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Transportation, Housing, and Labor Omnibus Bill Passes the House
The bill passed on a 69-60 vote and now awaits action by the Senate.
On May 1, HF 5242 (Rep. Frank Hornstein, DFL-Minneapolis) was amended and passed off the House floor on a vote of 69-60. It was sent to the Senate to await action.
The omnibus bill comprises the supplemental budget bills for transportation, labor, and housing, which were combined by the House Ways and Means Committee on April 25. While the House passed the bill after several hours of debate, there is still a long way to go as the bill includes several sticking points including employment provisions, greenhouse gas mitigation, and limiting rent increases for low-income senior housing.
Bill details
The bill includes the following provisions that may be of interest to cities:
Transportation-related provisions would:
- Provide $9 million in one-time funding for the Small Cities Assistance Account, which provides funding for streets in cities with populations below 5,000.
- Require wayside detector systems to improve safety on freight rail lines.
- Restrict the length of freight trains to 8,500 feet.
- Regulate electric assisted bicycles.
- Modify the greenhouse gas emissions impact assessments required on transportation infrastructure projects.
Labor-related provisions would:
- Require annual adoption of each new International Energy Conservation Code beginning in 2026 and require the 2038 residential energy code to achieve 70% reduction in annual net energy consumption reduction.
- Require the Department of Employment and Economic Development to reserve a percentage of Border-to-Border Broadband Grant Program funds for applicants committing to certain workforce practices including prevailing wage requirements.
- Make changes to the Public Employment Labor Relations Act, including technical changes modernizing the language and process for authorizing and remitting payroll deductions, including existing indemnification provisions for public employers.
Housing-related provisions would:
- Appropriate $8.89 million for the Family Homelessness Prevention and Assistance Program.
- Divert $50 million in general fund spending in last session’s omnibus bill to support a new housing affordability preservation investment program to provide recapitalization resources for distressed buildings.
- Authorize $50 million in housing infrastructure bonds.
- Limit rental rate increases in certain senior housing projects to the percentage of the cost-of-living increase in Social Security from the preceding year, if the project received low-income housing tax credits.
- Authorize housing and redevelopment authorities to create a public corporation for the purposes of participating in certain federally assisted rental housing programs.