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Sara Grafstrom

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Legislative Update: Deadline Week!

Posted By Sara Grafstrom 04-14-2024 16:04
Found In Contact: Sara Grafstrom's Blog
Last Monday, the Human Services Omnibus Policy bill went in front of the House Ways and Means Committee where an amendment was offered to remove ARRM’s Out of Home Respite provisions from the bill. The language was removed not because of opposition to the bill, but because of a cost that has been attached ...

Legislative Update: Senate passes Human Services Omnibus Policy Bill

Posted By Sara Grafstrom 04-07-2024 16:07
Found In Contact: Sara Grafstrom's Blog
The legislature returned from Easter break on Wednesday and continued both committee and floor work. For ARRM members, we saw the Human Services Omnibus bill pass off the Senate floor and the Governor’s Human Services budget bill introduced. Below, please find a quick summary of what happened last week ...

Legislative Update: The MN Legislature goes on break, ARRM responds to Minneapolis rideshare news

Posted By Sara Grafstrom 04-01-2024 09:18
Found In Contact: Sara Grafstrom's Blog
Last week was a short week for the MN Legislature, but ARRM staff were tracking issues from the local level up to the Federal Government. Below is a quick recap on what happened and what you can expect this coming week. State Legislature The Minnesota Legislature went on break beginning at 5:00 ...

Legislative Update: Human Services Omnibus Policy Bills Released and Spending Targets Set

Posted By Sara Grafstrom 03-24-2024 19:05
Found In Contact: Sara Grafstrom's Blog
Last week marked the first and second committee deadlines in the legislature. This means that policy-only bills must be passed out of all appropriate policy committees to be considered further in the session. This includes policy omnibus bills, which were released and passed out of committee this past ...

Legislative Update: Two weeks until deadlines, ARRM's bills continue to move forward

Posted By Sara Grafstrom 03-10-2024 18:44
Found In Contact: Sara Grafstrom's Blog
It was another busy week of committee action for ARRM’s legislative priorities. As we move closer to the first and second committee deadlines (important legislative benchmarks that play a roll in whether bills will receive further consideration), ARRM staff continue to work with legislative staff to ...

Legislative Update: A full rundown of all our bill hearings last week!

Posted By Sara Grafstrom 03-03-2024 18:52
Found In Contact: Sara Grafstrom's Blog
This last week was a busy one for the ARRM team. In total, we presented at a total of ten bill hearings, both in the Senate and the House, and continue to make positive movement on our legislative priorities. In addition to the hearings, the other big news of the week was the February forecast being ...

Legislative Update: ARRM's Bills Start to Get Hearings

Posted By Sara Grafstrom 02-25-2024 16:08
Found In Contact: Sara Grafstrom's Blog
Week two of the legislative session saw ARRM’s priorities start to get acted upon. On Wednesday, February 21, the Senate Human Service Committee heard testimony on Senate File 3736, ARRM’s legislation that would require a uniform set of standards across the state for approval or denial of assistive ...

2024 Legislative Session Kicks Off

Posted By Sara Grafstrom 02-15-2024 19:14
Found In Contact: Sara Grafstrom's Blog
The 2024 legislative session began last week and ARRM staff have wasted no time making sure that ARRM’s priorities get officially introduced. This session is a "short session" and with the state budget set for the biennium, much of the focus will be on capital infrastructure/bonding projects and ...

New Business Related Laws Taking Effect

Posted By Sara Grafstrom 01-02-2024 12:42
Found In Contact: Sara Grafstrom's Blog
Along with the many changes that were passed in the Human Service related bills, there were many changes passed during the 2023 legislative session that impact businesses and employers. ARRM has compiled a list of some of the changes members should be aware of that either went into effect January 1, ...

Final Day of the 2023 Legislative Session

Posted By Sara Grafstrom 05-22-2023 07:13
Found In Contact: Sara Grafstrom's Blog
Today marks the last day of the 2023 Legislative Session and while there are still a few outstanding items for the legislature to act on today. The Human Service bill, which contains most of the provisions that impact ARRM members, passed off the House and Senate floor last Friday. In the coming days, ...

