Walz signs nurse safety, hospital merger bills, 7 others

Several pieces of legislation passed by lawmakers this session have now been signed into law.

Friday, Gov. Tim Walz signed nine more bills, including ones covering nurse safety and hospital merger requirements.

It comes a day after the governor signed the paid family and medical leave bill and vetoed rideshare driver protection legislation.

Below are the bills signed into law by Walz on Friday:

• “Nurse and Patient Safety Act” — Changed from the “Keeping Nurses at the Bedside Act” at the 11th hour, the bill doesn’t give nurses more say in staffing levels but does provide more workplace safety requirements and expands the loan forgiveness program to include hospital nurses.
• Hospital mergers requirements — Created in response to the proposed Fairview-Sanford merger, the bill lays out more requirements for hospital mergers, allows the attorney general to seek relief for violations and prevents University of Minnesota health care facilities from being controlled by an out-of-state entity unless it’s in the public interest.
• Deepfake bill — This bill criminalizes anyone who non-consensually shares deepfake (digitally created or altered pictures or videos) sexual images of others or deepfakes designed to hurt a political candidate or election.
• Equal Rights Amendment resolution — While mostly symbolic, this resolution encourages Congress to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, which would be the 28th Amendment and codify protections against discrimination based on sex.
• Nursing facility relief — Part of the bonding deal reached by lawmakers in the final weekend of the session, this bill provides $300 million to Minnesota nursing homes through a mix of direct payments, grants and reimbursements.
• Claims settlement bill — This provides just under $1.2 million to the Minnesota Department of Corrections to pay claims to people who were exonerated of crimes, got a medical reimbursement or suffered a work-related injury while incarcerated.
• Environment and natural resources trust fund — This bill renews the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund constitutional amendment, which means Minnesotans will vote on creating the permanent fund during the 2024 general election.
• Civil law policy bill — This makes technical changes to things like the State Board of Public Defense, name changes and forfeiture law.
• Technical changes revisor’s bill — This makes technical changes and corrections to things like the rental assistance workgroup, credit adjustments and permissable secondary documents.

See the status of several other hot-button bills we’ve followed throughout the session with KSTP’s Legislative Tracker.