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| Date: | May 19, 2011 | | Contact Name: | Peter D. Winiecki | | Contact Phone: | 651-297-8077 | | Contact Email: | peter.winiecki@senate.mn | | For Immediate Release | |
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| PEDERSON SERVES ON TWO SENATE CONFERENCE COMMITTEES Freshman lawmaker has instrumental role in crafting bills and conference reports |
(St. Paul) -- Senator John Pederson’s (R-St. Cloud) committee schedule grew more intense through the month of May. The first-year lawmaker was appointed to be a member of two conference committees; Environment, Commerce and Energy, and Jobs and Economic Growth. As the 2011 legislative session comes closer to the scheduled May 23rd date of adjournment, both of Sen. Pederson’s conference committee reports had been approved by the Minnesota Senate.
The Jobs and Economic Growth Conference Committee report was approved by the Minnesota Senate on Tuesday night. The committee report restructures a legislative version of earmarking into competitive grants. “We need to examine how the state spends money on job training and workforce development,” said Sen. Pederson. “The conference committee based our workforce development provisions on recent recommendations from the Legislative Auditor. The state needs to be moving away from large scale, unaccountable bureaucracies.”
The second committee which Sen. Pederson was a conferee on is the Environment, Commerce and Energy Conference Committee and their report was approved by the Minnesota Senate on Thursday. The conference committee recommended a General Fund net target for Environment, Commerce and Energy of $201.463 million or $92 million less than the February forecast. This is an overall 31.3 percent reduction.
Important reform and spending decisions were made in this conference committee as well; notably, several of Sen. Pederson's chief authored bills made it into this omnibus bill. He was amenable to certain modifications before they made it into the omnibus bills. “We worked hard with fellow lawmakers to address any further concerns in conference committee while maintaining the integrity of the provisions,” said Sen. Pederson. “For example, the water rule making review provision remains an effort to streamline government and create efficiency, as several state agencies have overlapping jurisdiction and rules that compile a waste of taxpayer dollars and citizen frustrations.”
After thorough debate in both conference committees, both committee reports have been passed by the Minnesota Senate.
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