Transcript Highlights:

• budget to add a new ongoing appropriation of $1.5 million in fiscal year 2027 for an identity verification
• budget to add a new ongoing appropriation of $1.5 million in fiscal year 2027 for an identity verification
• budget to add a new ongoing appropriation of $1.5 million in fiscal year 2027 for an identity verification
• system to combat enrollment verification system to combat enrollment fraud.<00:21:16.159><c> Um,</c>
• system to combat identity verification system to combat enrollment<01:42:49.840><c> fraud.

Summary: The conference committee received a nonpartisan walkthrough of the House and Senate side-by-side for higher education-related legislation, with staff identifying Senate-only, House-only, identical, and technical-difference provisions. Topics included paid blood donation leave for Minnesota State employees, a revised higher education attainment goal, athletic fee restrictions, developmental course disclosures, American Indian Scholars Program eligibility, protections and definitions for pregnant and parenting students, online program management contracts, student aid reporting, work-study and dual training grants, private and out-of-state postsecondary education regulation, private career school licensing and data privacy, college savings plan changes, and several University of Minnesota-related provisions. House-only items also included an unemployment insurance aid adjustment, a $1.5 million ongoing appropriation for an identity verification system to combat enrollment fraud, and $5,000 for Bemidji State University reforestation; Senate-only items included Board of Regents appointment language, limits on for-profit control of medical school curriculum, and reporting on for-profit funding in medical education. After the walkthrough, the committee moved to adopt the same and similar provisions and direct staff to make technical corrections. A senator asked about proposed adjustments to the pregnant and parenting student language, and the chair said amendments would be considered after adopting the same and similar provisions. The motion to adopt prevailed. During public testimony, Sydney Spre of the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees supported the Senate’s paid blood donation leave language, saying it would create parity for Minnesota State employees and encourage blood and plasma donation. Commissioner Dennis Olsen of the Office of Higher Education thanked the committee for adopting most of the agency’s proposed language and said he was available to help clarify remaining differences. In response to questions, he explained the Senate’s higher education attainment goal proposal, saying it would extend and broaden the existing goal, raise the target from 70% to 75%, expand the age range, and use additional metrics and partner agencies; he also said the overall attainment rate had been 63.5 under the prior goal. The transcript ends as the commissioner was being asked whether the proposal would require additional appropriations.

Transcript Highlights:

• verification when citizens, residents,<00:31:44.399><c> visitors</c><00:31:44.880><c> sign</c><00:31
• </c> improved ident identity verification improved ident identity verification capabilities<00:31:58.559
• </c><00:36:04.720><c> We</c><00:36:04.880><c> want</c> verification as people sign up.
• We want verification as people sign up.
• capabilities at DEED, income verification capabilities at the Department of Revenue, and our ability

Committee: House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy

Transcript Highlights:

• We know that two of the primary ones are employment verification and income verification. influence our
• > employment</c> two of the primary ones are employment two of the primary ones are employment verification
• <00:57:44.319><c> and</c><00:57:44.559><c> income</c><00:57:44.960><c> verification.
• </c> verification and income verification. verification and income verification.
• I've not been bashful about asking other companies who do income verification for free trials.

Committee: Joint Appropriations

Transcript Highlights:

• And I'll say that Roblox, which now does age verification differently than we do, one of the questions
• And I'll say that Roblox, which now does age verification differently than we do, one of the questions
• And so when I think about things like, you know, the fact that age verification could very well include
• Anecdotally, we know that young people are using alternative platforms, circumventing age verification
• Anecdotally, we know that young people are using alternative platforms, circumventing age verification

Committee: House Privacy and Consumer Protection

Transcript Highlights:

• I don't know if you all know, but they already have a verification... With this.
• I don't know if you all know, but they already have a verification process in place that's been working
• I don't know if you all know, but their verification process is put in place to highlight real fraud
• Supervisors already have a proven and secure verification process to highlight real fraud.
• They have a verification process already in place.

