Transcript Highlights:

• I think one is in the city of Minneapolis, the top one.
• of Minneapolis, the top one. of Minneapolis, the top one.
• Because when we were here last time, I thought that was like at the top of my list was Blaine.
• Oh, no, that was not top secret.
• think that was top secret information. think that was top secret information.

Keywords: 1187, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• So, um, in the original bill, we added parents or guardians up top.
• /c><02:32:48.160> or<02:32:48.399> guardians<02:32:49.040> up<02:32:49.280> top
• uh added uh parents or guardians up top. uh added uh parents or guardians up top.
• it<03:07:01.120> the<03:07:01.279> fact<03:07:01.439> that and and and on top
• of it the fact that and and and on top of it the fact that we<03:07:01.760> actually<03:07:02.560

Keywords: 1191, senate, all

Summary: The committee of conference spent most of its time on Senate Bill 96, which deals with educator conduct and when information may be withheld from parents. The main dispute was over the House-amended language on violations and the “compelling state interest” standard. The Senate sponsor objected to extending penalties to third-party medical or mental health contractors and to language suggesting psychological or emotional injury to a child would not constitute a compelling state interest. The House side argued its draft was intended to keep the bill focused on credentialed educators and administrators, to include parents or guardians, and to avoid creating competing standards by relying on existing abuse definitions in statute. The House also added a requirement that any withholding of information be documented and reported to the school board in nonpublic session, and both sides discussed whether educators, administrators, nurses, and guidance counselors would be covered under the statutory definition of educator. The discussion also covered enforcement and penalties. The House draft proposed that an educator found to have willfully violated the law could have a credential suspended for a first offense and would face a minimum one-year suspension for multiple offenses, while the Senate raised concerns that this was too rigid and did not allow enough discretion or address revocation. The House later explained that the department would still have discretion on first offenses and that the one-year rule applied only to multiple offenses. Another point of disagreement was a three-year statute of limitations for investigations, which the House said was meant to prevent “witch hunts,” while the Senate noted New Hampshire’s constitutional prohibition on retroactive laws. After caucusing, the Senate rejected the House amendment, and the House then voted non-concur; the committee of conference adjourned without agreement. The transcript then moved to Senate Bill 87, concerning one-day liquor license requirements and allowing salons and barber shops to obtain on-premise licenses. The members discussed a House amendment that would allow two drinks instead of one, with supporters saying the change reflected the longer time customers may spend in salons and that alcohol service would still be covered by existing training requirements, including the EDGE course. Opponents worried that allowing multiple drinks would create over-serving and enforcement problems and could complicate business practices. After discussion, the Senate member agreed to go along with the House position, and the bill was reported ready for final sign-off.

Transcript Highlights:

• legislature because increasingly it is of grave concern to everybody when you have a few people at the top
• who own more than the rest of at the top who own more than the rest of us<00:04:24.080> combined.
• And, you know, I think I understand the top-down problem-solving nature of this bill, but if parents
• know, I think I understand the the top know, I think I understand the the top down<00:25:07.039>
• - down uh position, I think is is is top- down uh position, I think is is is trying<00:26:18.000>

Keywords: 919, house, all

Summary: The committee took up House File 3117, which would impose an excise tax on social media companies based on Minnesota monthly users and data-mining activity, and adopted an A1 amendment that added clarifying language identifying social media platforms. Chair Gomez described the bill as a way to tax companies profiting from data mining and social media use, citing concerns about child bullying, misinformation, and wealth concentration. The bill was laid over for possible inclusion in the 2025 taxes bill. Supporters testified that the measure would help raise revenue from a highly profitable industry and better align the tax code with the social costs of data collection and social media use. Pastor Julie Thompson, MAPE representative Tanner Fritzinger, Council Member Sue Bud, and Eric Bernstein of We Make Minnesota all backed the bill, arguing that social media companies extract value from users’ data, contribute to mental health and social harms, and should pay more toward public needs. Bernstein also framed the tax as a way to broaden the tax base and fund schools and other services. Opponents warned that the bill could sweep in local broadcasters, newspapers, and other businesses that use digital platforms and collect some user data, and that costs would likely be passed on to consumers. Wendy Pollson of the Minnesota Broadcasters Association said the definitions were too broad and could unintentionally include local media. Deb Peters, speaking for Americans for Digital Opportunity, argued the tax would raise costs for small businesses and consumers, create legal risks, and amount to double taxation. Several members echoed concerns about regressivity, administration, and whether the bill actually addresses online bullying or data privacy, while supporters said it is a first step toward taxing a new, lightly taxed industry.

