an omnibus bill is a single long bill that contains many individual budget/policy proposals related to the committee’s topic of jurisdiction), leaders from the House and Senate committees meet with each other, as well as the Governor and his staff, to discuss their disagreements and negotiate a final product that all sides (mostly) agree on. As you can imagine, this is often a long and contentious process.

Continue reading “Sen. Ann Johnson Stewart (SD44) Update: April 9, 2021”

Week-in-Review Video

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A message from your Senator

Constituents and friends,

It was another busy week at the Capitol in advance of our mid-session break next week. We debated several bills on the Senate floor, including Medicare reimbursements for healthcare providers that are administering COVID-19 vaccines, school district funding transfers, standardized testing requirements, and a pilot program for hiring short-term substitute teachers.

Below, you can watch my floor speech in support of a proposed amendment to the substitute teacher bill, which would have required school districts to submit written complaints to the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board for any conduct by a substitute that is grounds for licensure revocation. The amendment was offered because the bill itself doesn’t require prospective substitutes to hold a teaching license from the Board – so if a teacher was fired for ethical misconduct, they wouldn’t be reported to the Board and could teach in a different district without a record of their behavior. I believe that was a serious flaw with the bill, and that we need to do everything in our power to keep students and staff as safe as possible. Unfortunately, the amendment was not approved, and I voted against the bill.

Continue reading “Sen. Ann Johnson Stewart (SD44) Update: March 26, 2021”

Week-in-Review Video

A message from your Senator

Constituents and friends,

It was another busy week at our state Capitol! We debated several bills on the Senate floor, most notably SF 4, which was Senate Republicans’ fourth attempt in the last two months to remove Governor Walz’s emergency powers. I voted against it – I support the Governor’s measured and science-backed response to COVID-19, and based on my first few months in office, I’m not at all confident in the ability of the legislature to rapidly and properly respond to pandemics and other emergencies.

We unanimously passed a bill to provide aid for the sanitary cleanup of former dry cleaning business sites, and ban the use of a dry-cleaning chemical that’s known to be a toxic air pollutant. The House passed the bill unanimously as well, so it’s now headed to the Governor’s desk to be signed into law. 

Continue reading “Sen. Ann Johnson Stewart (SD44) Update: March 19, 2021”