Clear Day Bradley Briefing - 7/6/2004

State Representative Fran Bradley
The 4th of July is a time of giving thanks for living in the greatest county in the world. How lucky we are to have our freedom and general prosperity. We have hosted high school and college students from around the world who marvel at what we often take for granted. I hope you had a great time over the 4th of July weekend. We enjoyed visiting my folks (now 84 years old), my brother Bob (living in a group home), and other family members in Glenwood on Friday night and Saturday. On Saturday evening we drove through heavy rain to get to our cabin outside of Wabasha. Sunday was a beautiful day on the Mississippi - boating, jet skiing and playing on a sandbar.
I spent time reflecting on the legislative session this weekend, so I thought I would share some of my observations. First, let me challenge the popular media-driven impression that nothing was accomplished in the 2004 legislative session. Simply not true! More bills were passed in 2004 than in 2003. More importantly, many historic legislative initiatives were passed and signed into law. Comprehensive Health Care Cost Containment Reforms (most of them from my Health Care Cost Containment Act)
· Consumer Empowerment
· Best Practices
· Disease Management
· Electronic Medical Records
· Prescription Drugs
· Purchasing Alliances
· Hospital Development Review Process
· Repealed a Health Care Mandate
· Birth Defects Information System
· Minnesota Comprehensive Health Association Reforms
· Several Regulatory Relief Measures
· Emergency Health Powers Act Reauthorized
· MA Charitable Asset Transfers Modified
· Pharmacists Allowed to Dispense Controlled Substance Prescriptions from Other States
· Job Reference Liability Protection
· Approved Science and Social Studies Standards
· Dangerous Animal Ownership Limited
· Improved Political Legal Charges Process

Yes, there certainly was important work left undone. Critical budget modifications and capital investment (bonding) proposals never reached the conference committee level during session. The House finished our work early by passing all of the supplementary budget bills and the bonding bill. In fact, because of the collaborative work involved in our Capital Investment Committee, the bonding bill passed the House with 102-32 bipartisan vote. We were ready to conferee these bills, but the Senate insisted on a single omnibus supplementary budget conference committee. Even the Post Bulleting criticized this as a very bad legislative process. Unfortunately, the issues surrounding an open and fair conference committee process were not able to be settled before the session ended. Since adjournment, your local legislators have worked to bring about a special session that would ensure success to our key Rochester initiatives, including a $20 million facility investment in genomics research at Mayo. Our House leadership has been very helpful in proposing a special session agenda that would include important, non-controversial key supplemental budget items and a limited bonding bill. We even removed the popular, but controversial, defense of marriage constitutional amendment proposal. Key to this proposal has been the need to have prior agreement on key elements and to set a very tight timeline. Both House democrats and republicans have suggested a 1-2 day special session. Unfortunately, the Senate has countered by putting controversial issues back on the table and calling for "open-ended deadlines". Dean Johnson, even in his latest counter offer steadfastly refused to consider deadlines. Can you imagine the waste and frustration with a special session running from mid-July through September? It could happen! For those people in Rochester demanding a special session, I suggest a bit of caution. We should be focused on the outcome first and foremost. A special session that ends in disaster will do nothing for our genomics or UCR projects. Frankly, the public should demand that the Senate agree to the simple and fair proposal offered by the Governor and House and get on with our legislative work. So why hasn't the Senate agreed. One can only speculate. Taking Senator Dean Johnson's own words might give us a hint. He said months ago that the Senate "doesn't need anything". A pretty strong hint that trouble was in the making. He has repeatedly agreed to something only to withdraw his agreement soon (in one case in a matter of minutes) afterward. There is speculation that Senator Pokemiller is really in charge. Then there is the comment Senator Johnson made a few weeks ago on Public Radio. He acknowledged that the fact that no Senators were up for election and the legislative mess could be grounds for unseating House republicans. You may have seen that Speaker Sviggum has called for staggered Senate elections to change this situation in the future. I think this is a great idea! I have always believed that good policy makes good politics. Great statesmanship, in my mind, prevails eventually over clever political maneuvering. Holding important legislative initiatives at bay in order to make the overall legislature look bad may be good politics, but it is a lousy statesmanship. I sincerely hope the public will be more discerning. The maneuvering by both sides of the aisle that happened during session is behind us and we need to focus now on a fair, simple means to bring success to important Rochester and Minnesota bonding and budget needs.
Your comments are welcomed. I have tried to lay out the situation in as clear and honest way as possible. Thanks for taking the time to read my comments. Be sure you check out my website, www.franbradley.org. We have made some major updates lately and are still working on the site. Another item. If you have a neighborhood group, service club, or any interested gathering, I would be happy to visit about state public policy issues. Call me at 288-3439. Thanks,

Fran

Representative Fran Bradley
4316 Manor View Dr NW
Rochester, MN 55901
507-288-3439
"franbradley1@charter.net"
www.franbradley.org

 

 

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