Days, nights and weekends seem to be continually filled with executive orders, judges stepping in to decide if the Trump Administration is staying within the law, and what Democrats are describing as chaos at the federal government level.
But at the Minnesota State Capitol, Senate Democrats outlined their priorities for the legislative session, now in its second month and DFL Senate Leader Erin Murphy (St. Paul) says they want to balance the budget and protect the state from what she calls Washington's "chaos agenda."
"We intend to continue the work that we started two years ago to make Minnesota the best place to live, work, and raise a family," Murphy said. "Over the last two years we've invested in Minnesotans in many ways, making sure they have real money in their pockets and opportunity in communities across the state of Minnesota with an eye on equity and our future."
The State Senate had a power-sharing agreement the first month of the session, but Democrats regained the slight majority with the election of Doran Clark (DFL) last week. He's filling out the term of the late Kari Dziedzic.
Now, with that one-seat edge, Murphy says they want to maintain their successes from the recent past while federal authorities make what they describe as threatening moves.
"We're going to protect Minnesotans from the things that are coming from Washington D.C. The chaos agenda that is coming from D.C. could serve as a wrecking ball to the stability of our state's budget and to family budgets across the state of Minnesota," Murphy explains.
The legislative session is in its second month but little has gotten done thanks to the State House's own chaos with Demcorats boycotting the session until a power-sharing agreement was reached with Republicans last week.
Murphy says their top priority is to come up with a balanced budget, which must be completed when the session ends in May.
