Yesterday Minnesota’s 88th legislative session convened. This blog post is really more about providing information regarding new leadership and committee makeup, not child welfare-related items.
Remember, we are tracking child welfare-related bills. As of right now, we are only set up to follow Minnesota-specific child welfare legislation. In the future we hope to change this to include relevant federal-level legislation. You can follow our bill tracking by visiting the child welfare policy section of our webpage at http://z.umn.edu/cwpolicy.

House of Representatives

Speaker of the House: Rep. Paul Thissen (D-61B)
Early Childhood and Youth Development Policy (NEW for 88th session)

Meets Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 4pm in Room 5 of the State Office Building.

  • Chair: Joe Mullery
  • Vice Chair: Carolyn Laine
  • GOP Lead: Pam Myhra
  • Kathy Brynaert, Carly Melin, Rena Moran, Joe Radinovich, Ryan Winkler, Bob Barrett, Mary Franson, Jeff Howe, Ron Kresha

Health & Human Services Finance

Meets Tuesdays, Wednesdays, & Thursdays at 10am in Room 200 of the State Office Building.

  • Chair: Thomas Huntley
  • Vice Chair: Kim Norton
  • GOP Lead: Jim Abeler (former chair)
  • Susan Allen, Peter Fischer, Patti Fritz, Laurie Halverson, Melissa Hortman, Carolyn Laine, Tina Liebling, Diane Loeffler, Rena Moran, Jerry Newton, Lyndon Carlson ex offficio, Matt Dean, Glenn Gruenhagen, Tara Mack, Joe McDonald, Joe Schomacker, Nick Zerwas

Health & Human Services Policy (NEW for 88th session)

Meets Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 2:15pm in Room 200 of the State Office Building.

  • Chair: Tina Liebling
  • Vice Chair: Rena Moran
  • Susan Allen, John Benson, Patti Fritz, Thomas Huntley, Diane Loeffler, Will Morgan, Joe Mullery, Dan Schoen, JoAnn Ward, Jim Abeler, Tony Albright, Mary Franson, Glenn Gruenhagen, Tara Mack, Joe Schomacker, Nick Zerwas

Ways and Means

Meets Mondays at 10am in Room 200 of the State Office Building.

  • Chair: Lyndon Carlson
  • Vice Chair: Tom Anzelc
  • GOP Lead: Mary Liz Holberg
  • Joe Atkins, Kathy Brynaert, Karen Clark, Jim Davnie, Alice Hausman, Debra Hilstrom, Frank Hornstein, Thomas Huntley, Phyllis Kahn, Ann Lenczewski, Tim Mahoney, Carlos Mariani, Joe Mullery, Michael Paymar, Gene Pelowski, Jeanne Poppe, Steve Simon, Jean Wagenius, Jim Abeler, Sarah Anderson, Michael Beard, Greg Davids, Matt Dean, Bob Dettmer, Bob Gunther, Tom Hackbarth, Jenifer Loon, Denny McNamara, Bud Nornes, Kelby Woodard

Senate

President of the Senate: Sen. Sandra Pappas (D-65)
Majority Leader: Sen. Thomas M. Bakk (D-3)
Minority Leader: Sen. David W. Hann (R-48)
Health, Human Services & Housing (NEW for 88th session)

Meets Mondays and Wednesdays from 12pm to 2:30pm in Room 15.

  • Chair: Kathy Sheran
  • Vice Chair: Melissa Wiklund
  • GOP Lead: Michelle Benson
  • Chris Eaton, Jeff Hayden, Gretchen Hoffman, Tony Lourey, John Marty, Carla Nelson, Sean Nienow, Julie Rosen