MFL Commissioner's Blog: May 7, 2008 Archive

Sen. Ellen Anderson (DFL-St. Paul) may be hovering around the #40-range in our power rankings, but she's been on a roll this week. On Monday, her foreclosure bill, SF3396 that would allow a one-year deferment on foreclosures for people stuck with subprime loans, squeaked by in the Senate.

Today, her "Dangerous Dogs" bill, SF2876, had a conference hearing, and later, she'll have a conference committee on her "Green Solutions" bill. Between those three alone, that's 302 points. She's proving persistence pays off, even in these waning days of the session.

The Commish has been noticing a lot of different faces pop up in the Speaker's chair over in the House lately. Today, Rep. Frank Moe (DFL-Bemidji) was holding the gavel. It turns out that Speaker Kelliher is giving retiring lawmakers a few moments in the big seat, which is why Rep. Dennis Ozment (R-Rosemount) had a chance earlier. Apparently Rep. Chris DeLaForest (R-Andover) had a chance too, according to staff, but the Commish must have missed that one.

Rep. Leon Lillie (DFL-NorthSt. Paul) rose on a point of personal privilege to give him this sendoff.

"I want to express my disappointment in my fellow sophomore, I understand we've got a retirement coming. All these red plaid shirts we've had to see for years here, and all that walleye we've had to eat, and now to hear that he's leaving, I don't know if members could just join me in expressing our disappointment," to which Rep. Moe got a good-natured, hearty boo for his leaving.

Both floor sessions are coming later this afternoon. Check back, we may have a floor-a-palooza over in the Senate.

Lately the Commish has been giving more attention to the House than the Senate. What can I say, Representatives love floor-a-paloozas and floor-a-paloozas love them.

Today, though, we're going to give the Senate their long-promised floor-a-palooza. On Monday, the House had one for the omnibus tax bill, and the Senate's taking it up right now, so its only fair we give them a chance to earn their teams some points. Sen. Tom Bakk (DFL-Vermilion), the tax czar in the Senate, just offered his amendment to replace all the House language for HF3149 with the Senate language, so the bills are, as of right now, a lot different. Still, taxes are something I feel a few of them will want to chime in on, so lets see it lawmakers. (I shouldn't have to bribe them, but if any mention their power ranking or otherwise talk up the MFL, the Commish may give out bonus points).

Over in the House, Rep. Phyllis Kahn (DFL-Minneapolis) is carrying the stem cell policy bill, SF100. She has a Ph.D in Biophysics, and she's dropping knowledge on the chamber. So far, its been mostly Republicans asking questions and offering amendments to the bill. One, offered by Rep. Matt Dean (R-Dellwood) would have allowed only work on adult stem cells, not the embryonic kind that many opponents liken to abortion. Rep. Kahn's bill would allow the state to appropriate funds for the research, something that must be done with private money under current law.

The bill also bans the sale of fetal tissue and of "human cloning".

Rep. Dan Severson offered one that requires the Attorney General to give a legal opinion on whether embryonic stem cell research is even legal, because, he argued, a scientist told him that the embryos are alive when the research is conducted.

The bill passed by a surprisingly close 71-62 vote. Last year, the governor told the Minnesota Family Council that "I do not support wide open embryonic stem cell research," which is more or less what Rep. Kahn's bill would do. We'll see if he inks this one up with a big veto.

Your lawmakers are earning their paychecks tonight, folks. Both chambers are meeting, possibly until or past midnight.

What are they doing so late? Mostly approving conference committee reports so they can be sent to the governor. I'll give you a full recap tomorrow, but Rep. Torrey Westrom gave the chamber a nice bipartisan belly laugh. Minority Leader Seifert put the House under call shortly after they came back from dinner break, and slowly the big board lit up with green dots - except for one. Chief Clerk Al Mathiowetz, in his inimitable voice, started calling "Westrom...Westrom...Westrom." That went on for about five minutes, until an exasperated Rep. Westrom showed up in the chamber to applause. He was all the way over in the State Office Building, southwest of the Capitol and connected by a tunnel underground.

When he got there, Speaker Kelliher said "Rep. Westrom, what you don't know is that was Rep. Seifert's Call of the House and he made me a deal that whoever was last couldn't speak for the rest of the night."

Out of breath, he rose on a point of personal privilege and said "Madam Speaker, the hallways are empty and its easy to run."

As MFL members may or may not know, Rep. Westrom uses a cane to walk because he is blind, but the Commish has traveled the tunnel from the SOB to the Capitol, and can say that Rep. Westrom made the trip in what would be record time for anyone. For anyone doesn't think lawmakers work hard, Rep. Westrom is risking life and limb to prove otherwise.

I'll get you the audio tomorrow, its a real treat.

Remember that bill I wrote about earlier this year that would have allowed more powder in certain kinds of fireworks? It never got a hearing, but Rep. Tom Hackbarth (R-Cedar) tried to insert it into the omnibus public safety bill, during conference and then tonight on the House floor. It wasn't adopted, but it seemed to the Commish it was more lawmaker confusion than opposition that stopped it. It sounds like adding gunpowder would make it more dangerous, but in actuality it only would make a 3 minute firework last longer, like 5 minutes, which isn't inherently any more dangerous, and could be less dangerous if it means people are walking up to light things with less frequency. No MFL points for trying though, sorry Rep. Hackbarth.

Rep. Satveer Chaudhary (DFL-Fridley) is getting crap from Minority Leader Senjem (R-Rochester) over in the Senate. Sen. Dick Day earlier said that either Sen. Chaudhary had to put a tie on, or he would take his off. I though he was joking, and it was just too late for Senators to be laughing, but Sen. Senjem brought it up too. I think Sen. Chaudhary was wearing some type of Indian formal shirt Nehru jacket, that, while it didn't have a tie, looked sorta formal I guess, but not to the decorum hawks out there. As the "Upper Chamber" of the Minnesota Legislature, all the men have to wear coats and ties. Female senators seem to have more leeway in what they want to wear. Check out this article from the old school Session Daily from 1991 about this.

Representatives can wear whatever they want, more or less, in the House, and Rep. Cy Thao was wearing his "Prom King" jacket earlier on the House floor, and Rep. Sertich, I believe, said he was proud that they can do that in the "People's chamber".