Transcript Highlights:

• This is a top priority for my community, and unfortunately we had similar circumstances in my district
• This is a top priority for my community, and unfortunately we had similar circumstances in my district
• This is a top priority for my community, and unfortunately we had similar circumstances in my district
• This is a top priority for my community, and unfortunately we had similar circumstances in my district
• This is a top priority for my community, and unfortunately we had similar circumstances in my district

Keywords: 1183, house

Transcript Highlights:

• As you know, health care affordability is the top issue to constituents and for Texas employers.
• of the bar is member contributions, then the dark blue is member out-of-pocket, and then that last top
• Our top trend driver now is cancer.
• We're trying out this PEAQ scoring, and we put the top 25% of the providers in tier one and the bottom
• So when we ask our employers what is driving their costs, three issues consistently rise to the top:

Keywords: 1184, house, all

Transcript Highlights:

• On top of that, you know, you have family health insurance.
• But on top of that, you have this side of service differential.
• , The total drug cost is on the top chart, which is orange.
• Like, do you pay the top co-pay, the middle co-pay, or the lowest co-pay?
• We've had literally two of our, probably the two of the top experts.

Keywords: 1184, house, all

Transcript Highlights:

• The top map is our large-scale regional water supply systems and their coverage.
• The top map is our large-scale regional water supply systems and their coverage.
• The top map is our large scale of regional water supply systems in their coverage.
• I do not know the percentage off the top of my head, but we can certainly get that for you.
• I do not know the percentage off the top of my head, but we can certainly get that for you. Great.

Keywords: 908, all

Transcript Highlights:

• This growth is on top of significant increases that we saw in the November forecast.
• The solid line across the top represents our current forecast.
• Um, we know that, you know, the top 10% hold 93% of stocks and mutual funds.
• Um, we know that, you know, the top 10% hold 93% of stocks and mutual funds.
• For example, in the top and so forth.

Bills: HF3425

Keywords: supportive housing, grants, housing assistance, funding, Minnesota Statutes, 1183, house

Transcript Highlights:

• I wanted to share with the chair and members some of the top pressures that direct care and treatment
• Recruiting and retaining staff is our top priority for the foreseeable future.
• chaired members some of the top chaired members some of the top pressures<00:04:40.960> that<
• 00:04:47.880> our recruiting and retaining staff is our recruiting and retaining staff is our top
• Data privacy is the top priority for us around data as we kind of move forward.

Keywords: 1183, house

Transcript Highlights:

• We'll get through it. >> So, um, so you're on the achieving top 10. >> Top 10, right? >> Yep.
• 10 US states for economic into the top 10 US states for economic growth<00:36:02.000> over<00
• >> So, um, so you're on the achieving top >> So, um, so you're on the achieving top
• >> Top<00:36:35.599> 10, >> Top 10, >> Top 10, >> right?
• So moving to the top 10 >> right? Yep.

Bills: HF4862, HF4598

Keywords: apprenticeship, education, teacher training, grant program, labor and industry, workers' compensation, Minnesota workers' compensation, Workers' Compensation Advisory Council, reinsurance association, Workers' Compensation Reinsurance Association, WCRA, occupational disease, presumption, first responders, firefighter cancer, PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, police officer, paramedic, emergency medical technician

Transcript Highlights:

• Erickson, to just touch on this top one, and then I'll take it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
• Erickson, to just touch on this top one, and then I'll take it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
• Erickson, to just touch on this top one, and then I'll take it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
• Erickson, to just touch on this top one, and then I'll take it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
• them I just don't have them on the top them I just don't have them on the top of<00:56:52.200>

Keywords: 1183, house

Transcript Highlights:

• So they chose to look at the top 10; that wasn't in the story.
• They chose to look at the top 10 CCAP daycare providers over a period of time. J.
• So they chose to look at the top 10; that wasn't in the story.
• They chose to look at the top 10 CCAP daycare providers over a period of time. J.
• So they chose to look at the top 10; that wasn't in the story.