Summary: The Senate opened with prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance, and a series of member introductions recognizing interns, pages, and a retiring Senate employee. Leadership also announced that budget talks with the House were continuing and that senators should not plan to be in next week, with hopes of sharing more budget news soon. The chamber then moved to third reading and took up a major bill on citizen initiatives and constitutional amendments, with sponsors saying it was needed to address documented petition fraud and to protect the integrity of the process. That bill drew extensive debate. Supporters argued that recent investigations showed widespread fraud in petition gathering, that the measure would add reasonable guardrails, and that it would prevent taxpayer-funded government messaging from being used to influence ballot measures. Opponents said the bill would make it much harder for ordinary Floridians to place amendments on the ballot by adding costs, deadlines, registration requirements, fines, and felony exposure, and they warned it would chill grassroots participation and effectively favor wealthy or corporate-backed campaigns. After debate, the Senate passed the bill 28-10. The Senate then adopted several House amendments and concurred on a series of education and public-safety measures, including bills on stem cell therapy, student-athlete electrocardiograms, cardiac emergency planning in schools, school safety, Bright Futures and other education policy items, and educator preparation. Most of those measures passed unanimously or with overwhelming support, and the chamber also recognized additional interns and a long-serving education advocate before recessing and returning to continue with House messages.

Transcript Highlights:

• Implementing an age verification system will take time and could be prohibitively expensive, requiring
• Additionally, age verification for electronic resources would need to be done by the vendor providing
• likely reduce... the essential services they provide so that resources may be redirected to age verification
• I'm Deborah Simmons and I support HB3225 to require age verification to access sexually explicit material
• Finally, the bill's requirement for age verification could apply to both men and women, and it could

Bills: HB45 , HB45 , HB755 , HB 1232 , HB1555 , HB2460 , HB2702 , HB2973 , HB3120 , HB3225 , HB3314 , HB3356 , HB3371 , HB3634 , HB3638 , HB4247 , HB4283 , HB4290 , HB4302 , HB4503 , HB4511 , HB4565 , HB4581 , HB4627 , HB4632 , HB4660 , HB4668 , HB4960 , HB5042

Committee: House State Affairs

Transcript Highlights:

• It doesn’t always happen, and it just gets that verification so the family can show they did it.
• it just doesn't always happen and and it just gets<00:32:29.760><c> that</c><00:32:30.159><c> verification
• so</c><00:32:31.440><c> the</c><00:32:31.679><c> family</c><00:32:32.080><c> can</c> gets that verification
• so the family can gets that verification so the family can show<00:32:32.480><c> they</c><00:32:32.720

Committee: House Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs

Transcript Highlights:

• data integration work that is hopefully going to allow us to do kind of the automated validation verification
• , or ex parte... ...kind of the automated validation verification, or ex parte work, without going out
• that to get your feedback, and then the data integration work that we're doing for the ex parte verification
• We want to make sure that we have all available data to help inform that eligibility verification.

