Good morning and welcome to Friday.
After a long debate Thursday the Minnesota House passed a bill that puts the right to abortion and other reproductive services in state law. MPR’s Dana Ferguson reports: The issue spurred dozens of supporters, as well as opponents to crowd the entry to the House chamber Thursday afternoon. And they faced off, lifting signs and chanting back and forth across the rotunda. Lawmakers made their way through the crowds to take up their discussion. Minnesotans already have the right to an abortion under a 1995 state Supreme Court ruling. But the bill’s authors said that could change under future courts, as evidenced by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision reversing the federal right to an abortion last summer. The debate came after DFL leaders at the Capitol said they would prioritize the bill, called the Protect Reproductive Options or PRO Act, and fast track it to the governor’s desk after voters handed them majorities in the state House and Senate and the governor’s office. On its path to a floor vote, it has faced support as well as blowback in a series of committee hearings. “Today, in passing the PRO Act, the Minnesota House will make sure that what happened to Roe does not happen here in Minnesota,” bill author Rep. Carlie Kotyza-Witthuhn, DFL-Eden Prairie, said. “It is our duty to keep our constituents and our neighbors in Minnesota safe and ensure that future politicians do not have the power to take away the right to reproductive health care in Minnesota.” The bill goes a step further than current law in protecting access to birth control, sterilization and family planning help. It would prohibit local governments from imposing additional restrictions on reproductive health care. “We think that there are really reasonable things that we can do to put some guardrails on this, on this issue,” Rep. Anne Neu Brindley, R-North Branch, said. “But right now, the Democrats and what we are passing tonight out of the Minnesota House of Representatives, is the most extreme position on abortion on the world stage.”
Gov. Tim Walz wants to spend nearly $660 million to get a paid family and medical leave program started.MPR’s Brian Bakst reports that the spending proposal was included in the latest round of a slow-motion budget release by the governor that also includes money for health care workers, clean energy, farms and other workforce development. The family and medical leave program would eventually be funded by a payroll tax paid by workers and employers. Already DFL-backed plans to create a system are moving through legislative committees. Walz administration officials say it will take time before it’s up and running in its final form. “We would be the first state, if this plan moves forward as we hope it does, to both collect taxes and deliver benefits at the same time. No state has tried to do that,” said Steve Grove, commissioner of the state Department of Employment and Economic Development. “We believe with the surplus, you can both begin tax collection and begin benefit payments simultaneously. That's a unique effort. We're still navigating the amount of time it will take to do this program. We think roughly three years.
From the Star Tribune's story: There could be bipartisan agreement on some parts of Walz's plan, including small-business assistance, said Rep. Jon Koznick of Lakeville, the GOP lead on the House Economic Development Committee. But he sharply opposed the governor's approach to paid leave. "The most important thing that Minnesotans want to see is: Where are the tax cuts? And how are they going to return the $18 billion surplus back to Minnesotans, instead of creating new bureaucracies and new billion-dollar programs that will make it harder and stifle business growth?" Koznick said.
Speaking of employment and economic development, Minnesota’s 14 month streak of job growth came to end in December. MPR’s Peter Cox reports the state lost a total of 5,200 jobs last month. The math works like this: 6,100 public sector jobs were lost while the private sector added 900 jobs. As for why those jobs ended, Grove said, “We're still unpacking that. I will say it was almost entirely in local government where we saw those losses happening. We don't know if it was because end of the year grants kind of shifted funding models or if there was a seasonal adjustment issue. But that's where the losses were." The state unemployment rate ticked up two tenths of a point, to 2.5 percent. Nationally the unemployment rate edged down slightly to 3.5 percent.
And on the abortion issue. The Associated Press reports:The Supreme Court said Thursday an eight-month investigation that included more than 120 interviews and revealed shortcomings in how sensitive documents are secured has failed to find who leaked a draft of the court’s opinion overturning abortion rights. Ninety-seven employees, including the justices’ law clerks, swore under oath that they did not disclose a draft of Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade, the court said. It was unclear whether the justices themselves were questioned about the leak, which was the first time an entire opinion made its way to the public before the court was ready to announce it. Politico published its explosive leak detailing the Alito draft in early May. Chief Justice John Roberts ordered an investigation the next day into what he termed an “egregious breach of trust.” On Thursday, the court said its investigative team “has to date been unable to identify a person responsible by a preponderance of the evidence.”
Tell MPR News: What do you hope lawmakers accomplish this session? | 