Keywords: 1187, senate, all

Summary: The Health and Human Services committee heard a presentation from Department of Children, Youth, and Families Commissioner Tiki Brown on the department’s 2025 budget and transition plans. Brown said the governor’s budget pairs targeted reductions with modest investments, resulting in net general fund savings, while preserving core safety-net programs. Major proposals included funding for program integrity, modernization of the child welfare SSIS system, compliance changes for the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), operating adjustments, and a transition account reallocation as the new department continues moving programs from other agencies through July 1, 2025. A large portion of the discussion focused on CCAP fraud prevention and oversight. Brown and Assistant Commissioner Diane Hy explained that the proposed statewide electronic attendance recordkeeping system would replace retroactive paper-based attendance reporting with more timely data, making it harder to falsify attendance and claim payments improperly. Brown also said the department is working with the Department of Human Services Office of Inspector General and other partners on compliance and fraud controls. Senators pressed for more detail on current enforcement, whether payments can be withheld for violations, and whether recent media reports showed gaps in oversight; Brown said payments can be stopped for false attendance records, suspended or revoked licenses, or fraud allegations, but not for health and safety violations alone. The committee also reviewed other budget-neutral policy changes, including expanding permanency support services for relative foster care and tribal equivalents, strengthening tribal child welfare grants, updating TEACH scholarship rules for early childhood educators, and adjusting the Great Start Compensation Support Payment Program to create a special revenue fund and extend a 10% payment increase to tribally licensed programs and programs on tribal reservation land. Brown also described a $1.5 million annual reduction to restorative practices grants, leaving a smaller ongoing base. No votes or formal actions were taken during the hearing.

Transcript Highlights:

• And if you look at it again, the top part, Serious accidents.
• We picked one couch up and set it on top of another one.
• We picked one couch up and set it on top of another one.
• There were cars piled up on top of each other.
• Our dog was sitting on top of it.

Keywords: 1184, house, all

Transcript Highlights:

• top of page 15, 1830, Thank you, Madam Speaker.
• Moving on to the top of page 17, 2024. 2025.
• Moving on to the top of page 17, 2024. 2025.
• We're on the top of page 18. We're on the top of page 18.
• 20 At the top of page 21, 2048. 20 At the top of page 21, 2048.

Keywords: 910, house, all

Transcript Highlights:

• And then, the fourth thing that I would say is, how much money do they need on top of this?
• and our agencies, neither one asked top and our agencies, neither one asked for<00:06:47.040> this
• Good luck topping that, Representative Davis. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
• <01:53:11.720> six but we're spelling out these top six but we're spelling out these top six
• And then on top of that, you get the results and then you start looking at the services.

Keywords: 916, all

Transcript Highlights:

• And off the top of my head, I'm not sure how many. Um, but I can certainly look that up.
• If you look from the very top corner of that conventional range, it's 10 to 12, versus the very bottom
• You can see that top-most half a step.
• You can see that top-most light blue line is how much is being spent on food service now.
• Chairman, Representative Kelly, I don't have that off the top of my head.

Keywords: 916, all

Transcript Highlights:

• At the same time, we have among the top three states in the U.S. for the value of our seafood landings
• A few that could rise to the top that I know are really top of mind for a lot of farmers is drainage
• I see your ducks at the top field fair too. Any other questions from the committee?
• I see your ducks at the top field fair too. Any other questions from the committee?
• They're not in that list of top 30 species consumed in Massachusetts.

Keywords: 995, all

Summary: The Joint Committee on Agriculture opened its first hearing by outlining procedures, including three-minute testimony limits, written testimony options, and the plan to hear 27 bills in docket order. The committee then took testimony on H.11/S.53, a resolve promoting equity in agriculture, with advocates from the Massachusetts Food System Collaborative, Southeastern Mass Agricultural Partnership, and urban farming organizations describing racial and economic disparities in farming, lack of data on BIPOC farmers, barriers to land and capital, and the need for a commission to collect information and recommend policy changes. Committee members asked questions about the importance of data collection and future policy development, and the bill was repeatedly urged to be reported favorably out of committee. Testimony also supported H.118, which would create a special commission to examine the strengths and sustainability of the Commonwealth’s emergency food network. The Amherst Survival Center described serving 1.6 million meals last year and explained that food pantries are now functioning as essential parts of the state’s food system while relying heavily on donations, volunteers, and unstable funding. Members discussed the need for a more holistic look at food security infrastructure. The committee then heard H.119/S.60 on climate change impacts on farms and fisheries, with regional planners and farm advocates describing flood damage, rising costs, canceled federal climate-smart funding, and the need for direct state support for adaptation, resilience, and infrastructure improvements. The committee also heard testimony on H.125/H.142/S.65, a healthy soils bill, from landscape professionals who said construction sites often leave poor or stripped soil and that the bill would require better post-construction soil standards to support healthier landscapes and reduce long-term maintenance and environmental problems. Finally, the committee took extensive testimony on H.127, which would prohibit aquaculture of octopus for human consumption. Supporters, including legislators, scientists, veterinarians, students, and animal welfare advocates, argued octopus are highly intelligent and sentient, cannot be farmed humanely, and that octopus aquaculture would create environmental harms such as waste runoff, pressure on wild fish stocks, and ecosystem disruption. No votes were taken during the hearing; the bills were heard and testimony was received.