Summary: The Care Management Meeting opened with a DSS update on the PCMH program. Staff reported the program remained steady at 124 practices, 553 sites, and 2,548 providers, with some month-to-month fluctuation driven by practice consolidation, retirements, and a few practices leaving the program because NCQA requirements were burdensome. Members asked about declining provider and site counts, member attribution trends, and whether PCMH practices overlap with behavioral health homes; DSS said attribution changes are largely due to members becoming ineligible, moving, or getting other insurance, and that PCMH and behavioral health homes are separate programs that coordinate informally. The committee also discussed why some smaller practices leave the program and whether the requirements could be made easier to support retention. The committee then resumed a detailed presentation on the Husky Dental program. The presenter described the dental benefit’s history, the importance of preventive oral health, workforce and consolidation pressures in dentistry, and the lack of interoperability between dental and medical records. Network data showed year-over-year declines in enrolled dental practitioners and service locations, with access gaps concentrated in rural and eastern parts of the state. Appointment availability surveys showed average waits of 38 days for adults and 23 days for children, but much longer waits at FQHCs than private fee-for-service practices. The presenter said Connecticut remains above the national median on CMS pediatric dental quality measures, though sealant rates remain a concern, and noted that preventive care is associated with lower per-member costs. Members raised concerns about provider participation, large practices dropping Medicaid, mobile dental care, and whether the public directory accurately reflects which dentists are actually accepting new patients. The presenter said the plan uses secret-shopper calls, tracks appointment availability, and has begun using place-of-service coding to better identify school-based dental care. She also noted a new MOU with 20 Head Start programs to share data and provide oral health literacy and navigation support. The final major topic was implementation planning for HR1. DSS said CMS guidance was expected in early June and proposed using upcoming meetings to cover medical frailty, communication strategy, and data integration/ex parte verification. Committee members urged the department to create a dashboard to track disenrollments and other impacts of HR1, to build a process for complaints and problem resolution, and to think through cost-sharing, caregiver verification, exemptions, and notices. Members also asked about using existing eligibility structures such as the working-disabled program as a model. The committee agreed to move the next meeting to June 10 by Zoom, with the agenda to be circulated in advance and any PCMH Plus quality data shared if available.

Transcript Highlights:

• Um I particularly like the fact that we are ensuring that there is the avenue for human verification
• :21:13.520><c> avenue</c><00:21:14.240><c> for</c><00:21:14.800><c> human</c><00:21:15.240><c> verification
• </c><00:21:16.680><c> of</c> is the avenue for human verification of is the avenue for human verification

Summary: The House Elections, Constitutional Amendments, and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee met to consider House Bill 534, an elections bill sponsored by Representative D.J. Johnson. The committee first adopted a committee substitute, and Johnson explained that the substitute removed the emergency clause, deleted provisions on craft member appointments and cast vote records, changed language on memoranda of understanding with the Department of Justice from mandatory to permissive, and removed a section on election-day procedures for voters flagged as non-citizens. He said the changes were made in response to concerns from county clerks and to improve the bill before floor consideration. Members asked about the bill’s purpose, cost, and effects. Johnson said the measure was not aimed at a widespread fraud problem but was intended to improve election security, accuracy, and fairness, and he said he had not been told it would create a significant cost increase. Questions also focused on a provision allowing certain federal officeholders to run for president or vice president while retaining their current office; Johnson said the language was meant to apply only to federal offices decided by the Electoral College and to avoid penalizing voters who elected those officials. Representative Roberts supported that provision, while Representative Gooch objected to it and said he would vote no if it remained. The committee also discussed voter-roll maintenance and whether the bill would improperly remove people whose voting rights had been restored by pardon or other legal means. Johnson said the administrative process should account for restored rights through coordination with the governor’s office and the Administrative Office of the Courts. Several members praised the Secretary of State’s work but raised concerns about the clerks’ opposition, the bill’s cost, and whether it solved a real problem. After debate, the committee voted 12-4 to pass the bill as amended by the committee substitute, then adopted a title amendment, and reported House Bill 534 favorably to the House floor.

Transcript Highlights:

• The two points we'd like to emphasize: First, we object to the removal of the third-party verification
• We object to the removal of the third-party verification for information submitted by EITEs.
• What's the standard that requires us to have the third-party verification for those emission reductions
• versions of this bill that more strongly tied no-cost allowances to robust planning, third-party verification

Bills: SB6013 , SB6291

Committee: House Environment & Energy

Keywords: ski areas, winter sports, terminology, recreation, economic development, SB6291, on-site wastewater treatment, onsite wastewater treatment, septic system, sewage treatment, wastewater inspection, environmental health, local board of health, public health, professional engineer, land surveyor, certificate of competency, inspection standards, design review, supervised practice

Transcript Highlights:

• This requires sellers or providers of emotional support animals, as well as those issuing verifications
• well as emotional support animals as well as those<00:09:13.040><c> issuing</c><00:09:13.519><c> verifications
• </c><00:09:14.120><c> of</c><00:09:14.240><c> a</c> those issuing verifications of a those issuing verifications

