We've been researching "stakeholder" groups' agendas for policy in the coming legislative sessions in Minnesota (opening January 5) and South Dakota (opening January 12). We've been distracted by coverage of the leadership's decision about how each body should convene in the age of COVID.
First, Minnesota. Minnesota Public Radio's Tim Pugmire reports in Another legislative session looms on Zoom:
Minnesota legislators return to action next Tuesday to begin putting together a massive two-year state budget under the restrictions of COVID-19 protocols at the Capitol that took hold last March. . . .
House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, said the priority for 2021 is to keep people safe.
“We have the privileged position of being able to do our work through technology, and we will use that technology to do our jobs,” Hortman said, meaning the House will conduct all committee meetings remotely via Zoom.
During floor sessions, a handful of people will work in the House chamber. But most lawmakers will participate from their office or home, using new remote voting technology aimed at speeding up the process. . . .
The Minnesota Senate will start the 2021 session with many members working remotely.
Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, R-East Gull Lake, said there will also be members attending committee hearings in person.
“What we’ve done is we’ve made the committees smaller with the idea that we can social distance in some of these rooms,” he said, adding that his goal is to return fully to in-person lawmaking later in the session.
Both Gazelka and Hortman said they are encouraging legislators to hold back on bill introductions to help lighten the load for legislative staff and allow more time to focus on the budget.
Face-to-face interaction is a critical part of the process, especially in a budget year, Gazelka said.
“Many, many issues get solved just walking down a hallway and you bump into somebody and you take up another piece of information on the way to another meeting,” he said. “So all of those little meetings in between meetings are not happening, and that’s part of the problem. This is a relationship business.”
The lobbyists that are often part of those conversations with legislators are also concerned. . . .
Won't someone think of the lobbyists? Deprived of the lobbies? And glad-handing? Read the entire piece at MPR News.
That closeness Gazelka craves has already had deadly consequences, as the Minnesota Reformer's Ricardo Lopez reported in GOP State Sen. Jerry Relph, author of COVID-19 response bill, dies from coronavirus:
State Sen. Jerry Relph, R-St. Cloud, has died from complications from COVID-19, the first Minnesota state legislator to die from the disease.
Relph, 76, had been hospitalized after contracting the virus last month. His infection came during an outbreak that sickened several Senate Republicans and staff members, including Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, R-East Gull Lake. . . .
The Senate GOP caucus has faced criticism for holding a pair of in-person events in early November: a caucus meeting at the Capitol as well as a 150-person post-election victory party held indoors with little mask-wearing.
The caucus failed to inform nonpartisan staff and their Democratic-Farmer-Labor counterparts ahead of a November special legislative session.
We can easily see why Speaker Hortman isn't following Gazelka's path into full hallways.
But perhaps Gazelka's logic is going strong in South Dakota.
South Dakota has become celebrated for its maskless, wide-open spaces governor, Kristi Noem, who'll be visiting Valdosta, Georgia, for early voting event Wednesday.
How bad is COVID in South Dakota? On Tuesday, Casey Junkins reported in the Capitol Journal article As a percentage, South Dakota’s COVID infection rate is double California’s; Even survivors could face long-term health problems.
That infection rate seems to be reflected by members of the state legislature.
In Tuesday's Argus Leader, there's Joe Sneve's round-up in Nearly two dozen lawmakers know they had COVID-19, but figure likely a 'bigger number':
The Argus Leader earlier this month asked all 105 state lawmakers via email if they've had COVID-19 at any point. Of the 28 members of the House who responded, eight said they'd had it while two others say they've already been vaccinated due to their professions. And in the senate, 15 members of that chamber responded with eight confirming they've had COVID-19, while three more declining to share that information with the newspaper.
Schoenbeck said he's aware of at least four other senators who've had it in addition to the senators who responded.
None of those figures include the late-Bob Glanzer, the Huron legislator who died after contracting COVID-19 in April. . . .
So though it's assumed those recovered do gain some immunity for a time, having a high number of lawmakers who've contracted and recovered from the virus doesn't necessarily protect anyone who'll be at the capitol during the 96th legislative session, including pages, interns, lobbyists or administrative staff.
Sen. Reynold Nesiba, D-Sioux Falls, said even though he personally feels a bit safer and confident heading into session after his bout with the disease this month, he isn't letting his guard down due to the continued uncertainty and unknowns surrounding COVID-19. . .
Via Keloland, Bob Mercer reports in New S.D. Senate president pro tem has COVID-19:
Another South Dakota state lawmaker has tested positive for COVID-19. This time, it’s the incoming top member of the Senate.
Republican Lee Schoenbeck of Watertown said Tuesday morning he’s recovering at his family cabin in the Black Hills.
He is the incoming Senate president pro tem. As the top member from the 35-member body, the pro tem assigns Senate committees and decides where legislation goes for hearings on the Senate side. The pro tem also presides over the chamber when the Senate president, Lieutenant Governor Larry Rhoden, isn’t present. . . .
He’s quarantining through Friday. “No idea how I got it,” he said.
