MFL Commissioner's Blog: April 3, 2008 Archive

Today, the House and Senate are both supposed to take up the omnibus finance bills. I talked to intrepid MPR reporter Tom Scheck, and he said be ready for the kitchen sink to be thrown in, because practically everything is germane to a finance bill. So that means, you guessed it, floor-a-palooza! We did one for the Senate yesterday, but it seemed like lawmakers were tired out by the time they finally got to the bonding bill, because only four spoke up. Here's the press conference from after the session. Sen. Langseth has probably forgotten more about bonding than anyone else at the Capitol has ever known. It's pretty funny, you should check it out.

So today we'll do a floor-a-palooza for the House. Some are expecting this to go late - very late - but the Commish will be blogging throughout the day, so keep checking back for the skinny.

12:46 - The Commish is in the gallery. I invite you to join me by clicking here to watch the action as it unfolds. So far, about a dozen lawmakers have spoken, mostly to explain different provisions of the bill, nothing controversial, but in a story here, Minority Leader Seifert called the proposal a "garbage bill." Them's fighting words.

1:00 - Right now, Majority Leader Sertich is handing out props for all the hard work done on the bill, and they're about to hear the amendments, when we should see some sparks fly.

1:12 - An amendment to restore funding to nursing homes was just offered. People seem to be please by it, and it passes on a voice vote.

1:15 - An amendment to take out the part of the bill that would allow bars to serve booze until 4:00 a.m. for the RNC is being offered by Rep. Atkins. It would go back to Atkins' Commerce and Labor committee and be included in the alcohol policy omnibus bill, the same one where our bicycle built for booze is waiting.

Rep. Kahn is not happy about it, but said she personally won't be partying until 4:00 a.m. because she isn't a Republican.

1:22 - Rep. Zellers said he knows that the members of the Commerce and Labor Committee are normal guys and like to have a good time, which got a chuckle out of Rep. Atkins. But he brings up a good point that this isn't the first time the state has extended bar times. They did it during the Super Bowl in 1992. Its hard to imagine a Super Bowl ever being held in the Metrodome.

1:26 - Rep. Lesch said that as a prosecutor, he's worried about dealing with drunk Republican delegates, but he still wants to extend the bar time.

1:30 - It's headed back to Committee.

1:31 - It's a good day to be an MFL managers. Between the number of bills (around 100) passed in the Senate today, and this floor-a-palooza, MFL managers will rolling in the points.

1:35 - Rep. Kahn has offered an amendment that would legally give people five days unpaid leave to take care of an ill immediate family member. Rep. Emmer wants to know why this is being introduced in a finance bill, and Rep. Buesgens wants to know what the cost is. Rep. Kahn says there won't be one.

1:40 - Rep. Emmer always reads the fine print. He noticed that Rep. Kahn's bill takes out the definition of a member of a family, and could mean that it isn't actually even a person, so it could be a pet, at least according to Rep. Emmer. Technically, what it does is change it from "significant other" to "others," which seems to be making the language more amenable to domestic partner benefits.

1:59 - Rep. DeLaForest has offered an amendment that would delete the salary limit of state commissioners. Right now, the limit is 95 percent of the governor's salary.

2:05 - Whoops, what Rep. DeLaForest's amendment would do is keep a limit, not delete one. Rep. Kahn and Rep. Carlson are saying that you need to be able to pay commissioner's whatever the market demands in order to get quality people in the job, and Rep. Seifert just said he won't be playing violins for people who get paid 95 percent of $120,000.00 per year.

Check out Part 1 of the thread here.

2:14 - There is an intra-DFL argument breaking out right now. Apparently Rep. Simon asked for a hearing on a bill that would have done what Rep. DeLaForest's amendment does, and he was never granted one. Rep. Sandy Wollschalager just piped up - a rarity - and expressed her disappointment that a budget bill was becoming a budget and policy bill.

2:20 - Rep. DeLaForest's amendment failed, 62 to 68. The breakdown will be up on VoteTracker later.

2:24 - Rep. Finstad just described himself as a simple man with a simple question. He asked Rep. Carlson whether its a policy bill, or a finance bill. Rep. Carlson says its a budget bill, but any bill before the body can have policy inserted into it.

2:27 - There's the phrase: Garbage bill. Rep. Finstad says that this is a garbage bill. I think the gloves are dropping.

