Our futures start at the legislature. This is how your legislators can lead.
This essay is part of a larger series about how our elected officials help us defend our futures by leading on equitable climate solutions and building multiracial democracy.
The 201 Minnesota legislators are among our biggest potential allies for defending our futures. They wield major institutional power and soft power too. They can use both kinds of power to build up or tear down multiracial democracy and equitable climate solutions.
Law-making, budgets, oversight, oh my!
Senators and representatives make up the legislative branch – the first among equals of our three branches of government. The legislature has the power to change laws, pass our state’s budget, and conduct oversight. Committees are where this happens. And who controls the committees depends on who is in those legislative seats and the majorities in each legislative body.
Let’s dig in.
Changing laws is what you probably think of most when it comes to the power of the legislature. And it’s a big one! For example, a clean electricity grid is the backbone of a carbon-free economy. Minnesota has made progress on cleaner electricity, but not enough. Rep. Jamie Long and Sen. Nick Frentz authored a bill requiring 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040. It passed the House, but the Senate stalled it. Bad move, Senate.
On top of law-making, the legislature has sole authority to appropriate money. This is a biggie because so much of what we need to do to address climate change involves building. And the things we need to build – like bus rapid transit lines and climate-resilient water management systems – require state government investment.
We have an historic state budget surplus. And we have this surplus at just the moment to level-up climate solutions. Earlier this year, the House Climate Action Caucus put forward a plan to invest $1 billion of this surplus in equitable climate solutions. It’s an amazing proposal, exactly the kind of leadership we need from our legislators.
Side note on a nerdy state budget thing that matters for climate. Minnesota has another pot of money that it can continually invest in climate and clean energy solutions - the Renewable Development Account. This money comes from a fee Xcel Energy pays to store casks of nuclear waste at Prairie Island. It’s dedicated to renewable energy. But some years the legislature doesn’t even spend it. Anti-renewables legislators block its use or, some years, even try to raid it. It’s fair to say that elections matter on this one.
On top of passing laws and the state budget, the legislature has one other big official power. Government oversight. I know, I know. The idea of oversight may elicit a yawn. But making sure our government is running well matters so much for us trusting it – and by extension for us trusting our democracy.
Plus, oversight can be captivating. Just ask anyone who tuned into a federal congressional hearings about the January 6th insurrection.
Now that I have you convinced that legislative oversight matters, check out the Office of the Legislative Auditor. It’s one of the most trusted parts of state government, and we should elect legislators who keep it that way. Even cooler, sometimes the Office of the Legislative Auditor assesses government processes that matter a whole lot for equitable climate solutions. For example, check out this report on Public Utiility Commission public participation processes.
Committees, committees, and more committees
So, the legislature has a bunch of power to help us defend our futures. But where does that work actually happen? How does it get done? The answer is committees. So many committees.
Legislative committees are the lifeblood of legislative work. Both the House and the Senate have standing committees covering the full range of legislative topics. For a bill to become a law, it needs to go through at least one of these standing committees. The chair of each committee sets the committee’s agenda. If a bill doesn’t make it on a committee agenda? It doesn’t become law. And chairs of committees are almost always part of the majority party. So, to defend our futures, we need legislative majorities with chairs who will put climate bills on committee agendas and then vote them out of committee.
The legislature also has a few special kinds of committees including conference committees and joint committees (or commissions). The House and Senate use temporary conference committees to hammer out differences in bills, creating the final version that gets passed into law. (This is higher level legislative process stuff, but just trust me, the majority party matters a bunch here, too.)
The Legislative Energy Commission is a cool example of a joint committee. It’s made up of senators and representatives who are tasked with evaluating Minnesota’s energy policies and progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions – important stuff for building a better climate future.
Agenda-setting
Now here is the thing about legislative powers, they can use these powers to make progress, or stall it. For example, the Senate’s Legislative Energy Commission Co-chair David Osmek hasn’t called a commission meeting since 2020. Two years ago!
Thankfully, we also have examples of committee chairs who use their committees to positively shape policy conversations. As chair of the House Capital Investment Committee, Rep. Fue Lee shaped a climate resilience agenda for how the state approaches infrastructure investments. It’s exactly the kind of smart forward-looking legislative agenda-setting we need.
Legislators can also get creative about how they use soft power to move broader legislative agendas. The House Climate Action Caucus is a fantastic example. Formed in 2019, the Caucus has held a series of informational hearings, fostered legislative climate champions, put forward 2020’s House Climate Action Plan, and 2022’s Build Minnesota Climate Budget. All of this work lays a foundation for even more ambitious solutions.
We can elect legislators who will use every tool they can (and create new ones) to usher Minnesota toward a future filled with equitable climate solutions.
Local democracy-building
I’ve focused a lot on climate solutions so far, and these same powers can be used to build multiracial democracy.
Beyond policymaking, legislators have a unique role in democracy. They connect individual Minnesotans and communities to our state government. Legislators hold town halls. They talk to scout groups. They answer emails from constituents, help people navigate bureaucracy, and more.
This day-to-day work of connecting people to government weaves and repairs the increasingly delicate fabric of what holds us together as Minnesotans and Americans. With our democracy under real threat, the way a legislator does this part of their job matters for the multiracial democracy we are striving for.
I know as I cast my vote for representative and senator this year, I will be thinking about policy positions. I’ll also be considering how much reverence the candidate demonstrates for the beautiful idea and messy day-to-day work of democracy.
To learn more about your candidates for the Minnesota Senate and House of Representatives, check out the Secretary of State’s website. You can use the What’s On My Ballot page to figure out who’s running where you live. You can use the Candidate Filings page to find links to their campaign websites.
