Hudella speaks out against gender-affirming care bill

Big believer in freedom. For me, I have a big issue with the bill as it pertains to kids. I just think that kids, a lot of times, go through different periods in their life when they’re not maybe emotionally or intellectually ready to say, ‘I want to change my gender,’ and this bill has the potential to take a young person who is going through a confusing time in their life, and allows them to receive a procedure that they can never have reversed.”

Rep. Shane Hudella

A town hall meeting was held on the afternoon of May 7, a joint appearance by District 41’s Sen. Judy Seeberger (DFL) and Rep. Shane Hudella (R). The meeting room was packed at the HERO Center in Cottage Grove, where the public was invited to attend and submit questions to its newly elected legislators and receive in-person responses to the issues raised.

Just four months into each of their first terms representing the district, much has taken place at the State Capitol in a very short period of time. With a DFL majority in the House, Senate, and Governor’s office, legislation has been more active in this short time than in most prior years in the state’s history. This meeting gave local residents the opportunity to voice their concerns face-to-face for the first time since the current legislative session convened in January.

Seeberger noted that Rep. Mark Wiens (R) had been invited to participate as well but was unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict. She then gave an opening presentation, outlining some of the bills and initiatives that have been proposed and/or passed by the legislature in recent months.

“This has been a busy session,” Seeberger said. “We’ve been doing a lot of work up at the Capitol, and we’re getting a lot of things done. There’s been a lot of legislation in the pipeline that hasn’t been able to be advanced, so we’ve been really busy getting all of that accomplished.” She has so far been the chief author of 67 bills and co-author of 70 bills; 59 of those bills had bi-partisan support.

She commended the passing of the “Protect Reproductive Actions” (PRO) Act, which, she said, “enshrines the right to reproductive freedom in statute, and we codified Roe. It’s the first one we did, and I’m super proud of that work.”

Seeberger celebrated a bill addressing catalytic converter theft by criminalizing possession of a used catalytic converter not in use in a vehicle, a bill that provides funding for universal school lunches to all students in the state of Minnesota regardless of household income, and the “Restore the Vote” Act, which gives back the right to vote to as many as 65,000 previously-convicted felons in the state who have served their time.

Another passage was the “Driver’s Licenses for All” bill, which removes immigration status as a reason for disqualification from receiving a Minnesota driver’s license.

She explained, “Those who are on the roads can be properly licensed and insured, know the rules of the road, and not be driving illegally.”

The “Crown Act” was passed, which “prohibits racial discrimination based on natural hair texture.” A bill also passed making Juneteenth an official state holiday in Minnesota. Emergency Food Shelf relief legislation has been passed, and a bill to provide funding to hire more criminal prosecutors to relieve strain on the state’s counties.

She pointed to her work with Hudella to address funding and workplace environment concerns at the Hastings Veteran’s Home as a positive step forward. PFAS water contamination is also an issue being addressed. The entire district has experienced various levels of PFAS in city/county water, and recently the water supply in Hastings has become increasingly more dangerous as a drinking source. She has proposed a bill to ban PFAS in many different applications and products, as well as requiring the labeling of PFAS products so that residents will know what they are buying.

Seeberger also discussed her work with County Commissioner Karla Bigham in passing the Refinery Safety Bill. A bill that has been in the works for the last few years, it finally came to fruition this session, creating minimum safety thresholds at the state’s oil refineries.

Funding to fight the ongoing fentanyl crisis is being sought as well, with results expected to be seen later in the session.

Upon completing her opening presentation, an attendee stood up and interrupted the meeting. Wearing a “Make America Great Again” cap and an American flag jacket, the man shouted, “How come your presentation doesn’t say anything about your vote on child transgender mutilation? You’re afraid of it. You call yourself a moderate. You’re a fake moderate.” Amid shouts from the crowd to sit down or get out, he responded, “Hey, I’m out of here, trust me. I don’t need to listen to liars. I don’t need to listen to evil people. You know exactly what you’re doing, and you call yourself a moderate.  It’s a joke.” The man then left the room.

The meeting continued, with Hudella saying, “Another day in politics, right?” to some laughter from the audience. He thanked Seeberger for inviting him to the Town Hall.

“Contrary to what you may see in the media or on the news, folks from both sides do work together on a regular basis to do a lot of really good things for our communities,” he said. “Are we still going to disagree on some policy things? Of course, we are.”

Hudella outlined his support for legislation countering the fentanyl crisis, as well as numerous measures supporting the state’s military veterans.

“I had the opportunity to serve in the Army for 24 years, and loved every minute of it,” he said to crowd applause. “It’s some of our greatest men and women in America that put that uniform on.  It doesn’t matter if you’re Republican or Democrat; you’re an American. You’re fighting for everyone back home.”

He highlighted a bill that passed appropriating $78 million to the Veteran’s Home in Hastings, with bi-partisan support from Seeberger, providing a new state-of-the-art facility for the city’s veterans. He also described a bill he authored that would provide free-of-charge state transportation service fees to veterans, including motor vehicle sales tax, tab and license renewal, among other things. Also in the works are efforts to provide additional amenities to veteran outreach programs, such as beds and supplies for apartments that aren’t currently funded.

In regard to capital investment in roads, bridges, and infrastructure, he said, “I think that’s one of our core functions, right? Yes, we’re going to disagree on some policy things at a high level, but really to me we’re here as elected officials to, Number 1, protect everybody in this room, and Number 2, try and create a better community for them, whether that’s parks or roads or bridges.”

