Sen. Latz Week in Review: Second Deadlines

[The following news release comes from the office of Sen. Ron Latz (DFL-District 44)]

Friday brought us second deadline, all policy bills had to pass through both the House and Senate Committees and into Finance or onto the Floor for the bill to be considered for a final vote this session. Historically, the majority can change or adjust those rules as they see fit. For example, there was a bill regarding presumptive child custody that did not meet first deadline but was heard in the Judiciary and Health & Human Services committees this week during second deadlines. Things are ever changing and very fluid around here.

Committees met late into evenings to finish their work. Higher Education met just twice and covered a small policy omnibus bill on Wednesday. Judiciary met Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday this week with all but Tuesday going well into evening hours.

On Tuesday, I had a bill heard in Judiciary that will enable prosecutors to enhance a domestic abuse charge if there has been a history of female genital mutilation (S.F. 1657). This bill was brought to me by Jason Hutchison, the prosecutor for the City of Hopkins. It was passed unanimously and put on the consent agenda in the Senate.

Wednesday evening, Judiciary heard a bill relating to presumptive child custody. Currently, the law requires parents to equally start with 25% custody for each party and through mediation, and court, move up from there based on the best interest of the child. The original proposal was to presume 50% custody and then set high bars to go down from there. The bill was amended in Judiciary to start with 35% custody for both parties but also connected parenting time to how child support is calculated.  Bottom-line, it is a big change in the system and needs much more work than a 2 ½ hour hearing in one committee.

Both Thursday and Friday brought a myriad of bills both non-controversial and controversial. Despite the long committee hours in Judiciary the last few weeks, there were still a plethora of bills that had merit that were not heard which is very disappointing. The majority of those unheard bills were proposed by Democrats.

Floor session was held every day this week in order to move bills between committees. Monday, a bill I worked hard on was passed on the floor. This bill creates a new felony for those who commit the crime of neglect against Vulnerable Adults (S.F. 1586). It is now awaiting passage in the House and I have hopes that it will make it to the Governor’s desk this session. Thursday we had a long floor discussion revolving around some of the GOP budget “lights-on bills”. I voted against these bills because they remove any consequence of not getting work done, making it too easy for gridlock to continue, and because they put parts of the budget on auto-pilot. By doing this we are empowering and rewarding those who would obstinately refuse to negotiate and prefer real cuts to appropriations.

Friday was a big day on the Senate Floor as we heard the Constitutional Amendment to require Voter ID. A constitutional amendment bypasses the Governor and goes straight to the ballot once both bodies pass the bill; the House passed the amendment earlier this week. Personally, I do not support the bill or the process of placing it on the ballot. Voting is an inalienable right and there should be high barriers to pass in order to restrict a persons’ constitutional right. Our election system has long been one of the strongest in the Nation, it is not broken, and does not need to be “fixed” with this amendment. A constitutional amendment cannot easily be repaired, like a statute, if we find it does not work exactly as hoped. I support a statutory alternative of electronic voter verification.

I continue to meet with many constituent groups at the Capitol. This week I met with a constituent here for American Cancer Society Day as well as a student here from Minnesota Private Colleges Day. A large group of constituents also stopped by my office during the Joint Religious Legislative Council (JRLC) day on the hill. This group has always been a strong advocate for pressing social justice issues in Minnesota and I regret that I was unable to personally meet with them. Advocates for Minnesota Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome also dropped by information.

This is the last week I will have the survey open, so please take a moment to fill out my 2012 Legislative Survey on-line. Here is the link:

https://surveys.senate.mn/TakeSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=82MJm82

The survey will remain open until March 30. Please continue to e-mail, write or phone me regarding your issues and concerns.