Legislative Notes for the Week of April 5 - April 9, 2004

Slow Week at the Capitol

With the Easter break in the later part of the week, both the House and Senate were moving bills on the floor and not holding committee hearings this week. Members heard the budget and spending bills and are waiting until after the break to accelerate the pace.

Bonding Bill - No News

We have not reported much progress on the bonding bill for the last several weeks, and there is no new information to report this week. Members are working on the size of both House and Senate bills as well as the number of projects necessary to get the 60 percent required vote.

House Higher Education Bill Passes

Last week, the House passed a combined K-12 and higher education bill (HF 1793). Provisions were reported in last week's legislative update. Copies of the bill may be found at the following link. The higher education portion of the bill is Article 14, page 190, line 10.

Senate Passes Omnibus Supplemental Budget Bill

Senators decided to combine all the spending and policy bills into one large bill. The parts of the bill include education, higher education, state government, environment, natural resources, criminal justice, economic development, transportation, and health and human services. The entire package will be presented to the House for consideration. House members will refuse to adopt the package, setting the stage for a conference committee. The Senate would like one large conference committee, while the House would like seven committees. We will need to see how that conflict is resolved.

Included in the higher education portion (Article 8) of the supplemental budget bill are provisions that include prohibiting the marketing of credit cards to undergraduate students and authorizing the attorney general to seek penalties against any person who violates this section. The Senate bill also includes a provision that adds a semester of eligibility for any state grant recipient called to active military service.

The Senate bill requires one member of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board of Trustees to be a representative of a labor organization and one member must be a representative of the business community. The bill establishes a $2,500 loan repayment program for low-income nursing students and creates a new $2,000 state grant for first-generation students. The Senate directs the Higher Education Services Office to renegotiate the reciprocity agreement with Wisconsin to reduce or eliminate the tuition disparity between Wisconsin and Minnesota residents at the University of Minnesota campuses.

The supplemental budget bill was heard on the Senate floor this week and passed on a vote of 35-31 after over 60 amendments were heard. The Supplemental Budget Bill may be found at the following link. The Higher Education portion of the bill is Article 8, page 66, line 1.