NAMI Minnesota Legislative Update

May 10, 2020

ACTION ALERT: Contact Your Legislators about the Bonding Bill

With a little over a week left of the legislation session, NAMI Minnesota is counting on our members to step up and speak out in support of housing for people with mental illnesses. Housing is a top priority because people with mental illnesses are much more likely to experience housing instability or homelessness and you can't focus on your recovery if you don't have a place to live.

The most powerful tool we have to end homelessness in Minnesota is through the use of bonding dollars to develop new affordable housing units and to refurbish existing public housing units. The legislature typically sets aside the second year of the biennium to pass a bonding bill, so it is very important that the legislature moves forward with a bonding bill immediately.

Bonding dollars can only be used to build something - whether it's roads or new homes - and cannot be used to provide services. A bonding bill is harder to pass since a bonding bill must have the support of 60% of the body. This means that the minority parties in the House and Senate have more influence on the bonding bill compared to other bills. Bonding bills only pass when they have broad, bipartisan support, so it is very important for every NAMI member - no matter what district you live in - to contact your state legislators and ask for a bonding bill with significant resources for affordable housing. Please take action in the next three days!

Here's what you have to say:

My name is __________ and I'm a NAMI Minnesota supporter living in __________. I'm reaching out to ask that you support a robust bonding bill with substantial investments in affordable housing as detailed in the Homes for All Proposal.

(briefly share your personal story about why mental illness and housing is important)

People with mental illnesses are much more likely to experience housing instability or homelessness. That's why it is so important for the legislature to take action and pass a bonding bill with allocations for housing. Thank you for your time and support of people with mental illnesses.

Thank you for contacting your legislators in support of passing a bonding bill this year!

While a lot has changed, we are still confident that we can have a successful 2020 legislative session!

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News from the State Level

Activity in Legislature this Week

With the end of the session approaching, both the House and Senate held important committee hearings and floor votes on key legislation this week. On Monday, the House Early Childhood Education and Policy Committee held a hearing on HF 1785. This is legislation from Rep. Richardson that bans pre-school suspensions and allows for expulsions if the child presents an ongoing safety risk and attempts to support and engage the child have failed. Maren Hulden from Mid-Minnesota Legal-Aid testified in support of the bill. This legislation was passed out of the committee and sent to the General Register for a floor vote.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Health and Human Services Policy Committee held a hearing on a health and human services omnibus policy bill with provisions under the jurisdiction of Sen. Benson's committee. Important sections in HF 3727 include policy changes for Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs), DHS policy around health care homes, as well as allowing for pharmacists to prescribe nicotine replacement medications like patches or gum. This is a positive step that will increase access to these beneficial medications when someone is ready to quite smoking. An earlier version of this bill included all tobacco cessation products, but the final version does not include medications because of the side-effects associated with them. A physician will still need to prescribe tobacco cessation medications. HF 3727 was passed out of committee and was sent to the General Register for a floor vote.

The Senate Health and Human Services Finance and Policy Committee also met on Tuesday afternoon and held a hearing on SF 3204. This is legislation carried by Sen. Rosen with reforms on the use of prior-authorizations by health plans and Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs). Key changes include speeding up the timeline for prior-authorization reviews, requiring the utilization review organization to make their criteria for prior authorizations available to the public, and requiring the physician

making a prior-authorization decision to be in a same or similar field for the healthcare service that has been requested. This means that anyone reviewing a service request for someone with a mental illness to specialize in mental health. This bipartisan legislation has been negotiated for many years and NAMI Minnesota is plesead to see it move forward. SF 3204 passed out of the Health and Human Services Finance and Policy Committee and was re-referred to the Senate Commerce Committee where it will be heard next week. The House companion carried by Rep. Morrison was also heard in the House Commerce committee and then re-referred to the General Register for a floor vote.

The House Education Policy Committee met on Wednesday afternoon to take a formal vote on its omnibus education policy bill. This legislation includes NAMI Minnesota language from Rep. Moller requiring all teachers to receive training on student mental health and suicide prevention. Under current law, only tier three and tier four licensed teachers are required to receive this training. HF 163 was passed out of the Education Committee and sent to the general register for a floor vote after a hearing in the rules committee.

