Today, the Minnesota Senate passed a significant Agriculture, Broadband, and Housing bill to help Minnesota farmers and families. The legislation works to expand broadband funding, addresses urgent concerns in our agriculture sector and improves access to affordable housing.

“Many Minnesotans, especially in Greater Minnesota, are being left behind because they lack access to quality internet or affordable housing,” Dahms said. “Our legislation focuses on improving rural development by supporting our farmers, connecting our families, and improving housing access. We cannot afford to leave our communities in Greater Minnesota behind.” 

Supporting Minnesota Agriculture

Senate Republicans have consistently advocated for resources to help our farmers and everyone who is a part of Minnesota agriculture. We will continue our commitment in this year’s Agriculture package. 

The legislation works to help our farmers combat the ongoing Avian influenza outbreak by appropriating $500,000 to the agricultural emergency account to be used for avian influenza testing supplies. Additionally, included is $350,000 for the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at the University of Minnesota for equipment to test for chronic wasting disease (CWD), African swine fever, avian influenza, and other animal diseases. 

Finally, the Agriculture section of the bill builds on past programs successfully championed by Senate Republicans to support livestock processing. This includes investments in meat cutting and butchery training programs; money to start, modernize or expand meat, poultry, dairy, and egg processing facilities; and grants for training high school students and employees of small processors. 

Investing in Connecting Minnesotans with Broadband

The Senate bill invests heavily in improving Minnesota broadband connectivity.  The legislation directs a historic level of up to $210 million of federal money to improve Minnesota broadband which is on top of the $70 million the legislature passed last session. The bill works to ensure Minnesota is not left behind in receiving federal broadband dollars.  

Investments in the Border-to-Border broadband grant program have become increasingly important to connect all Minnesotans to the modern economy. Roughly 240,000 Minnesota households are without reliable internet access including 25% of rural Minnesota households. 

“It is imperative we in Greater Minnesota don’t get left behind the rest of the world,” Dahms said. “Reliable internet is a necessity these days for everyone. Thesebroadband dollars will go a long way to making sure every Minnesotan has the connectivity they need.” 

Promoting Pathways to Home Ownership

The bill includes a comprehensive housing plan to ensure Minnesotans have stable housing and promotes and encourages pathways to homeownership. 

The Senate legislation includes funding for the Homeownership Investment Grants Program that provides funding to Minnesota-based Community Development Financial Institutions to increase affordable homeownership in our state. Republicans also make new investments for the Workforce Homeownership Program, which is designed to increase the supply of workforce and affordable, owner-occupied housing.  

The bill prevents the governor from issuing any executive order that prohibits or delays evictions for more than 30 days unless an extension to the order is approved by a majority vote of each house of the legislature.

The legislation requires the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency to complete a report on the impacts of rent control on affordable housing. In the meantime, the legislation restricts MHFA from using any funds on multifamily housing projects in cities that have adopted a rent control ordinance.

The bill now awaits action by the House of Representatives.