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 gave the GOP a temporary 67-66 majority and put a power-sharing agreement into question. Without an agreement in place, the DFL caucus decided not to participate in opening day ceremonies or legislative floor sessions. The GOP caucus moved ahead without the DFL present and elected Rep. Lisa Demuth (13A) as Speaker of the House with Rep. Harry Niska (31A) serving as majority leader. These proceedings are being challenged by both the House DFL caucus and the Secretary of State office with initial court arguments scheduled for the coming week. Along with floor sessions, the GOP is also moving forward with holding committee hearings. The Human Service Finance and Policy committee is chaired by Rep. Joe Schomacker (21A). Initial hearings have focused on jurisdiction overview presented by House non-partisan staff.
Update on House District 40B Special Election: Late Friday afternoon, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that the Governor prematurely called the special election to fill the District 40B seat. Initially, the Governor had set that election date for January 28th, this date has been canceled, and a new date will be set, likely in March.
In the Senate
Following the death of Senator Kari Dziedzic (60), the Senate is currently tied at 33-33. Unlike the House dynamics, leaders of the GOP and DFL were able to work out a power-sharing agreement before the start of the session, establishing co-chairs for committees and co-presidents to preside over Senate floor sessions. The power-sharing agreement will end when there are 34 votes for either party. The Governor has called a special election to fill Sen. Dziedzic’s seat in District 60 for January 28th. In the Human Services Finance and Policy Committee, Sen. John Hoffman (34) and Sen. Jordan Rasmusson (09) are sharing the chair duties. This last week saw one hearing in the Human Services committee, featuring both non-partisan staff and the Department of Human Services providing an overview to committee members of issues under the committee’s jurisdiction.
Update on Sen. Mitchell Court Case: One remaining unknown in the Senate is the status of Sen. Nicole Mitchell’s trial for felony burglary charges. Late Friday afternoon a judge ruled that the trial will be put on hold until after the legislative session.
ARRM Bills introduced this week
Despite the uncertainty at the Capitol, ARRM staff continue to work to advance ARRM’s legislative priorities. On Friday, four of ARRM’s bills were introduced in the Senate. Those bills are:
- SF 400: Allowing for Indirect Billing for some Unit Based Services
- SF 401: ARRM’s Policy Bill
- SF 402: Best Life Alliance DWRS Rate Adjustments
- SF 446: Modifying Out-of-Home Respite for Children
Governor’s Budget Recommendations
On Thursday, Governor Walz released his budget recommendations, ARRM was disappointed to see significant cuts to disability waiver services included. In total, Governor Walz is proposing approximately $600 million in cuts over four years to waiver services, threatening to further destabilize our services and erode the progress we have made over the last few years. The Governor is proposing the following:
- Establishing limitations on rate exceptions
- Limiting billing to only 351 days
- Limiting access to Customized Living for people under 55
- Conducting a residential overnight staffing reform study
- Establishing a 5% county share for residential services
- Limiting IHST to 8 hours a day
- Reducing the absence and utilization factor for Day services
- Creating a new rate for Night Supervision overnight sleep services
- Capping DWRS inflationary adjustments to 2% annually.
ARRM is aggressively opposing these proposals. On Friday we released a press release outlining the devastating impact these proposals will have on disability waiver services and today, we are asking for members to reach out to their legislators with an action alert that can be found on our website here. Please take action today and make sure your legislators know the negative impact these proposals would have on people with disabilities, their families, and their support staff.
Questions
What is happening at the Capitol right now is confusing. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me with any questions you have. With the uncertainties ahead, we must be reaching out to all legislators, making sure they know the important role that disability waiver services play in every community across the state and the impact any kind of cut would have on these services.
--Sara Grafstrom, Senior Director of State and Federal Policy