MVMA
Update for the Week Ending March 21, 2008

This has been another exciting year for the Minnesota Veterinary Medical Association. To date, we have had some great successes, but some legislation damaging to the MVMA remains in play.

After creating some headaches during the interim and beginning of session, threats from the Animal Humane Society to bring forth legislation concerning mobile spay and neutering facilities did not come to fruition. After speaking with likely author Senator Yvonne Prettner Solon (DFL – Duluth), the decision was made to forgo carrying the bill which, we hope, will encourage the AHS to continue working with us to achieve our shared goals on the issue.

Similarly, we were able to “defeat” legislation dealing with negligent breeding operations (puppy mills) and the banning of specific breeds of “dangerous dogs”. After receiving a hearing in the House Public Safety and Civil Justice Committee in which we were denied the ability to testify, HF2469 (Hornstein) which deals with negligent breeding operations, was passed to the House Agriculture Committee, but moved no further due to the Senate’s unwillingness to move the companion bill. On the same day, HF2906 (Paymar) was heard in committee. HF2906 attempts to regulate negligent owners of dangerous dogs instead of banning specific breeds of dogs deemed dangerous. This is way of dealing with the issue that the MVMA can support. Unfortunately, Representative John Lesch (DFL – Saint Paul) attempted to amend onto HF2906 language banning specific breeds. Once again, we were denied to ability to testify, but Rep. Paymar (DFL – Saint Paul) successfully fended off his colleague’s amendments. These amendments have not resurfaced in the House or Senate on SF2876 (Anderson).

The greatest threat to the MVMA surfaced on February 28th, when Rep. Lyle Koenen (DFL – Clara City) and Senator Gary Kubly (DFL – Granite Falls) introduced legislation seeking to grant MN human chiropractors the ability to work on animals with a certain amount of training. Over our strenuous objections, HF3584 was passed to the House floor, bypassing all House Health committees. This action did not sit well with Speaker of the House, and friend of the MVMA, Margaret Anderson Kelliher (DFL – Minneapolis). To this point, she has indicated the bill will not receive a hearing on the House floor, but that situation could change at any time. In Senate, after initially indicating that the bill would not be heard, Sen. Jim Vickerman’s Senate Agriculture Committee heard the bill and passed it to the Senate Health, Housing and Family Security Committee. The bill flew through Senate Ag, but received much more scrutiny and dissent in the Health committee. We are hopeful that the points raised in Senate Health will serve to embolden the Speaker and Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller (DFL – Minneapolis) to refuse to give the bill its day on the floor, but no guarantees exist. We are currently developing a grassroots strategy that can be helpful on this bill. Convincing caucus leaders to not hear the bills may be our only shot at keeping this legislation from becoming law. Additionally, we need to be developing floor amendments to make sure that the bill does the least amount of damage to the MVMA.

General Update

The first six weeks of session have taken us on quite the rollercoaster ride with aggressive deadlines and historic legislative activity in just the first few weeks. After the devastating August 1 35W bridge collapse and southeastern Minnesota floods, the session was sure to be interesting. Before the first day of session ended, the Omnibus Transportation Bill was moving, and eventually passed into law after a vote to override Republican Governor, Tim Pawlenty. In the same week, a projected budget deficit of almost $1 billion was announced. Just days later, the Lt. Governor, Carol Molnau was removed from her post as Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Transportation by the MN Senate. Long-time legislators and other long-time capitol insiders have called this a session of historic proportion. That is an understatement.

In the past six weeks, 1,543 bills have been introduced in the House and 1,429 bills have been introduced in the Senate, totaling almost 3,000 bills. Of those bills, hundreds have moved through committees. There are almost 200 bills sitting on the House General Register and Senate General Orders waiting to be heard on the floor, with many more coming in the weeks to come. With the first two policy deadlines now behind us, the number of bills heard and committee hearings will begin to drop significantly.

According to the Minnesota Constitution, there are eight weeks left until the legislature must adjourn. With only 27 days left to meet as a full body, DFL majority leaders will need to be strategic in how often, and when they meet to debate and pass bills on the floor. The next several weeks will be spent looking at the state’s structural deficit of almost $2 billion. At the same time, conference committee members from the House and Senate will be preparing a compromise on the bonding bill. It is anticipated that legislators will work to put together a bill that the Governor will sign. This means cutting some of the meat (specifically pork) out of the bill to lower the total amount incurred by the state. With a large deficit, and a surplus in the Health Care Access Fund (HCAF), both the Governor’s budget recommendations and the bonding proposal are looking at using the HCAF to accomplish their goals. Health care legislators and leadership will fight to use the HCAF for the purpose it was intended, health care, but there is a historical precedent for using the HCAF for other purposes. When the legislature returns from Easter break, they will work to pass through a second tax bill, and an omnibus health care reform bill. Both bills will have controversial provisions in them, and will likely be altered as they move through the process.

Stay tuned. The best (worst) is yet to come.