Legislative Statements & Testimony

Dear Governor Walz:

The undersigned community and legal services organizations write to urge you to issue, as soon as possible, an Executive Order prohibiting the garnishment of the federal stimulus payments provided under the CARES Act.1 While the CARES Act carved out exemptions from seizure or offsets for government debts owed, the stimulus payments may be taken by private debt collectors.2

Sadly, what we fear is already materializing here and elsewhere. The New York Times today reported that a Minnesota woman and her husband, a disabled veteran, lost 100% of their stimulus payments, which they had been “counting on…to help pay rent and buy formula for [their] 10-month-old daughter.”3 To prevent these very kinds of harms, this week the Governors of Illinois and Washington have suspended garnishments relating to consumer debt collection.4

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Governor Tim Walz
130 State Capitol
75 Rev Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55155

Dear Governor Walz,

As COVID-19 continues to spread throughout the country and our state, both the public and private sectors are taking extraordinary measures to protect the health and safety of our citizens. We thank you for your efforts to mitigate the spread of the deadly COVID-19 virus during this unprecedented pandemic. Lives have no doubt been saved by your early and decisive actions to keep Minnesotans safe.

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Letter from Opportunity for All Kids, Minnesota Independent School Forum, Ed Allies, Minnesota Catholic Conference, Great MN Schools, and Minnesota Business Partnership

Families across Minnesota should have the opportunity to access the best K-12 education option for their children. Schools, where children have the opportunity to excel, should be available to all families, regardless of what neighborhoods they live in or what they can afford. We believe that a child’s future should not be determined by their ZIP code or by their family’s economic situation.

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Dear Members of the Omnibus Education Finance Conference Committee:

The Minnesota Catholic Conference, the public policy voice for the Catholic Church in Minnesota, writes to thank you for including language, in both HF 2400 and SF7, to expand the definition of “textbook” to include a teacher’s edition, teacher’s guide, or other materials that a pupil uses when the teacher’s edition, teacher’s guide, or other teacher materials are packaged with textbooks for student use. This was an oversight from last biennium, and we appreciate your addressing it this session.

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Dear Members of the Judiciary and Public Safety Conference Committee:

The Minnesota Catholic Conference, the public policy voice for the Catholic Church in Minnesota, writes to ask that you include in the final conference report the following common-sense measures that may actually limit gun violence and at the same time respect legitimate gun ownership:

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Dear Members of the Health and Human Services Conference Committee:

The Minnesota Catholic Conference, the public policy voice for the Catholic Church in Minnesota, writes to encourage you to remember the poor and vulnerable in your HHS Conference Committee Report. Budgets are moral documents, reflecting our concerns and values. As there are not unlimited resources, the state budget should work somewhat like a household budget to prioritize the most urgent needs. In our judgment, those include investments in the wellbeing of children, the elderly, the disabled, the poor, and the vulnerable.

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Dear Members of the Conference Committee on Opioids:

The Minnesota Catholic Conference, the public policy voice for the Catholic Church in Minnesota, writes to ask that you find compromise on HF 400/SF 751 and agree on practical and effective steps to finally address this critical issue facing Minnesota.

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Testimony of Mr. Jason A. Adkins, Esq.
Omnibus Jobs and Economic Development Conference Committee

The Minnesota Catholic Conference, the public policy voice of the Catholic Church in Minnesota, submits this testimony in support of the wage theft protections for workers and earned sick and safe time provisions contained in the House version of the Jobs and Economic Development Omnibus bill, HF 2208 (Mahoney).  In addition, though we do not specifically endorse the paid family leave provisions contained in the bill, we commend it as a reasonable approach to addressing an urgent need for workers and families.  We urge you to protect workers and find compromise on these provisions coming out of conference committee.

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