Schoenbeck said he’s aware of 12 senators who have tested positive for coronavirus. He declined to give names.
Only he and two others — Republican Helene Duhamel of Rapid City and Democrat Reynold Nesiba of Sioux Falls, after the governor’s December 8 budget speech in Pierre — have been publicly acknowledged.
At that point Schoenbeck said knew of at least six senators. The number of House members who have tested positive hasn’t been disclosed. House Speaker Steven Haugaard, a Sioux Falls Republican, said he had COVID-19 in October after a special legislative session and was deeply ill.
Representative Linda Duba, a Sioux Falls Democrat, informed House leaders on Christmas Eve that she would participate remotely in the 2021 session until she’s had two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
In March, Representative Bob Glanzer, a Huron Republican, died of COVID-19. The incoming House speaker, Republican Representative Spencer Gosch of Glenham, missed time when he suspected he might have been infected.
The 2021 session opens January 12. Schoenbeck said he and Gosch are meeting next week to finalize arrangements. Plexiglass shields have been installed around some legislators’ desks.
Well then. The Watertown Public Opinion's Dan Crisler reports in Schoenbeck isolating in Black Hills after testing positive for virus:
. . . So far, Schoenbeck, 62, said he has had minimal symptoms. Having tested positive Thursday at Brown Clinic in Watertown, the incoming Senate president pro tempore said he only had a deep, dry cough that lasted two days. That cough is now gone.
“I haven’t had any other symptoms,” he said.
Schoenbeck said he’s currently isolating in his Black Hills cabin. He hopes to go pheasant hunting with his two dogs this weekend but is taking it easy in the meantime.
“The reason I’m taking it easy is because people tell you that they think they’re fine but then they overexert themselves and kind of relapse. I don’t want that to happen,” he said.
Since his positive test, Schoenbeck said he hasn’t exposed anyone else to the virus.
“If you put your mask on and you’re in your pickup, you don’t have the ability to convey it to anybody else. I listened to church on the radio. I haven’t been to any businesses or anything,” he said. “Out here in the woods, the deer don’t seem to mind. My friends and my neighbors — half of whom have already had COVID — are not coming over to say hi.”
Schoenbeck said he’s not sure where he contracted the virus.
“I think it’s probably everywhere,” he said. “In our house, I think everybody now has had it.
Earlier, the Rapid City Journal's Morgan Matzen reported in State Sen. Duhamel tests positive for COVID-19 following Noem's budget address in Pierre:
Sen. Helene Duhamel tested positive for COVID-19 Wednesday after visiting Gov. Kristi Noem's mansion Monday night with other lawmakers and attending the governor's budget speech Tuesday in the state capitol in Pierre.
Duhamel, a Republican from Rapid City and spokesperson for the Pennington County Sheriff's Office, told Senate majority leaders Wednesday that she had fallen ill and was tested Wednesday morning.
KOTA reported Wednesday that she didn't feel symptomatic during the budget address on Tuesday, but began to feel a "searing headache and nausea" later that night.
Duhamel was seen wearing a mask at the budget address, where dozens of lawmakers met in close contact for more than an hour. Duhamel also was seen maskless along with the governor and a number of female lawmakers in a photo posted to Kristi Noem's campaign Twitter account.
Duhamel also attended a dinner Monday night with other legislative leaders at the governor's mansion. Noem's office said the governor is not at risk of contracting the virus from Duhamel. The CDC has said incubation periods for COVID-19 can take from two to 14 days and that cases of pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic transmission have occurred. . . .
And the Journal reported a rough night for the state senator the Wednesday before Christmas in UPDATE: Sen. Duhamel hospitalized overnight with COVID-19; receives investigational drug treatment at Monument Health.
All this makes us sympathetic to the Sioux Falls legislator says she won't go to Pierre until she gets vaccinated for COVID-19:
A South Dakota lawmaker is refusing to be physically present at the capitol in Pierre during the upcoming legislative session because her safety cannot be guaranteed amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rep. Linda Duba, D-Sioux Falls, was tapped by her District 15 constituents to serve a second term in Pierre in November's election. But with coronavirus continuing to spread in the state, the 64-year-old former educator and Citibank executive told her colleagues and constituents last week that she doesn't feel safe attending session in person and instead will fulfill her obligations as a legislator remotely.
"We’ve had time to discuss the things that truly matter to us as a family. We believe my personal health needs to take priority," Duba wrote in an email sent to legislative leadership and the governor's office. "As a result, I have made the difficult decision to participate in all legislative activities (committee work, caucus, general session) remotely until such a time as I am able to receive the required two doses of the approved vaccines." . . .
Whether Duba will be allowed to do that is still unclear. Existing legislative rules don't provide for lawmakers to attend remotely and would first need to be changed for Duba to continue to serve without being physically present.
Right now, policies are in the works to do just that. Rules and protocols around serving remotely have been crafted by the South Dakota Executive Committee, which consists of the Speaker of the House, the Senate President Pro Tempore and other party leaders in both chambers, but require adoption by the legislative procedures committee and the full legislature. . . .
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