Hudella expressed some disagreement with education funding from his participation as a member of the Education Finance Committee, particularly the inclusion of new mandates as a requirement to receive needed funds. Proposed mandates in the education omnibus bill currently include semester-long critical ethnic studies courses for high school seniors beginning next year in public schools, and language expanding the mandate to K-12 students by 2027.

Noting that 4,000 bills have been proposed so far this session, he said, “There are some things I haven’t liked that have come out of the Capitol, but there have been a lot of great things too, especially as it pertains to veterans and our community.”

He reiterated the PFAS issue, particularly in its relation to Hastings, and is pushing to find funding for necessary infrastructure replacements and upgrades, including retrofitting water towers.

A number of questions were then read from audience submission. The majority could not be addressed in the allotted time, with responses from Seeberger and Hudella expected in the near future.

They were asked about the Uber Labor Bill, which brings up inequities experienced by drivers around the state. Both expressed support for drivers and hope to bring legislative support to the state’s ride-share workers.

Asked about the current prevalence of omnibus bills and what that means for legislation, Seeberger assured that she reads everything in them, and if there is anything that needs clarification, she will go to the people who can specifically clear up any confusion on a topic.

“I hate omnibus bills,” Hudella said.

He said that the state has been passing less and less standalone bills each year because of omnibus bills.

“What happens is we get these omnibus bills, and it puts folks on both sides of the aisle in a tough spot.” He added, “I didn’t like about 80% of what was in the transportation omnibus bill this year. We did need to raise some taxes in that, even with the surplus, because the funding comes differently to transportation. It’s been eye-opening for me to learn some of that. Some of the tax issues I agreed with, some I didn’t. I still didn’t like the majority of the bill. I ended up voting for it because the 20% that I did like, I loved. And that’s where omnibus bills have a fault.”

Asked to provide an update on the state’s record $17.6 billion surplus, what is happening with it, and why it hasn’t been returned to the taxpayers, Hudella said to Seeberger, “Well, this is a tougher question for you than me.” He then said that his side has been advocating for returned tax relief, but the majority at the Capitol made investments in a lot of programs, some of which he supports and some he doesn’t.

“It’s tough right now. It’s tough for a lot of working-class Minnesotans, and in my opinion especially our seniors, to see an $18 billion surplus kind of disappear, and then by the way, we have, I think the last number I saw, was $9.5 billion in tax increases coming behind it. It’s disappointing, in my opinion. I think that things could be done a little bit differently, but that’s the spot that we’re at,” Hudella said.

Seeberger acknowledged the surplus is one of the most talked-about issues at the Capitol.

“I know that there is a proposal on the Senate side in the tax committee to send some of the surplus back,” she said. “I know it’s not what people wanted, and I think that’s still getting hammered out in conference, if I’m not mistaken. But what I learned when I got to the Capitol was that most of that surplus is one-time money. I also learned what tails are, and how important they are to take into consideration when you budget things. Tails are the ongoing money that you’re going to need into the future beyond what you have right now. When you have one-time money, once it’s spent, it’s gone. It’s not recurring funds, it’s not something that you get back that you can include in your budget over time.” She added, “So then the question becomes ‘what’s the best use of this money?’ and clearly, we do differ in opinion with regards to that. Hopefully the two bodies can get it worked out in the House and the Senate. I know that the Senate proposal did have checks going back, but a lot of that one-time funding, we were trying to figure out how to use it for roads or other things that haven’t been funded in the last couple sessions.”

A full refund of the $17.6 billion surplus would work out to about $5,800 per taxpayer in the state. Early options floated were $2,000 per taxpayer, which was then lowered to $1,000 per taxpayer. The refund as it stands now is slated at $279 per taxpayer.

Asked about gender-affirming care, Seeberger said, “It does provide the right for children and adults with disabilities to receive gender-affirming care. I understand there’s a lot of misinformation out there about what it does and doesn’t do, and I would simply defer to my position that the legislature does not belong in doctor’s offices. These are conversations to be had between the patient and the doctor. And I trust physicians to abide by accepted medical practice and do what’s right for their patients.”

Hudella said that he spoke out against the gender-affirming care bill on the House floor.

“I have no issues with the LGTBQ community,” he said. “I have a good friend who’s gay, with a wonderful husband. I served in the military for 24 years, so you can love who you want, do whatever you want to your body. Big believer in freedom. For me, I have a big issue with the bill as it pertains to kids. I just think that kids, a lot of times, go through different periods in their life when they’re not maybe emotionally or intellectually ready to say, ‘I want to change my gender,’ and this bill has the potential to take a young person who is going through a confusing time in their life, and allows them to receive a procedure that they can never have reversed. It’s one of those bigger social issues that we don’t see eye-to-eye on, but it did pass the House and pass the Senate, and it’s going to become law. So, I don’t agree with it, and that’s just how it is.”

The final question, asked by an elderly man in attendance, was to address the issue of extraordinary rent increases at senior facilities in the state over the past four years, upwards of 42% in some cases. Both legislators agreed that something must be done about the issue, and quickly. Both acknowledged that seniors are some of the state’s most vulnerable citizens in terms of housing options, and they hope to affect change on this issue to keep rent increases in check through legislation.