2:32 - Rep. Olson is asking for a role call on his amendment, which would request House Research strip all the policy from the bill.

2:35 - Rep. Olson said with his amendment, he's trying to prevent the embarassment of the institution by passing the bill in the shape it's in. The irony of that statement seems to be lost on him. It does not pass 54-77.

2:48 - Rep. Olson is filibustering about the constitutionality of a budget/policy bill, and so the Commish is taking a moment to appreciate the beauty of the House chamber. Some of my favorite things at the Capitol are the little witticisms by people like Daniel Webster and Abraham Lincoln that are painted on the walls of the chambers and the hallways. Above the Speakers lectern, there's one that says "The trail of the pioneer bore the footprints of liberty." That has a pretty good ring to it. Another, says "Vox Populorum Est Vox Dei," which if the Commish is up on his Latin, means the voice of the people is the voice of God. That one's okay, but the my favorite Latin political phrase has to be "E Pluribus Unum." Its kind of sad we debased it by putting it on money, but it means "From many, one." Its pretty cool that the Founding Fathers basically described the melting pot that America would become right then and there. That isn't what they had in mind, they were talking about colonial unity for one government, but still.

2:54 - You have to give Mark Olson credit for persistence.

3:00 - Rep. Olson is finished for the moment, and Rep. Julie Bunn has offered an amendment on landfill regulations. Minority Leader Seifert asked how that is germane, other than the fact that this is a garbage bill - zing!

3:13 - The Governor just said that the current finance bill is unacceptable. He may not like the bill, but I like the way your lawmakers are racking up points today. I have a list of about 25 so far, and this is probably nowhere near done.

3:33 - Rep. Bunn's amendment passed, but Rep. Hoppe is proposing one that would strip that whole subdivision out of the bill. From what I gather, it would require landfills to have independent laboratory tests done when they apply for a permit to make sure that certain chemicals aren't leaking into groundwater.

3:59 - They're still talking about the landfill provisions. Rep. Dill just stood up and said to everyone "Welcome to the Environment Policy Committee. It has 134 members now." The fact that the House has spent nearly an hour on this provision probably is a good argument for why policy shouldn't be in the finance bill.

4:02 - Whoa, someone just asked to suspend the rules so that the House can meet after midnight. If they do that, the Commish is going to need to start self-medicating. Minority Leader Seifert says no way, that the legislature should be meeting when the media and the public and daylight are still present.

See part 1 and part 2 here.

4:15 - Rep. Mark Olson is trying to re-refer the entire bill to the House Finance Committee. I somehow doubt that will happen.

4:22 - Rep. Torrey Westrom said that Rep. Wagenius likes recycling, and that if you applied the same principle of separating your glass from your plastic and paper, this bill would be easier to process.

4:30 - Majority Leader Sertich is calling out Rep. Westrom for professing his opposition to omnibus bills, while still voting for them when he was in the majority. "Members, hypocrisy runs amok on the floor, with the exception of Rep. Olson." He started off by saying that Rep. Olson's views on omnibus bills have been consistent, unlike other representatives speaking up on the floor.

4:34 - The argument that the House is having is that bills are only supposed to deal with one subject, according to the Minnesota Constitution, and that if the bill is passed, it will be ruled unconstitutional by the courts.

4:41 - Rep. Westrom is now asking Sertich to go through his votes on finance bills for the last six years. The job of the minority is to frustrate the majority, but its hard to see how these lines of questioning do much but keep lawmakers here later.

4:49 - Rep. Sertich just brought out this massive bill, 1,200 pages long, that the Republicans passed to balance the budget when they were in the majority. Lifting it, he said "is probably how Rep. Paulsen got those guns."

4:59 - Minority Leader Seifert proposing an amendment that would drain something called the "Legislative Carryforward" balances. This is apparently what pays for various services like the TV coverage, according to Majority Leader Sertich. It does not pass.

5:06 - Rep Severson is offering an amendment to fund a study on veteran employment. This one might actually be close.

5:09 - And they've accepted it, by a voice vote no less! There's a step in the right direction.

5:11 - Here's an interesting one. Rep. Garofalo, a Republican, is trying to strip the funding for the RNC, $14 million. The funding comes from the budget reserves, but Rep. Carlson said that it would be paid back by the Republican party. The Governor apparently wanted it, as well as each cities leaders.

