Blogs

Legislative Update: Third Committee Deadline Passes, Legislature Heads to Break

By Sara Grafstrom posted 12 days ago
Last week marked the third and final committee deadline at the legislature—all omnibus spending bills needed to be acted on in committee by Friday. In the Human Services Committee, the Senate passed their omnibus bill out of committee on Wednesday evening. ARRM was able to add an amendment to the bill, modifying some of the proposed new documentation requirements for a rate exception renewal. On Thursday morning, the House passed its Human Services omnibus spending bill out of committee. The House proposal has one important point of clarification. In discussions with committee staff, they shared that the Chairs intend that the inflationary cap be 4% annually ...

Special Legislative Update: House and Senate Human Services Omnibus Bills Released

By Sara Grafstrom posted 18 days ago
The House and Senate Human Services Committees released their Omnibus Finance bills on Monday. While there are quite a few proposals included in each bill that are important to members, below is a tracking document to help navigate the position of the House, Senate, and Governor for the proposals most critical. Please reach out with any questions or for more information on any of the proposals highlighted below. --Sara Grafstrom, Senior Director of State and Federal Policy Policy Item Governor's Position Senate Position House Position Allow for out of Home Respite in an Unlicensed Setting For Children (ARRM Priority) Does ...

Legislative Update: 1st and 2nd Committee Deadline Passes, 3rd Committee Deadline Looms

By Sara Grafstrom posted 19 days ago
Last week marked the 1 st and 2 nd committee deadline at the legislature, with all policy-related bills needing to be acted on in committee by Friday. For ARRM, our focus was on the Human Services Policy Omnibus bill, the Senate moved this bill out of committee last Wednesday with the House following with a vote on their proposal Thursday morning. Of note, both the House and Senate include language that would delay the implementation of the DWRS compensation thresholds to 2029. Additionally, the Senate included ARRM’s proposal that would call for increased stakeholder collaboration from the Department of Human Services when making changes to the process ...

Legislative Update: Committee Spending Targets Released

By Sara Grafstrom posted 27 days ago
The House and the Senate both released their committee budget targets last week. Below, please find the spending targets that the Human Services Committees will need to meet: Senate: FY 26/27: Cut $272 million FY 28/29: Cut $430 million House: FY 26/27: Cut $300 million FY 28/29: Cut $ 1 billion ARRM staff continue to meet with staff and legislators to emphasize the impact any cut to disability waiver services will have and are working collaboratively to find solutions that will mitigate the impact for both people with disabilities and providers. Now is the time to make sure that you are communicating the same message with your legislators. ...

Legislative Update: Day at the Capitol, Governor's Revised Budget and more Committee Hearings

By Sara Grafstrom posted 03-23-2025
Last week well over 1,000 people filled the halls of the Capitol buildings for Disability Services Day at the Capitol! We want to thank everyone who took time out of their schedules to show up and advocate on behalf of services and supports for people with disabilities. ARRM’s Policy and Engagement Manager, Johnny Tvedt, has a full recap here . Along with Day at the Capitol, ARRM staff were busy moving the remainder of ARRM’s legislative agenda through the committee process in the House. On Tuesday morning, our technology grant proposal received a hearing in the Human Services Reform and Policy Committee. On Thursday, the committee heard our proposal to delay ...

Day at the Capitol 2025: Recap

By Jonathan Tvedt posted 03-23-2025
Another Day at the Capitol has come and gone. Thank you to all who attended or watched our live stream coverage of the rally! With well over 1,000 disability service advocates in attendance, and another 1,200 watching online, this was perhaps our largest rally to date. Meetings with 175 members of the Minnesota legislature followed our speaking line-up of several disability service champions in the legislature and Attorney General, Keith Ellison. The message was sent loud and clear: cuts have a cost. With all of that being said, Disability Services Day at the Capitol is one day out of the year. There is still much work to be done, and many ways to advocate ...

Legislative Update: Busy week of hearings, Day at the Capitol THIS week!

By Sara Grafstrom posted 03-16-2025
This last week marked another busy week for ARRM staff at the Capitol, many of our legislative priorities received a hearing in either the House or the Senate. On Monday, in the Senate Human Services committee, ARRM’s Technology Grant Project Manager, Alaina Gallagher, provided testimony in support of our initiative to create a new grant focused on expanding education for different assistive technology and remote support options. At the same hearing, Ken Bence provided supporting testimony to an initiative being brought forward by RPAMN that would delay the DWRS compensation thresholds to 2029 and require the Department to work with stakeholders to clarify ...

