Greetings from the district,
The Minnesota Legislature recently reconvened for our third special session of the summer. Like the previous two, this special session was required when the governor decided to extend his emergency powers for an additional 30 days, but there were a few other items that the Senate took up as well:
Let me quickly tell you about two of the bills we passed:
- Taking care of people with disabilities: COVID has been devastating to disability service providers. In fact, dozens of them may be forced to close if they don’t receive emergency assistance. In each of the previous two special sessions this year, the Senate unanimously passed a bill that allocates $30 million from the federal Coronavirus Relief Fund to the Department of Human Services for grants to help disability service providers. I was proud to be an author on this proposal and happy to share that the Senate again passed the bill with unanimous support. I believe the third time will be a charm as the House of Representatives finally agreed to take up the bill and the governor has indicated that he will support the bipartisan agreement. As a result, disability service providers will finally receive this badly needed assistance.
- Helping veterans receive treatment for mental health, substance abuse, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): The Minnesota Senate unanimously approved The Veterans Restorative Justice Act, which aims to divert at-risk veterans toward probation and social service programs instead of jail time when they commit certain less-severe crimes. Unfortunately, the House of Representatives did not take up the bill before adjournment. I’m committed to continuing to work on this important legislation for our veterans.
Contact Me
As always, if you have any questions, ideas, or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact me any time. Your feedback is extremely important to me and I encourage you to share your input. You can send me an email at sen.jeremy.miller@senate.mn or call my Capitol office at 651-296-5649. It’s a great honor to serve as your State Senator.
Finally, if you don’t already follow me on Facebook, please give my page a ‘Like’. This is a great way to stay on top of the latest news from the Capitol! Visit my page here: https://www.facebook.com/SenatorJeremyMiller/.
Sincerely,