In action on the Senate Floor Thursday, Senate DFLers moved to consider legislation that would immediately deliver $1 billion in funding for frontline worker pay bonuses and to refill the state’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund. Despite the need for getting this work done for Minnesotans, Senate Republicans voted to block this action.
The legislation would complete two pieces of unfinished work facing the legislature. The first is on delivering the promised frontline worker pay bonuses for Minnesota’s essential workers who have sacrificed so much throughout the pandemic. The second, would refill the Unemployment Insurance Trust before the March 15 deadline requiring the state to begin repayment on the loans we had taken from the federal government and before businesses are required to pay an updated tax rate to fill the fund.
With this legislation, the 667,000 frontline workers and the businesses across the state who had done what was needed in the fight against COVID-19 would have gotten the financial support they needed. However, the legislation required an urgency to be declared to bring the bill forward immediately. While all 31 Senate DFLers voted to do so, Senate Republicans voted no, so the bill did not reach the 45 vote threshold to move forward.
Senate DFLers will continue to fight for the solutions Minnesotans are asking for, and will not forget that we have work to do for our frontline workers and businesses. (SF 3923)