Committee: Senate Ways and Means

Summary: The joint Ways and Means and Judiciary committee met in decision-making mode and took up a long list of measures, mostly recommending passage with or without amendments. Early actions included S.B. 414, which was amended to blank the appropriation, draw funds from the major disaster fund, and change the effective date to 2050, and S.B. 223, which would require fire breaks in hazardous fire areas and create or expand wildland fire prevention and protection programs with blank appropriations for FY 2026 and 2027. The committee also advanced S.B. 1009 on state reserve parking space enforcement, S.B. 1149 on reported hate crime definitions and reporting, S.B. 402 on mooring-line requirements for certain vessels, S.B. 1441 on the Oahu regional health care system transfer, S.B. 1442 on child and adolescent mental health responsibilities, S.B. 1478 on harbor evacuation orders, and S.B. 493 on written notice for emotional support animal sales or verifications. Members generally raised little opposition, and most measures were adopted without reservations. Some bills drew brief discussion or committee-report notes, including S.B. 1149, which referenced a Hawaii Civil Rights Commission report encouraging policy-level hate crime data reporting, and S.B. 1442, which was amended with a far-future effective date and a committee-report note about whether mental health services should be expressly subject to funding. S.B. 1441 was substantially revised to require a memorandum of agreement between the Oahu Regional Health Care System and the Department of Health by November 30, 2025, with patient care to begin by December 31, 2025, and a report to the legislature before the 2026 session. The committee also considered several finance and energy-related measures. S.B. 897 on the wildfire liability trust fund prompted questions about whether costs would be passed to consumers; the response was that the proposal contemplated cost sharing and that some amounts were still blank. S.B. 1395 and S.B. 1396 were amended to remove special-fund structures, direct revenues into the general fund, and require the governor to include equivalent amounts in the executive budget for climate-related projects. S.B. 501 was amended to expand step-in agreement provisions for future PPAs and establish a fund outside the State Treasury, and S.B. 1589 was amended so private donations to the stadium authority would go into the NID special fund for stadium infrastructure and sod, with members discussing accountability and the source of stadium-related consultant spending. The committee adopted the recommendations on all measures considered, with some members noting reservations on a few bills, and one item, S.B. 1418, was deferred.

Transcript Highlights:

• created an application for our field staff to use out in the field to enroll people in do inspection verification
• would like to fix and what they're able to do and won't allow them to do in moments and inspection verifications
• Chair. >> And then you mentioned about inspection verifications.

Transcript Highlights:

• We have to do such verifications... ...resources for weighing in on this.
• We have to do such verifications for other protected land, you know, so APR land, for example, and so

Committee: Joint Joint Committee on Revenue

Summary: The Joint Committee on Revenue held its first hearing of the session, led by House Chair Adrian Madaro and Senate Chair James Eldridge. The committee explained the constitutional amendment process and the hearing procedures, then took testimony on four bills concerning proposed amendments to the Massachusetts Constitution, with the main focus on S. 11 and H. 71, which would amend Article 99 relating to agricultural and horticultural land taxation. Senator Jo Comerford, Rebecca Miller of the Massachusetts Food System Collaborative, and Representative Natalie Blay all testified in support of the bills. They argued that the current five-acre minimum for farmland tax treatment is outdated and harms farmers, especially new, urban, and smaller-scale farmers, by forcing some land to be taxed at higher commercial rates. Supporters said the change would help preserve farmland, strengthen the local food system, and address economic pressures on farms, including high land values, climate impacts, and an aging farm workforce. In response to a question about abuse or false claims, Comerford and Miller said existing certification processes under Chapter 61A and municipal review help verify active farming, and Miller noted the bill requires land to be in production for two years before receiving the rate. Committee members asked about the status of the 21st Century Farm Commission, and Comerford said a report was expected in the spring. After testimony concluded, the chairs asked whether anyone else wished to testify and then entertained a motion to adjourn, which was made and accepted.