On Thursday, the Senate held a floor vote on SF 3560. This is the Health and Human Services policy omnibus bill from Sen. Benson's committee. After introducing her bill, Sen. Benson moved an amendment to her legislation. Most importantly for the mental health community, this amendment places additional guard-rails around Physician Assistants (PAs) when they provide treatment for a mental illness. Under this amendment, a physician assistant can only provide ongoing mental health treatment for a child with an emotional disturbance or an adult with a serious mental illness in collaboration with a physician and under the consultation of a psychiatrist. PAs do not have the specialized training necessary to treat children and adults with serious mental illnesses, so this was a very important amendment. The amendment was adopted and SF 3560 was passed unanimously off the Senate floor.

The House also held a floor vote on Thursday, where they passed another COVID-19 relief package. HF 1507 from Rep. Stephenson includes $100 million in rental assistance through the Family Homelessness Prevention and Assistance Program (FHPAP) for people with very low incomes who are at risk of eviction. While Governor Walz issued an executive order banning evictions, rent will still be due when the executive order expires, including rental payments during the public health emergency for COVID-19. The other key provision in this legislation for the mental health community involves reimbursement for telemedicine equipment. Under HF 1507, community health clinics, critical access hospitals, local public health departments, local county boards, and individual and small group physician practices that focus on primary care are eligible for grant dollars to purchase and install telemedicine equipment. NAMI Minnesota hopes that the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) interprets community health clinics to include community mental health providers when distributing these grant funds.

HF 1507 passed off the floor of the House.

On Saturday morning, the House Capital Investment Committee held a hearing on HF 3326 from Rep. Hausman. This bill will serve as the vehicle for the House Bonding bill. HF 3326 is the Homes for All Bonding Bill and, as amended, includes $400 million in Housing Infrastructure Bonds (HIB) to develop affordable housing projects in Minnesota. While the bill is likely to change in many ways as the House and Senate negotiates a final bill, it is encouraging that the House chose a Housing bonding bill as the vehicle for their overall package. The Senate introduced a copy of the Governor's bill, so we are likely to see their initial package in the coming days as well. Thank you to all the NAMI advocates who contacted their legislators about the importance of passing a bonding bill with a substantial investment in housing.

The House Agriculture Committee passed its bill and adopted an amendment that lowered the increase in the farmer mental health program from $50,000 to $40,000. The House Higher Ed Committee passed HF 3089 which would create an addiction medicine graduate medical education fellowship program.

HF 1246 passed the house and its companion, SF 1098, had already passed the senate. This bill requires pharmaceutical companies to explain price increases for medications, and to provide transparency for new medications. The House also passed passed HF 4582 which would provide a one-time cash grant of $500 to families on MFIP.

Wednesday the House Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform Finance and Policy Committee met for the final time this session to pass a criminal justice omnibus bill. After a delete all amendment the language of HF 2711 was replaced with four articles covering appropriations, general crime policy, other policy, and controlled substances. The bill gives $8 million to bolster corrections services for people on probation and parole, including $2.6 million to establish county and regional revocation intervention service centers and $365,000 for cognitive behavioral treatment, sex offender treatment, and to increase housing. Other appropriations go to the Department of Public Safety to aid in investigations including expanded access to sexual assault examination kits, and the Sentencing Guidelines Commission to make up a small budget deficit.

A group of county and community corrections associations testified in favor of the bill and noted the need for increased community supports for people on probation pretrial and being released from prison, especially during the time of COVID-19. In their testimony, representatives for county probation officers and Community Corrections Act counties highlighted a recent death by suicide of a person on probation in Pine county as well as the work of probation officers sometimes responding to mental health crises in their clients.

NAMI Minnesota supports increased community supports and interventions for all justice involve people, however this legislation does not offer specific descriptions of

costly projects like “revocation intervention service centers.” NAMI is cautious of creating new access points to treatment solely through the justice system. We should build our mental health system so that all people including justice involved people, can access the support they need when they need it.

Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell also testified in favor of the bill and HF 4540 as amended which would appropriate funds to cover overtime and other staffing issues raised in the recent Office of the Legislative Auditor report on safety in prisons. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is unlikely that legislation with large appropriations will gain bipartisan support by the end of the session. There are still some important policy considerations in HF 2711 as amended, including providing free menstrual hygiene products for people in prison and lowering the penalties for small cannabis possession crimes. You can read the House Research summary of the omnibus bill which was referred to the Ways and Means committee here.

The State Government Finance Committee passed HF 3568 to the Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday after an amendment for appropriations. The bill would create a planning group to decriminalize mental illnesses and provide better responses to people already in the justice system with mental illnesses. The amendment would appropriate $312,000 in fiscal year 2021 and base funding of $286,000 per year from 2022 to 2026. The appropriations would go to the commissioner of administration for staff and support of the planning group.