Transcript Highlights:

• There's a system of priorities that go down from the top.
• In Central Oregon, for example, the top priority is for anybody who's facing an eviction proceeding in
• So this green line at the top, these are the subset of customers we've been talking about.
• For families who are living in inefficient housing on top of using resistance heat to warm their home
• For families who are living in inefficient housing on top of using resistance heat to warm their home

Keywords: 907, all

Summary: The committee met for a series of information sessions focused on housing stabilization, rental assistance, senior housing, and heat resilience. In the first panel, OHCS and NOAA described the state’s affordable housing preservation work, including the $35 million in 2025 stabilization funding used to reduce debt and keep distressed affordable rental projects operating, plus manufactured home park preservation efforts. OHCS said the portfolio remains under strain, with about a third of projects at debt coverage ratios of 1.0 or less and rising insurance and operating costs. NOAA urged faster closings on the stabilization awards, more funding in 2027, and broader rent assistance and process reforms. Committee members asked about the gap between current appropriations and need, and OHCS explained that the new Article 11-Q bond preservation program is structured differently and requires full refinancing rather than simple cash infusions. The committee then heard a detailed discussion of the state’s eviction prevention and rental assistance program, ORDAP. OHCS said the program is administered through community action agencies, prioritizes households at imminent risk of eviction, and is now funded at a much lower level than in the prior biennium, reducing expected service to about 8,200 households this biennium. The Oregon Law Center, a county community action agency, and Multifamily Northwest all agreed the program prevents homelessness and is effective, but they differed on whether assistance should be tied so closely to eviction court. Legal aid and community action witnesses said the current system is underfunded and that eviction filings are the clearest indicator of need, while Multifamily Northwest argued the process can push people into court unnecessarily and should be moved earlier when possible. Legislators raised questions about whether a pre-eviction model could be developed and about the costs of court involvement; one member shared a personal story about how rental assistance helped keep their family housed. Next, the governor’s office, OHCS, and OHA presented on the new senior housing initiative and healthy homes work. The governor’s housing director said Oregon is making progress on homelessness and housing production, with reductions in homelessness outside Multnomah County and an estimated 50,000 future units added to the pipeline through recent state actions. OHCS outlined the senior housing programs launched in May: a debt-financing program using elderly and disabled bond authority, an older adult housing development program funded through the senior property tax deferral revolving account, and a rehousing program for older adults that will use bridge funding and services to move at least 400 unsheltered older Oregonians into housing. OHA also described its Healthy Homes Grant Program, including $24.6 million already awarded, a new $5 million grant round for seniors and people with disabilities, and examples of home repairs and weatherization that help people remain safely housed. The final information session focused on home cooling and heat resilience. OHA presented data showing rising extreme heat days, more heat-related emergency visits, and likely undercounted heat deaths, especially among older adults, people with disabilities, low-income communities, and people without access to healthy homes. ODOE reviewed implementation of Senate Bill 1536, including a cooling needs study that found 58% of surveyed households in the studied housing types needed permanent cooling, with estimated statewide costs of $582 million to $1 billion. ODOE said its rental home heat pump and community heat pump programs have supported 4,638 installations so far, with a temporary reopening planned using remaining funds. The session ended with a remote presentation from a Community Action Partnership of Oregon representative, continuing the discussion of how community action agencies help deliver energy and anti-poverty services.

Transcript Highlights:

• I don't remember exactly what the fiscal note was off the top of my head. 700 million.
• They're at the top of the list, and the 12 agencies with the highest comp ratio.
• Health insurance came up on top both in 2022 and 2024 for the benefits.
• And you could see in the top right that there's a labor rate.
• The LC number in the top left-hand corner is 27.9199.00000.

Keywords: 908, all

Transcript Highlights:

• with multiple municipalities in my district, that in particular is something that I hear about as a top
• multiple municipalities in my district, that in particular is something that I hear about as a tip-top
• Top two, I'll tell you, one of the top two issues we heard, it was this very issue that we are talking
• And if you want to know what the other top issue was, you can see me after the hearing.
• I believe there is, and the one top of my head is...

Keywords: 959, house, all