Transcript Highlights:

• There's no verification on any of that. So is that something that you will look into as well?
• And so, at least on those, whenever you enroll in that, you have to have verification of enrollment.

Bills: HB1590 , HB1242 , HB3818 , HB4305

Committee: Senate Revenue and Taxation

Transcript Highlights:

• I think it's just a verification situation to ensure you were not again.
• I just think under this, this is a good balance, so there could be at least A check of verification that

Bills: HB1937 , HB2210 , HB2398 , HB3021 , HB3129 , HB3312 , HB3557 , HB4358

Committee: House Education Oversight

Transcript Highlights:

• Department and the Economic Development Department must establish clear performance requirements, verification
• This one, the other thing I like about it is the rebates will be verified, and all of the verification

Committee: Senate Senate Conservation

Transcript Highlights:

• House Bill 2133 is about verification and consent requirements for commercial entities that publish or
• House Bill 2133 is about verification and consent requirements for commercial entities that publish or

Committee: House Rules

Transcript Highlights:

• Retail stores must have a Lottery Commission-approved age verification process at the point of sale.
• However, the Lottery Commission-approved age verification process at the point of sale.

Bills: HB668 , HB677 , HB766 , HB3133 , SB3070

Committee: Senate State Affairs

Summary: The committee met to hear several bills, beginning with House Bill 766, which would require precinct chair applicants to provide an email address, phone number, or both on their applications while keeping that contact information confidential. No one testified for or against the bill, and it was left pending. House Bill 677, a companion to a previously approved Senate bill, would bar county election administrators from simultaneously holding another office or position appointed by an elected official; it also drew no public testimony and was left pending. Members then heard House Bill 3133, which would add explicit deepfake material to the list of content social media platforms must handle through complaint systems, including prompt acknowledgment, investigation, and status updates. Senators discussed concerns about how platforms would verify whether reported content was actually a deepfake, and the sponsor indicated the bill may be held pending while federal law on the subject is reviewed. House Bill 668 would create a one-year grace period for renewing an expired Texas handgun license to carry, codifying an existing DPS practice; it also received no testimony and was left pending. The committee spent the most time on Senate Bill 3070, a major overhaul of the Texas Lottery system. The bill would move oversight from the Lottery Commission to TDLR, dissolve the commission, impose new restrictions on ticket sales and internet play, create a lottery advisory committee, increase transparency and audit requirements, and include a sunset review that could lead to abolishing the lottery if not continued by 2027. The author described the bill as a response to alleged misconduct and illegal practices by the commission, while a witness from the Christian Life Commission testified in favor, supporting changes to prize anonymity and other lottery restrictions. After testimony, the bill was left pending, and the committee recessed subject to the call of the chair.

Transcript Highlights:

• A NATIONAL INDUSTRY CERTIFICATION IN LAND SURVEY, AND HE OR SHE RECEIVES A RECOMMENDATION AND VERIFICATION
• AND EARNED A NATIONAL INDUSTRY CERTIFICATION IN LAND SURVEYING AND RECEIVED A RECOMMENDATION AND VERIFICATION

Transcript Highlights:

• Along those same lines, my question was, what's the verification?
• What's the verification? Mr. Chairman, yes, sir. Mr.
• I'd like to see what verifications they have on this.
• I think we have to think about that people need to be... what verifications they have on this. what verifications
• I'd like to see what verifications they have on this.

Bills: HB426 , SB24 , SB106 , SB254 , HB505 , HB458 , HB535 , HB509 , HB320 , HB518 , HB261 , HB426 , SB24 , SB106 , SB254 , HB505 , HB458 , HB535 , HB509 , HB320 , HB518 , HB261 , SB316 , HB228 , SB318 , SB260 , HB132 , HB347 , HB405 , HB86 , HB263 , HB302 , SB336 , SB316 , HB228 , SB318 , SB260 , HB132 , HB347 , HB405 , HB86 , HB263 , HB302 , SB336

Committee: Senate Judiciary