Governor’s Office Promotes Board of Pardons Application DeadlineGovernor Walz’s office is encouraging individuals to apply for pardons and commutations by the 2020 deadline of June 1st. Pardons involve either forgiving or lessening a current sentence for a person convicted of a crime, or erasing the record of person who has already completed their sentence. In Minnesota, the Board of Pardons is made up of the Governor, the Attorney General, and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. They meet once a year to consider applications and decisions to grant a pardon must be unanimous.

Legislation this session attempted to establish a Clemency Review Commission to vet applications. The legislation would also require the board to meet at least twice a year and would change the board’s decisions from unanimous to a majority vote. These efforts were to increase access to pardons. Carry a criminal record often has collateral consequences creating barriers to housing, employment, and healthcare.

The Governor has released this statement from the 2019 Board of Pardons meeting: “It is my goal that this process become more available and accessible to more Minnesotans. My administration is working to provide information on the process – not just for pardons extraordinary, but also for commutations and simple pardons – to advocates and those who might apply. This Board has the important power to grant commutations as well as pardons, and I challenge us to exercise that

responsibility more often in the interest of clemency and justice.” The Governor’s office has also released general information about pardons and a presentation that was intended for outreach before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. You can apply to the Board of Pardons here.

State Budget Faces a DeficitThe impact of COVID-19 on spending and revenue means the state faces a nearly $2.43 billion deficit for the rest of the biennium, which ends June 30, 2021. Knowing that there is so much work yet to do to build our mental health system, this doesn't look good for our future efforts. Read more here.

Changes at DHS

Maisha Giles, who has led the Behavioral Health Division at DHS, is stepping down at the end of the month. Ms. Giles worked to integrate the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division with the Children's and Adult Mental Health Divisions and focused on equity issues within the systems. We thank her for her work and wish her well in her new journey.

Governor Walz Opens Door to Elective Procedures

Governor Walz has modified a previous executive order and, staring on Monday May 11th, health care facilities will be able to offer elective and non-essential procedures. Governor Walz has previously banned these procedures in order to preserve necessary protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic. While this ban had the support of many organizations including the Minnesota Hospital Association, banning these procedures placed a significant financial burden on many healthcare providers. Under executive order 20-51, health care, dental, or veterinary providers can start offering elective and non-essential procedures so long as they offer a safe environment for patients, visitors and staff.

Criminal Justice Update

News from Federal Level

CARE Act May Impact Families Providing Foster Care

Last March, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) act, sent out a federal stimulus payment based on 2019 tax returns. This payment could potentially impact families with children who are, or have been in foster care. To inform potentially impacted families, the Department of Human Services has put together a FAQ with guidance for basic questions. This FAQ is not legal tax advice and individuals should consult the IRS or a certified tax professional with any questions about their specific circumstances. The IRS is providing additional guidance on its economic impact payment information center, which is updated periodically. You can find the full FAQ from DHS here.

Updates from NAMI Minnesota

May is Mental Health MonthMay is mental health month. A time to raise awareness of the importance of good mental health, especially during these times. Each day in May we are challenging you to take action to improve your mental health. Follow us on social media and download our challenge calendar. We are creating a community as people share why they care.

You can support NAMI Minnesota’s work to improve the mental health of Minnesotans by participating in Give MN's #GiveAtHomeMN campaign, a week-long giving celebration to respond to the unprecedented need caused by COVID-19, from today, May 1 to Friday, May 8. This is a great time to support NAMI Minnesota, the mission you care deeply about, and our work to provide education, support and advocacy.

Our goal is to raise $10,000 through the #GiveAtHomeMN Give MN challenge week! NAMI Minnesota’s Board of Directors has led the way toward meeting this goal with 100% of them donating to the effort. We believe that we can make this happen with your help!

Giving is quick and easy: just visit our Give MN #GiveAtHomeMN page to donate and

join this timely giving celebration!

Throughout the month of May, NAMI Minnesota’s community educators and other professionals will be offering free classes to the public. For detailed descriptions and registration information, visit our website and Facebook page. New classes will be added through the month of May!

Upcoming Classes:·   Discipline Tips for Stressed Parents: Monday, May 11, 1:00-2:00 PM·   QPR – Question, Persuade, Refer: Monday, May 11th, 11:30-1:00 PM

NAMI Legislative CommitteeMeetings are held on the second Tuesday of every month at 6 PM and in April will be by phone or zoom. To be added to the email list, contact Sam Smith.

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