Highlights of the State’s Latest Budget Forecast

By Ken Bence posted 03-09-2025
The state of Minnesota releases budget forecasts twice a year, in February and November. During legislative sessions in odd-numbered years, when biennial budgets need to be passed, the February forecast is especially important because it is used to set committee and agency spending targets to ultimately pass a balanced budget. Often, there aren’t many differences between the November forecast from one year to the February forecast in the next year, just 3 months later. This year, however, was not like most years. You may recall that the November forecast from 2024 projected a deficit in the 2028-29 biennium. The bulk of the “blame” for that was attributed ...

Legislative Update: State's Budget Forecast Worsens, ARRM's Bills up this Week

By Sara Grafstrom posted 03-09-2025
The top headline from last week was the state’s worsening budget outlook. The state’s February budget and economic forecast shows FY 2026-2027 with a projected balance of $456 million, $160 million lower than estimated in the December forecast. The projected structural imbalance in FY 2028-2029 also grew with Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB) now estimating a shortfall of $5.995 billion, $852 million worse than estimated in the December forecast. You can read Ken Bence’s full recap of the forecast here . The Governor will now release a revised budget proposal based on the updated forecast numbers, and both the House and Senate will begin the process of ...

Legislative Update: All Eyes on Potential Medicaid Cuts and State Committee Deadlines Set

By Sara Grafstrom posted 03-02-2025
Last week, much of the attention from ARRM and the legislature was focused on what was happening at the Federal level and their budget reconciliation process. On Tuesday evening, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a budget resolution, the first step in budget reconciliation. Included in the resolution is a $880 billion cut target to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees the Medicaid program. ARRM has been working closely with our national trade association, ANCOR, and passing along action alerts and information to members as we hear them. Barbara Merrill, the CEO of ANCOR, shared this last week: “It's important to remember, that this ...

Legislative Update: Governor's Budget Proposal Receives Focus in the Senate

By Sara Grafstrom posted 02-24-2025
Last week, the Senate Human Services Committee focused on the Governor's budget recommendations. On Monday, the Department presented and answered committee members' questions about the proposal, and on Wednesday, members of the community, including ARRM staff, provided testimony on the budget proposal. The overall sentiment from committee members was concern over the proposed cuts to services that support people with disabilities and older adults and a desire to find alternative approaches to balancing the state’s budget. The Department continued to present various reports to the House Human Services Committee, including a report on the PACE program and a ...

Legislative Update: ARRM's Bills receive formal introduction in the House

By Sara Grafstrom posted 02-16-2025
This last week marked the first full week of committee hearings in the House. During the week, much of ARRM’s focus was on introducing our bills in the House and House committee hearings outlining the Governor’s budget proposal. Below is a recap of what happened in both the House and Senate last week. House Recap On Wednesday, public testimony was taken in the Human Services Policy and Finance Committee to the Governor’s budget proposal. ARRM’s Johnny Tvedt provided testimony outlining our opposition to the proposed cuts to waiver services and testified to the devastating impact these cuts would have on people with disabilities and their staff. On Thursday, ...

Legislative Update: The House has a deal and the Senate dissolves theirs

By Sara Grafstrom posted 02-09-2025
It was a busy week at the Capitol! Both the Senate and the House had major dynamic shifts and ARRM had three of our legislative priorities receive their first committee hearing. Below is a brief update on everything that happened and some things we are looking at this coming week. Senate Power Shift Sen. Doran Clark (60) was sworn in on Monday, February 3 rd . Immediately following the swearing in, a motion was made on the Senate floor to dissolve the power sharing agreement that was put in place at the beginning of session. Following some debate, the motion prevailed and the DFL is now in control of committees and the Senate floor once again. House ...

