Legislature, with GOP and 4 DFL votes, ends MinnesotaCare for undocumented adults 

After eating up the first four hours of a day-long special legislative session the tied Minnesota House of Representatives passed a contentious bill Monday that will take away access to MinnesotaCare for undocumented adults marking a - win for Republicans The measure on eligibility for the state-subsidized medical care scheme was a key part of the budget compromise reached between DFL Gov Tim Walz the GOP and DFL leaders of the tied House and the majority leader of the state Senate where the DFL has a one-seat majority With these razor-thin margins in the Legislature DFL leadership needed to give Republicans something to secure their backing in finishing the state s biennial budget When rank-and-file DFL lawmakers learned of the concession they balked loudly But Republicans insisted that this was the price of their cooperation in completing a two-year budget and avoiding a partial state regime shutdown come July In closed-door negotiations last week outlining the contours of the special session Republicans explicitly tied the measure to funding for the state Department of Healthcare taking away just about all viable alternatives available to DFL lawmakers Related MinnesotaCare for undocumented immigrants is tiny part of budget huge talking point This is not a fiscally conservative idea a visibly frustrated Rep Cedric Frazier DFL-New Hope explained at a press conference held by the People of Color and Indigenous POCI caucus before the special session began We re going to pay more We know that But there s a poison pill in our robustness bill that says if the governor doesn t sign this repeal it kills the entire physical condition bill In the end all House Republicans voted for the bill with Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman DFL-Brooklyn Park casting the th vote Although she reported as in the past few days as last Friday that she did not agree with the measure she can say she was true to her word and stuck to the deal made with Speaker Lisa Demuth R-Cold Spring Her vote also gave all present DFL House members cover to vote against a bill that was anathema to the party s base but ultimately necessary to secure movement in other budget areas Attempts to significantly change the bill were also quashed For example when Rep Samantha Sencer-Mura DFL-Minneapolis a member of the POCI caucus introduced an amendment that would have prevented children as of now on MinnesotaCare from being kicked off once they turned allowed adults over to access the subsidized insurance initiative and kept adults of any age with a critical wellbeing condition on MinnesotaCare The amendment garnered near-unanimous DFL patronage votes but ultimately failed to breach the wall of unified Republican opposition Rep Mar a Isa P rez-Vega DFL-St Paul speaks at a news conference Monday June ahead of a vote by the Legislature to end MinnesotaCare for undocumented adults Credit MinnPost photo by Shadi Bushra At the POCI press conference DFL lawmakers revealed that they had tried to cede ground to Republicans in other areas but that the opposing caucus was committed to this specific issue above any others We offered them changes to earned sick and safe time We offered them changes to the non-compete bans stated Sen Alice Mann DFL-Edina And they turned all of those things down because all they craved was to make sure that people were left out to die that we worsened our healthcare care system and that we decreased our tax revenue During his own press conference during a Senate recess at which point that chamber had finished five bills while the House continued to debate MinnesotaCare Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson R-East Grand Forks did not dispute this characterization Instead he turned the same argument against the DFL I think it s a great framing of it Johnson disclosed Here we have Democrats that are willing to cut the benefits to Minnesotans in exchange for benefits for illegal aliens This shows you how mixed up their priorities are he mentioned With the bill s passage all but assured since it was directly attached to other budget bills DFL lawmakers instead focused on registering their dissatisfaction with the compromise into the constituents record Largest part of the the four hours spent on the bill went to DFL members who shared stories from constituents gave accounts of their own experiences as immigrants questioned the fiscal necessity of the bill argued it would push people into emergency rooms where they would become greater financial burdens to the general noted that undocumented immigrants contribute hundreds of millions of dollars annually in state taxes and perhaps largest part frequently lamented what they disclosed was the immorality and cruelty of choosing to take soundness care access away from a vulnerable population that already faces too various headwinds Eventually Rep Mar a Isa P rez-Vega DFL-St Paul began chanting This ain t One Minnesota referencing Walz s gubernatorial campaign slogan until her microphone was cut off Representative Perez-Vega you are out of order Order in the chamber Order in the chamber Demuth reported punctuated by a pounding gavel Rep Mar a Isa P rez-Vega DFL-St Paul walks off the House floor with a raised fist saying This is not Minnesota after giving an emotional speech against a bill that would remove adult undocumented immigrants from MinnesotaCare during the special session at the Capitol June Credit MinnPost photo by Tom Olmscheid The various DFL floor speeches were in contrast to only a relative handful of Republican rebuttals which focused on the fact that states such as Illinois and California had made similar decisions based on similar budget concerns The Republican caucus having effectively locked in their major plan conquest of the session seemed far more eager to get on with the vote than their colleagues across the aisle I must say as we enter the fourth hour of the special session I am gravely concerned about whether the other caucus in this chamber intends to and is capable of carrying out its commitment to finish the work that we have to finish the present day explained Rep Harry Niska R-Ramsey the caucus floor leader In this file photo Minnesota House GOP Floor Leader Harry Niska R-Ramsey left and Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth R-Cold Spring listen to questions during a news conference at the State Capitol Monday May in St Paul Minn Credit AP Photo Ellen Schmidt Less than minutes later Demuth called for the vote The clerk will take the roll now And shortly thereafter The bill is passed and its title is agreed to followed by a single gavel The measure then went to the Senate where it saw a similarly tense if truncated debate There it passed after roughly an hour-and-a-half of discussion Majority Leader Erin Murphy DFL-St Paul Sen Ann Rest DFL-New Hope and Sen Grant Hauschild DFL-Hermantown voted with Republicans for a - final tally As part of the larger budget compromise the governor is expected to sign it in the coming 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