Kurt Daudt appears to be signaling that he'll lead his caucus toward once more protecting drug companies over battling the opioid crisis. It's difficult to say how much power he'll have to repeat last year's dismal performance by his leadership in the House, blocking a companion bill to legislation passed by the Republican-led Senate.
Noelle Olson reports in the Isanti County News article, Speaker Kurt Daudt visits Isanti County Board meeting:
Daudt said work is ongoing to determine the cause of these mental health issues, including opioid and chemical abuse issues. Also, he said they did some work to address opioid abuse last year, but helping people got caught up and confused with punishing drug companies.
Bluestem doesn't believe folks like representative Dave Baker, R-Willmar, and senator Julie Rosen, R-Vernon Center, were confused, nor were attempts to hold the drug companies accountable efforts at punishment. Last May, Christopher Magan reported for the Pioneer Press in Minnesota Senate advances opioid fee despite opposition from drug companies:
. . .With a 60-6 vote the Minnesota Senate overwhelmingly approved an opioid stewardship bill Thursday. The legislation would raise $20 million a year from licensing fees on drug manufacturers and distributors to help communities, addicts and their children deal with the fallout from the crisis.
Lawmakers gave emotional speeches ahead of the vote, detailing their frustration with pharmaceutical companies they say refuse to take any true responsibility for the crisis that has killed tens of thousands nationwide.
“These companies amassed a fortune off the opioid epidemic,” Sen. Julie Rosen, R-Vernon Center, who is chief sponsor of the bill, said during her closing remarks. “They have never once been at the table to say, ‘I may have a solution.’ I’m trying to make them accountable and be part of the solution.” ...
The big bipartisan vote sends a strong message, but it is unclear if the bill approved Thursday can pass the House. A similar proposal with a “penny-per-pill” fee on prescription opioids was stripped out of a House bill in committee.
There’s been more support for another part of Rosen’s bill that establishes an advisory council that would oversee statewide efforts to combat the crisis. That would include: expanding access to successful treatments, reviewing prevention initiatives and working with state and local agencies.
Minnesota has been working hard in recent years to better coordinate its efforts to reduce opioid overdoses and prevent addictions. Opioids killed 395 Minnesotans in 2016 and those numbers are expected to rise.
Those parts that Daudt supported were stuffed into the nearly 1000 page Omnibus Prime bill that Governor Dayton vetoed.
Hope for real action in 2019 session
But with Daudt out as Speaker, Minnesota media reports there's hope that something will get done in the coming session. At MinnPost, Peter Callaghan reported in Why some Minnesota lawmakers are confident they can get an opioid bill passed in 2019:
At the end of the 2018 session of the Minnesota Legislature, supporters of measures to create programs to fight opioid abuse and addiction were disappointed — and determined.
Bills to raise $20 million — first via a penny-a-pill tax and then through licensing fees on opioid manufacturers and distributors — had failed to get through the Legislature. And though a few provisions to fight the epidemic were included in a nearly 1,000-page omnibus bill, that legislation was eventually vetoed by Gov. Mark Dayton.
While blaming House GOP leadership, especially then-House Speaker Kurt Daudt, for the failure of the funding bills, backers of the measures said their next steps would depend on the results of the election. “If Speaker Daudt is still there, I’ll probably go to court,” Sen. Chris Eaton, DFL-Brooklyn Center, said at the time. “If the Democrats are able to take the House back, we’ll probably try again with the legislation.”
Well, Daudt won’t be speaker when the Minnesota House of Representatives convenes in January. That job will all but certainly be filled by Rep. Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, thanks to a Nov. 6 election that saw the DFL take control of the chamber by picking up 18 seats.
All of which means the political math around the opioids issue has changed. Hortman and Gov.-elect Tim Walz have both committed to supporting the bills. And while the specific programs and policies in the measures might still be in flux, Eaton said she expects something to pass early in the 2019 legislative session. . . . .
Read the rest at MinnPost.
Callaghan's article includes more of Daudt's sympathy for the drug companies, though Daudt's message about the good or bad of punishing drug companies seems to have spent some time in a KitchenAid mixer:
When asked at the end of the 2018 session about the accusation that he had broken a promise to hold a vote in House on the bill, Daudt said he didn’t think there were enough votes in his caucus to pass it. “We just simply didn’t have the votes for it and that’s not uncommon in the House,” Daudt said last May. “In an election year, people will see that as a tax increase and people don’t want to raise taxes in an election year.
“But we also didn’t see it as punishing opioid companies or manufacturers. We saw it as helping Minnesotans,” he said. “And we found we could help Minnesotans regardless of what you did to opioid companies. I believe opioid manufacturers will get their day in court and they will get their punishment if they have been bad actors but I never believed that was the Legislature’s job to do that.”
Fortunately, voters punished Daudt's caucus--for whatever reason--in 18 House districts. We hope the votes are there to pass a meaningful bill.
Photo: Kurt Daudt who doesn't want to be unkind to drug companies.
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