At the Capitol: 2022 Legislative Recap

2022 on the Hill Recap The lead-up to session

MNA hit the legislative action planning hard this session with the goal of utilizing our legislative work to build pressure through the parallel campaign structure for contract bargaining and vice versa. Bringing policy and contract language that mirrored each other to the table and the legislature enabled MNA to share strong messaging and build a powerful campaign for safe staffing and nurse retention policies. This also forced hospital management and the MN Hospital Association to split their time and energy as they had to respond and lobby against us at both places.

Knowing that the parallel campaign would only be successful if nurse members directed the work, the Governmental Affairs Commission determined two main buckets for legislative priorities: safe staffing and the anti-corporatization of healthcare.

With safe staffing as one of the main priorities, staff began the work to organize members of the negotiating teams for a member staffing workgroup. With session fast approaching, the member staffing workgroup met six times between November and January and crafted the Keeping the Nurses at the Bedside Act (KNABA), legislation that focuses on safe hospital staffing and nurse retention.

The Keeping Nurses at the Bedside Act would address the crisis of understaffing and retention in Minnesota hospitals with the following provisions: • Establish Nurse Staffing

Committees at Minnesota

Hospitals – The bill would require all hospitals in the state of

AT THE CAPITOL

Minnesota to create a staffing committee to put together a core staffing plan for each unit of the facility every year, including a maximum limit on the number of patients that any one nurse should safely care for. • Recruit and Train Nursing

Students – This bill would dedicate new resources to ensure we continue to attract and train a skilled and diverse workforce of Registered Nurses in Minnesota. This includes broadening an existing student loan forgiveness program for new nursing instructors and allocating $5 million to launch a new student loan forgiveness program for nurses working at the bedside in

Minnesota hospitals. • Retain and Sustain Minnesota

Nurses – The bill provides an annual appropriation of $50,000 for the Minnesota Department of

Health to develop and implement violence prevention strategies for nurses and patients in

Minnesota hospitals. • Support Mental Health for

Healthcare Workers – This bill would provide yearly $1 million

grants for mental health programs for nurses and other healthcare professionals, administered by the

Minnesota Department of Health to hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare facilities and organizations. • Workplace Violence Prevention – This bill includes an ongoing annual appropriation to MDH of $50,000 to continue the prevention of violence in healthcare programs and create violence prevention resources for hospitals and other healthcare providers to use in training their staff on violence prevention. • Review and Release Hospital

Safety Data – The bill includes several provisions to make the decisions of hospital executives more transparent to the public, to hold CEOs accountable when data shows that there are safety or other staffing problems that need to be addressed.

After receiving approval and input from the Governmental Affairs Commission, MNA staff began meeting with legislators, getting the bill drafted, and working to inform the public about nurses’ solutions for ending the nurse staffing crisis to be ready for legislative session to start on January 31, 2022.

The beginning of session

The beginning of legislative session brought news of a large state budget surplus of around 7 billion dollars. Legislators and advocates began to dream of all the things that this budget surplus could bring, while the state still worked to recover from the pandemic and hospitals were beyond capacity from the surge of omicron cases. As nurses struggled to continue the fight against COVID-19 and to keep our communities safe, politicians and interest groups began making plans for the budget surplus, including things like paid family medical leave, funding reinsurance to cover the risk that medical insurance companies take on when providing insurance to individuals in the MNsure market, and covering the cost of the debt owed to the federal government for the unemployment trust fund. MNA knew it was time to elevate the nurse staffing crisis to the legislature and governor to ensure that nurses were not forgotten this session.

One important piece of that work was to ensure that nurses receive Frontline Worker Fund payments that were promised last year. In the end, the payments were passed, alongside tax relief for businesses, and $500 million was set aside to ensure that frontline workers in a multitude of industries would be covered. If all workers who qualify apply, it is expected that each worker would receive approximately $750 in recognition for their work during the pandemic.

Nurses, along with other qualifying frontline workers, are required to apply to receive a check. The application period lasts 45 days beginning in mid-June. It is anticipated that checks will be sent out sometime in September. You can visit the MNA website for more information.

KNABA on the move

The other important piece was to ensure that the Keeping Nurses at the Bedside Act moved in the legislature. With the help of the chief author in the MN House, Representative Liz Olson, and chair of the House Health Finance and Policy Committee, Rep. Tina Liebling, KNABA moved quickly in the House! Within a couple days of being introduced in the House health committee, KNABA received a hearing. This was the first time that safe staffing received a hearing in the MN Legislature in a decade, and it was quite the hearing. Nurses

from facilities in the metro and Duluth shared powerful stories about their experiences working short-staffed in hospitals and why it is vital that safe staffing and nurse retention should be the priority for the legislature. Then hospital administration and a lobbyist from the Minnesota Hospital Association rebutted nurse testimony, stating that nurses couldn’t possibly make decisions for safe staffing because they aren’t qualified and that hospitals are already doing the best they can. But these testimonies against nurses did not sit well with Chair Liebling and she rebuked them for “sound[ing] tone deaf”.

With the support of Chair Liebling and the MN House DFL Leadership, as well as the hard work from chief author Rep. Olson, KNABA was included in the House health and human services omnibus bill and overcame efforts to strip the staffing language from the bill in both the health committee and on the House floor. MNA made staffing history with the inclusion of safe staffing language in the House health and human services omnibus bill as it moved into conference committee.