Final Human Service Conference Committee Budget Spreadsheet Available

Posted By Sara Grafstrom 05-14-2023 20:12
Found In Contact: Sara Grafstrom's Blog
Late Sunday evening the final spreadsheet for the Human Service Conference Committee report was made available; bill language has not been made available, so we do not have the details of the proposals that were included. However, below is a high-level analysis of ARRM Legislative Agenda priorities that ...

Legislative Update: Two weeks left of session, Human Service Conference Committee begins meeting

Posted By Sara Grafstrom 05-07-2023 19:20
Found In Contact: Sara Grafstrom's Blog
The Human Service Conference Committee began meeting last week with the first hearing on Tuesday featuring a walk through of the House, Senate and Governor’s proposals and public testimony taken during the Wednesday hearing. Along with ARRM’s letter submitted to conferees last week, I also provided ...

Human Service Conference Committee begins meeting this week

Posted By Sara Grafstrom 05-01-2023 08:49
Found In Contact: Sara Grafstrom's Blog
Last week the House passed the Human Service Omnibus bill off the House floor. With the passage of this bill, a Conference Committee has now been formed to work out the differences between the House and Senate proposal and develop a final Human Service budget omnibus bill. Conference Committee members ...

Legislative Update: Human Service Omnibus on House floor Tuesday

Posted By Sara Grafstrom 04-24-2023 08:30
Found In Contact: Sara Grafstrom's Blog
Last week, the Senate Human Service Omnibus bill was passed off the Senate floor with a vote of 63-4. ARRM released this action alert , thanking Senators for their support of this bill and the important provisions that would increase funding for disability waiver services and services provided in an ...

Human Service Bill heads to the Senate Floor

Posted By Sara Grafstrom 04-16-2023 16:48
Found In Contact: Sara Grafstrom's Blog
As we move towards the end of session, legislative action directly impacting ARRM members becomes less frequent as attention turns toward the passage of omnibus bills. You can review here what is and is not included in the House and Senate Human Service Omnibus bills. Last week, the Senate Finance ...

Human Service Omnibus Bills Released in the House and Senate

Posted By Sara Grafstrom 04-02-2023 17:14
Found In Contact: Sara Grafstrom's Blog
Human Service Omnibus bill were released in both the House and the Senate last week, while each bill contains many funding proposals that would impact people with disabilities or their support providers, below are the proposals most relevant to ARRM members. House What’s Included: · ...

Big Week at the Capitol Coming up: Omnibus Bills Released and Disability Services Day at the Capitol

Posted By Sara Grafstrom 03-26-2023 19:02
Found In Contact: Sara Grafstrom's Blog
The second committee deadline came and went last Friday, and the legislature will now turn to the crafting and passage of their committee omnibus bills. In both the House and Senate we anticipate the Human Service Omnibus bill package to be released on Monday, March 27 th . Below are the schedules ...

Committee Targets Released, Second Deadline this Friday

Posted By Sara Grafstrom 03-21-2023 17:29
Found In Contact: Sara Grafstrom's Blog
As we move into second committee deadline, this last week and a half has seen a lot of action on ARRM’s legislative priorities and overall budget work at the Capitol. On Wednesday, three of ARRM’s legislative priorities were heard in the Senate Human Service Committee. The following bills were heard ...

Legislature hits first committee deadline, ARRM’s bills continue to move forward

Posted By Sara Grafstrom 03-10-2023 12:27
Found In Contact: Sara Grafstrom's Blog
Friday, March 10 th marked the first committee deadline. In order for a bill to "meet first deadline", it must be acted favorably on in the house of origin. The second deadline, which is set for Friday, March 24th is for committees to act favorably on bills, or companions of bills, that met the first ...

Updated Budget Forecast shows Minnesota Remains Financially Strong

Posted By Sara Grafstrom 03-05-2023 12:31
Found In Contact: Sara Grafstrom's Blog
Last Monday, the updated state budget forecast was released. The forecast showed that Minnesota remains in a solid financial situation with the overall budget surplus not changing significantly, compared to the previously released forecast at the beginning of December. The budget surplus is now at $17.5 ...