Legislative Update: Still no House agreement, new lawsuit filed

By Sara Grafstrom posted 02-02-2025
Week three of the legislative session was much of the same as the first two weeks. Following the ruling of the Supreme Court that the House needs 68 votes to declare a quorum, all House committee meetings were canceled. The Secretary of State gaveled in the House each day last week and each day declared that a quorum was not present and adjourned. Leaders of both parties in the House have still not come to a power-sharing agreement and as of late last week, they are not meeting with each other. House GOP sues the Secretary of State Last week saw GOP leaders file a lawsuit against Secretary of State Simon. The GOP alleges that Secretary of State Simon has ...

Legislative Update: Minnesota Supreme Courts sides with the DFL

By Sara Grafstrom posted 01-26-2025
Week two of the legislative session saw much of the same, with DFL House members continuing to boycott the Capitol. On Friday, the Minnesota Supreme Court sided with the DFL, ruling that the House needs 68 members to achieve a quorum, negating the GOP's actions over the last two weeks. Committee hearings in the House scheduled for next week have been canceled, and an agreement that would bring DFL members back to the Capitol has still not been reached. Prior to the Supreme Court ruling, Rep. Schomacker, GOP Chair of the House Human Service Finance and Policy Committee, held a hearing focused on public testimony on the Governor’s proposed budget. ARRM took this ...

Legislative Update: 2025 Session Convenes and Governor's Budget Proposal Released

By Sara Grafstrom posted 01-19-2025
The 2025 legislative session began on Tuesday in an unprecedented way, with only half of the members of the House attending floor sessions and a power-sharing agreement in place in the Senate. ARRM staff are working to navigate the waters at the Capitol in a bipartisan way while maintaining a strong voice for disability waiver service providers. In the House Before the start of the session, DFL and Republican leaders were in negotiations as to how to share power under their 67-67 tie. These negotiations halted when a court ruled that the newly elected DFL member in House District 40B did not meet residency requirements, leaving the seat open. This ruling ...

Grassroots Advocacy and the 2025 Legislative Session

By Jonathan Tvedt posted 01-10-2025
EDIT: Since the publishing of this post, members of the House DFL held a private swearing-in ceremony on Sunday, giving way for a potential absence to start session. In response, House Republicans have considered petitioning a recall of elected House DFL members. It remains unclear if all currently elected House members will show up for Tuesday's start of session. Additional news broke over the weekend when the Senate agreed to temporary power sharing terms , with the chamber currently tied. Each party currently holds 33 seats . The Senate District 60 seat, most recently occupied by the late Senator Kari Dziedzic, will host a special election on January 28th. ...

NEWS YOU CAN USE: DWRS, COMPENSATION THRESHOLDS AND MORE!

By Ken Bence posted 11-22-2024
The end of the year is always a busy time for ARRM and the providers we represent. While we are finalizing plans and our budget for the next year, working to schedule meetings with legislators to line up sponsors for our bills, and talking with coalition members and other stakeholders to align messaging, providers are also finalizing their budgets and making sure they understand any upcoming changes to service rates that will impact their organizations. DWRS Rate Changes The only change to DWRS rates for 2025 will be the overnight asleep wages for Community Residential Services and Family Residential Services. These overnight rates are based on the ...

Election changes the power dynamic at the State Capitol

By Sara Grafstrom posted 11-06-2024
Following yesterday’s election, the Minnesota House is currently sitting with a majority tie of 67 Republicans to 67 Democrats. There are two races that are subject to mandatory recounts, in District 14B, Rep. Dan Wolgamott (DFL) won by 28 votes and in District 54A, Rep. Brad Tabke (DFL) won by 13 votes. If either of those races flip, the Republicans will take control of the House. Rep. Jeff Brand (DFL, 18A) was the only incumbent to lose their bid for reelection. So what does a tie mean? There is only one other time in our history that the MN House has been tied, you can read about that here and get a glimpse of what we may be in store for this upcoming ...

Legislative Update: Session ends

By Sara Grafstrom posted 05-20-2024
The legislature adjourned at midnight Sine Die. The last few hours of the session were chaotic, with the majority rushing to meet the midnight deadline to pass their legislative priorities. In the end, multiple omnibus bills were wrapped into one large omnibus tax bill (HF 5247), including the Human Services appropriations provisions. The bill passed through both the House and Senate before the deadline and will be presented to the Governor for his signature. ARRM will have a full overview of the provisions that passed in the coming weeks. Today, however, we wanted to make sure members had an update on the fate of ARRM’s legislative priorities. Policy Provisions ...