5:16 - So they just voted on this, and it failed, so someone called for a division. When it came to actually standing up to strip RNC funding, instead of just hollering, Rep. Garofalo was looking pretty lonely on his side of the aisle.

5:32 - Majority Leader Sertich just stopped by the Commish, and gave him some guff for not doling out points for the dedicated environmental funding bill, HF2285, he sponsored. Unfortunately, any bill not part of the 2008 session couldn't be counted in our scoring, but he gets a shout out here. Mother nature thanks you, Rep. Sertich.

He also explained that the session is able to go to 7 in the morning if rules are suspended, before it counts as another legislative day. Lets hope for their sake, and the Commish's, that it does not go that late.

Here's another interesting little tidbit. He said that the minority brings up amendments in groups of five, and that once they reach the last one, they bring up a new batch of five. Does anyone else think that's kind of psychological torture. You think you're through with amendments, and then bam!, another stack of five. Someone should tell Dick Cheney about this, he may be able to use it if they ban waterboarding.

6:18 - Rep. McNamara is offering an amendment to strip the funding for the Pollution Control Agency to test for California emissions standards, which is included in the bill. Under his amendment, it wouldn't apply until Minnesota's neighboring states adopt the California emissions, so that people in border regions of the state aren't put at a disadvantage. This would basically prevent the testing in Minnesota though, and North and South Dakota may never accept California Emissions.

6:31 - You know, I think about half the House has spoken so far. MFL managers will be rolling in the points. No Rukavina yet, though, which is kind of surprising. I'm sure he'll be speaking up too.

6:40 - Rep. McNamara is saying that Minnesota has way more high emission vehicles like trucks and SUVs than California, but I'm not so sure that's true. There are a lot of pickup trucks in California, and SUVs too, even though they probably can't say they "need" them like we do, for all our off-roading and whatnot. Commercial vehicles are exempted too, so lawn care companies won't be hit.

6:47 - Speak of the devil - Rep. Rukavina is offering an amendment. It would give $100,000 to the commissioner of the DNR to convert an ATV trail to a dual usage trail that could also have "Off-Highway Vehicles" whatever those are.

6:52 - The triumphant return of the use of deadly force bill. I wrote about it here, here's the story and the VoteTracker for the committee that killed it.

For a refresher, this is the bill that would allow you use deadly force if you feel your life is in "significant risk," or shoot someone you see committing a felony.

Rep. Mullery, the chair of the Public Safety Committee, rose on a point of order that the amendment wasn't germane, to which the Republican part of the chamber started laughing. This bill does touch on pretty much everything under the sun, so it would be pretty hard to say anything isn't germane.

"To rule that this amendment is not germane would make of mockery of what is happening in this chamber here," according to Rep. Buesgens.

7:00 - Rep. Rockstar, I mean, Rep. Abeler, just rose to say that even though the measure is controversial, the germaneness argument is bull, and that the Senate tried to avoid a vote banning certain types of abortions through germaneness because it didn't mention abortion in the bill.

See part 1, part 2, and part 3 here.

Click here to watch the House in session.

7:10 - They've put the House under call, so the Sergeant-at-Arms is bringing lawmakers into the chamber.

7:11 - The Speaker ruled that Rep. Mullery's point was well taken, and that the "Deadly Force" amendment was not germane. Minority Leader Seifert is appealing the ruling.

7:20 - Rep. Buesgens said that the body elects a president (the Speaker) who is wise and intelligent, to which Speaker Kelliher gave him a big thumbs up. But that the body can overrule that speaker when they feel she is in error. There will be a vote on whether to reject her ruling that declared the Deadly Force bill not germane.

7:24 - Rep. Olson is arguing that the body needs to be consistent in how it defines germaneness, and he's making a good case.

7:30 - They're voting on the speaker's ruling, and its actually quite split. They stand by her ruling 68-64, so there won't be a vote on the Deadly Force amendment.

On that note, I believe that we'll end this liveblogging session here. Thanks to everyone who kept up with the Commissioner's Notes today. Check back tomorrow, I'll be adding the points for the 100(!) or so bills the Senate approved and the many lawmakers who raised their voices today to earn you some points.