This is a summary only. To receive full legislative updates on a biweekly basis, you must be a member of MNAAP. The emails provide additional details about legislative issues that are not posted on our website and are for members only.
- The MNAAP’s central legislative goal for the 2014 legislative session became law on May 6 when Governor Dayton signed the Newborn Screening Restoration Act into law. Just days prior, the bill had passed the House of Representatives following a heated debate. The MNAAP led the effort to pass the bill, and was joined in our effort by key allies including physician groups, parental advocates, researchers, and hospitals and clinics. Implementation of the bill serves to return the state’s once nation-leading newborn screening program to its former status.
- A number of key public health measures continue to make progress in the last weeks of the legislative session. Efforts to expand access for first responders to administer opioid antagonists to prevent opioid overdose deaths was signed by the Governor on May 9th, and a MNAAP-supported effort to bar minor access to artificial tanning facilities remains very much in play in a larger omnibus bill. Action and debate on e-cigarettes continue, with the Senate supporting a more robust version that would bar the use of the products in most indoor places. The House version only prohibits indoor use of e-cigarettes in state-owned buildings.