Unfortunately, KNABA did not receive an official hearing in the Senate, but thanks to the advocacy of chief author Senator Erin Murphy, it was included in a frontline worker public event and nurses were able to share additional stories about why safe staffing is vital for patient safety and nurse retention. Through nurse lobbying, MNA was also able to convey to Senator Benson the need to push for mental health grants for healthcare workers to help them recover from the trauma and stress of working through the pandemic. MNA hoped this grant would be ongoing and have a higher appropriation, but Senator Benson’s bill is a good start to highlight the need to take care of our healthcare workers.

Struggles at the end of session

With only a few days left in session, legislative leaders and the Governor agreed to a budget framework; however, the work of ironing out the details of many of the budget bills did not go well. The health and human services budget bill, along with other major bills, like the tax bill and the bonding bill, did not pass before session ended. Rep. Liebling made a last-ditch effort to get something passed for nurses that would help with unsafe staffing in hospitals. She offered an amendment that would have made it illegal for hospitals to retaliate against nurses who refuse an assignment because of inadequate staffing. (This amendment was conceived through work with the member staffing group and GAC, knowing that staffing language from KNABA would not pass the Senate.) That amendment failed because a majority of the Senators on the conference committee voted against it.

While there is still a possibility that the legislature will convene a special session to finish their work, it is highly unlikely that anything related to ensuring safe staffing levels will pass in 2022. However, the legislature did pass a mental health omnibus bill that includes a one-time, $1 million mental health grant for healthcare workers and MNA will work with the Minnesota Department of Health to ensure that MNA members benefit from these grants.

For more information about applying for Frontline Worker Pay checks, please visit the MNA website.

DID YOUR LEGISLATOR SUPPORT OUR STAFFING BILL? DID YOUR LEGISLATOR SUPPORT OUR STAFFING BILL?

MN HOUSE

Patty Acomb Esther Agbaje Kristin Bahner Jamie Becker-Finn Kaela Berg Connie Bernardy Robert Bierman Liz Boldon Andrew Carlson Shelly Christensen Jim Davnie Rob Ecklund Heather Edelson Steve Elkins Sandra Feist Peter Fischer Cedrick Frazier Luke Frederick Mike Freiberg Aisha Gomez Emma Greenman Rick Hansen Jessica Hanson Hodan Hassan Alice Hausman Kaohly Her Athena Hollins Frank Hornstein Melissa Hortman Mike Howard John Huot Sydney Jordan Heather Keeler Ginny Klevorn Erin Koegel Carlie Kotyza-Witthuhn Fue Lee Tina Liebling Leon Lillie Todd Lippert Dave Lislegard Jamie Long Carlos Mariani Paul Marquart Sandra Masin Kelly Moller Rena Moran Kelly Morrison Mary Murphy Michael Nelson Mohamud Noor Liz Olson Gene Pelowski Dave Pinto Laurie Pryor Liz Reyer Ruth Richardson Steve Sandell Julie Sandstede Jennifer Schultz Zack Stephenson Mike Sundin Samantha Vang Ami Wazlawik Ryan Winkler Dan Wolgamott Tou Xiong Jay Xiong Cheryl Youakim

REPRESENTATIVE PARTY RUNNING IN 2022? SUPPORTS STAFFING?

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Susan Akland Tony Albright Paul Anderson Jeff Backer Cal Bahr Dave Baker Peggy Bennett Matt Bliss Greg Boe John Burkel Brian Daniels Kurt Daudt Greg Davids Lisa Demuth Bob Dettmer Steve Drazkowski Sondra Erickson Keith Franke Mary Franson Pat Garofalo Steve Green Matt Grossell Glenn Gruenhagen Barb Haley Rod Hamilton John Heinrich Josh Heintzeman Jerry Hertaus Spencer Igo Brian Johnson Tony Jurgens Deb Kiel Jon Koznick Ron Kresha Eric Lucero Dale Lueck Joe McDonald Shane Mekeland Tim Miller Erik Mortensen Patty Mueller Jeremy Munson Jim Nash Nathan Nelson Anne Neu Brindley Paul Novotny Tim O’Driscoll Bjorn Olson Marion O’Neill John Petersburg Brian Pfarr Nels Pierson John Poston Duane Quam Donald Raleigh Jordan Rasmusson Kristin Robbins Joe Schomacker Peggy Scott Chris Swedzinski Tama Theis Paul Torkelson Dean Urdahl Nolan West John Thompson

REPRESENTATIVE PARTY RUNNING IN 2022? SUPPORTS STAFFING?

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X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

ABSENT

X X X X X

ABSENT

Who will represent me?

MN SENATE

MN SENATE The GOP majority in the Senate refused to take The GOP majority in the Senate refused to take up the Keeping Nurses at the Bedside Act.up the Keeping Nurses at the Bedside Act.

Did your legislator vote against safe staffing this session? Do you want to make sure elected officials are held accountable to nurses, not hospital executives? Get involved with MNA’s 2022 electoral program. Contact MNA Political Organizer Cameron Fure to get involved at 651-252-5028 or Cameron.fure@mnnurses.org.