Biennium Recap
Last year the Legislature passed our major two-year budget bills, and this year the House built on that progress by passing small supplemental budgets alongside more substantial policy changes in major committee areas. Working alongside the Governor and our Senate counterparts, we reached final agreements on all major budget bills.?
You can find nonpartisan summaries about the final agreements here: Transportation, Labor and Housing, Energy and Agriculture, Public Safety and Judiciary, Commerce and Cannabis, Jobs and Economic Development, Environment and Natural Resources, K-12 Education, Higher Education, Human Services, Health, and Elections.?
We also passed a gun violence prevention bill that includes tougher penalties for straw purchasers and a ban on binary triggers, a bill that will increase wages for rideshare drivers while keeping companies operating in Minnesota, a health occupational licensure and scoping bill, legislation improving our child welfare services and addressing racial disparities, and a tenants? rights package.?
These are all great bills, and as the vice chair of the Health Finance Committee, I?m especially proud of these successful measures we got across the finish line:?
- Insurance prior authorization reforms so Minnesotans can get the care when they need it;
- Prohibiting restrictions on many chronic condition requirements, pediatric meds for terminal patients, suboxone for outpatient treatment;
- Medicaid and Medicare coverage of prosthetic and orthotic devices;
- HMO conversion and regulation provisions;
- School-linked mental health services grants;
- Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servercio funding for certified community behavioral health clinics;
- Evaluation study of the state?s future health care needs and capacity; originating in the Governors Healthcare Task Force;
- Value-based and outcome-based purchasing of cell or gene therapy treatments for rare disease treatment: such as Sickle Cell, Cystic Fibrosis, certain Cancer treatments.
Keep in Touch
The legislative session may be over, but the work continues. Please continue to contact me anytime at [email protected] or 651-296-5066 with questions and ideas. I value your input! You?re welcome to follow me for additional updates on my Facebook page.
Thank you for the honor of representing our Apple Valley neighbors at the State Capitol.
Sincerely,
Robert Bierman
State Representative?
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