Minnesota House passes omnibus public-safety bill, HF1354, 133-1 after amendment

The Minnesota House passed House File 1354, an omnibus public-safety bill, on third reading after adopting an amendment; the chief clerk announced the vote as 133 ayes and one nay.

Representative Moller of Ramsey, the bill's author on the floor, described HF1354 as a package of public-safety measures that includes previously passed standalone bills and several new, bipartisan provisions. "This bill, members, is the public safety policy package," Moller said, and walked colleagues through four newly consolidated items.

Why it matters: HF1354 bundles measures affecting students, people in county jails, victims of domestic violence and law enforcement practices into a single bill that the House approved after floor debate and a returned amendment. Supporters said the package expedites measures they had already advanced separately; opponents were few in number in the final tally.

On the floor, Moller outlined the bill's four new provisions. The bill would require schools to provide more information about an existing threat-reporting app run by the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and establish a new threat-reporting requirement for schools, which supporters said can help prevent violent incidents and direct students in crisis to help. "It has been shown that when there is a threat of safety ... it's been known to other people," Moller said.

Moller also said the bill includes a provision to ensure people held in county jails have access to prescribed medications. She cited committee testimony, saying, "We heard some really powerful testimony in committee from the mother of Larry Hill who died in a jail," as part of the rationale for the change.

The package would preserve confidentiality for victims of domestic violence in communications with advocates, a measure Moller said had broad bipartisan support in the House in a prior session and was revised after stakeholder input.

A further provision would narrow the required public posting of body-camera and squad-car footage after officer-involved deaths to footage "leading up to, related to and right after an incident," while making other captured footage available upon request, Moller said, reflecting language from the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

Floor amendment and other provisions: Representative Mueller moved and explained amendment A2, which the House adopted by voice. "This was the representative Berg bill that representative Berg and Whitty worked on related to law enforcement being able to accept gifts," Mueller said; the amendment was included in HF1354 and adopted without recorded opposition on the voice vote.

Members also discussed provisions carried into the omnibus from other file numbers. Representative Witte (Dakota) urged support for House File 1401, which she described as expanding the "missing endangered persons" designation to include people with dementia, Alzheimer's or traumatic brain injury and said it brings a heightened law-enforcement response without sending a public alert like an Amber Alert. Several members praised the bipartisan work to fold earlier bills into the package; Representative Novotny and others urged a "green" vote on that basis.

A brief exchange injected levity on the floor: Representative O'Driscoll asked whether the bill would make Taylor Swift "more safe or less safe" in Minnesota; Moller replied with a lighthearted acknowledgement and declined to draw a policy conclusion from the pop-culture reference.

After the amendment's adoption, the chief clerk read HF1354 for third reading as amended. The clerk took a roll call of members participating remotely and completed the roll; the chief clerk announced, "There being 133 ayes and 1 nay, the bill as amended is passed and its title is agreed to."

Votes at a glance - House File 1354 (as amended): Passed, 133 ayes, 1 nay. Amendment A2 adopted by voice vote prior to the final roll call.

What the record shows: Floor remarks and the roll call in the transcript identified specific provisions included in the omnibus (school threat reporting; jail medication access; confidentiality for domestic-violence victims; narrowed body-camera posting requirements) and floor action (adoption of amendment A2; final passage by roll call). The clerk recorded named aye votes for Baker and Swazinski in the roll-call sequence; the full roll call produced the 133-1 tally in the official announcement.

Next steps: The transcript ends with the chief clerk's announcement that the bill as amended passed and its title was agreed to. The House record in this transcript does not specify subsequent steps or transmission to the Senate or governor.