Wednesday to Friday, March 13-15: Please call MN House and Senate leadership.
Tell them to include money for a welfare grant increase when they set the “budget targets.”

Soon, the leadership of the MN House and the Senate will decide how much money they will give to the entire Health and Human Services budget. This is the budget that includes welfare (MFIP) for poor families. Once they make that decision, it is hard to get more money added to the target. So we have to make sure that poor families are not robbed, for the umpteenth year in a row.
Please call the Senate Leadership and House Leadership. Also, please call your own legislator, ask him or her to advocate for this message in caucus. 27 years is too long to go without a grant increase!

Speaker of the House Rep. Paul Thissen, 651-296-5375

Senate Majority Leader Sen. Tom Bakk, 651-296-8881

House Majority Leader Rep. Erin Murphy, 651-296-8799

Senate Assistant Majority Leader Sen. Katie Sieben, 651-297-8060

House Majority Whip Rep. John Persell, 651-296-5516

Senate Deputy Majority Leader Sen. Jeff Hayden, 651-296-4261

Click here to find your legislators.

To start with, call Rep. Thissen and Sen. Bakk. But please take time to call them all, if you can!

Sample message:
“I ask that you support a significant increase to the MFIP [“EM-fip”] grant in Minnesota. Specifically, when you set budget targets, I ask that you include enough funding for an MFIP grant increase in the Health and Human Services budget.
MFIP is the cash assistance program for children and their parents. Those grants have not increased for 27 years. The same as it was in 1986, the cash grant for a family of two is still $437 a month. If the grants had kept up with inflation, they would more than DOUBLE.
The money is there. Last year only 28% of the federal dollars given to Minnesota for welfare — the TANF [“TAN-ef”] fund – went directly to poor MN families in cash grants. TANF money should go to TANF families.
Please support families – including 70,000 children – by including funding for a substantial grant increase in the HHS budget target.”

Click here for more information on why we need to “Raise the Grants!”
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Legislative audio and video coverage on our battle to raise the grants

Last week was an eventful one for our bill to increase grants.
On Monday, we testified at the Senate Health, Human Services and Housing Policy Committee. Our bill passed on to the Senate Finance Division. Click here to hear the audio recording (start at 1:08; it lasts about 64 minutes).

On Tuesday, several legislators held a press conference on the $437 Challenge. Click to view the partial video of $437 Challenge press conference.