E-Cigarettes:

The Health and Human Services policy

bill passed yesterday. Of particular

note is the provision on E-Cigs. The

Senate bill puts E-Cigs into the same

category as regular cigarettes. This

means that all of the provisions of the

Clean Indoor Air Act now apply to E-

Cigs; I supported this. Opponents

argued that we do not yet know the

extent to which E-Cigs are harmful. I

believe that there is enough data to

suggest that the effects are harmful,

and therefore, putting them in this

class is the appropriate step for now. If

we find otherwise, we can certainly

revisit this. Of course, any person over

18 is able to lawfully smoke them - just

not in public buildings.

Cell Phones:

We passed the “kill switch” cell phone bill today. This bill takes one step in addressing the tragic rise of violent crime in

our communities. I am very concerned about the crime at the University of Minnesota, but it should also be noted that

this crime exists all over our communities. Last summer, one of my treasured staff, was robbed and beaten. He woke

up at HCMC. His cell phone was stolen and that was about all he had on him of value. He is not alone. Knowing that the

scars of this tragedy will be with him for many years, coupled with my responsibility as the Chair of Higher Ed, my

resolve is strengthened to make fighting violence in our community one of my very top priorities.

Medical Marijuana:

We are in our final days of session. Tempers are

running high and we are sprinting to completion.

This week the Senate passed a medical marijuana

bill that reflects a prudent, regulated approach to

providing access to medical marijuana to those

whom medical professionals think would be

positively served.

The House bill adopted a more cautious approach

and really just put forward a study. Given the

Governor’s reluctance, I am not hopeful that our

bill will prevail. Click here for summary of Senate

bill.

Next week’s review will be the last Session Update. If there are issues that you are following that have not been

addressed please let us know. Lastly, please allow me to pay special tribute to all the Moms among us. I always

say, “I do not need a tribute because being a Mom is the greatest blessing of my life.” So in closing, I thank and

honor all Moms, a special thank you and a note of pride for my own mom and then a final message of thanks to my

children, Joe, Adam, Leigh and Jacob, for the honor of being theirs.

WESA:

Last night we had a prolonged debate on the WESA bill (Women’s Economic Security Act). I played a

leadership role in this discussion, for although I have always been a strong supporter of this initiative, I had

great concerns over one of the provisions. I attempted to join with others who felt similarly to send the bill

back to conference committee. It is always difficult to get a majority of members to do this. It doesn’t happen

often. Last night, I actually thought we had the votes to do this and at the last second a member changed a

vote and we were not successful. While I was not able to accomplish this, I still voted for the bill as I believe

this strong stand for the importance of gender equity and women’s economic security trumped my concern

over a provision. We can come back next year and fix the provision.

In summary, the provision required companies to defend their wage structure across broad categories of

positions and sign a statement that there was equity among differing jobs by gender. This is often referred to

as “comparable worth.” This bill only required this for companies that did business with, or had a contract or

agreement with the State. I believe federal laws regarding pay equity across job titles are more appropriate.

Comparing the wages of Engineers, Marketing Executives, Lawyers and Doctors is not feasible. Of course,

there would be common sense applied to the interpretation, but I do not support this in any sense. I will work

to delete this next year. If you are interested in my commentary on this from last night’s debate, click here.