Minnesota legislators will meet Thursday for action on COVID-19 relief

Minnesota legislators who have been working outside the public eye to reach a deal on COVID-19 relief say they will convene Thursday at the Capitol to approve the aid.

While lawmakers have essentially recessed until mid-April because of the COVID-19 emergency, members of the state House disclosed details Tuesday of meetings they have been holding for the past week to discuss bills ranging from driver's license expiration forgiveness to child care policy proposals related to the coronavirus.

They are also reviewing Gov. Tim Walz's proposal to spend an additional $356 million on COVID-19 response.

Walz's supplemental budget proposal would include money to help child care centers, food shelves, homeless shelters and veterans weather the pandemic. It would create a $200 million COVID-19 fund in the state treasury that state agencies could use broadly to respond to the pandemic. The fund could be used to pay for increased staff and health care needs in prisons, or overtime for people working with direct care and treatment programs that serve people with developmental disabilities, mental illness and addiction.

"Legislative leaders have agreed to reconvene on Thursday. We are continuing to work closely with the Walz Administration on urgent COVID-19 matters to protect the health and well-being of Minnesotans. We will publicly release details on specific legislation on the House and Senate websites as soon as we can," Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and Senate Republican Majority Leader Paul Gazelka said in a joint statement.

For lawmakers to pass the relief bills on Thursday and send them to Walz for his signature still requires the politically divided Legislature to strike a deal.

Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, said in a statement that Minnesotans are facing significant medical concerns and financial hardships and the House's goal is to pass legislation to safeguard people's health and economic well-being.

She released an outline Tuesday of informal working group meetings that have taken place via conference calls that were not open to reporters and the public. She said the House is trying to create opportunities for people to engage in the process, possibly by making committee hearings available to the public online. For now, people can submit comment forms on the state's website or reach legislators to share their thoughts.

Thousands of people have contacted DFL House members and heard back in the past week, Hortman said.

As lawmakers gather this week, Hortman and Gazelka said they will follow Minnesota Department of Health guidelines to keep legislators, staff and the public safe.

Jessie Van Berkel • 651-925-5044

A Minnesota native who was working as a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Vermont was shot and killed on-duty near the Canadian border Monday.

The agent was identified as David “Chris” Maland, 44, on Tuesday by authorities and his family. Maland was a Blue Earth native, a graduate of Fairmont High School and a U.S. Air Force veteran who spent the last 15 years working along U.S. borders in Texas and Vermont among other assignments.

In a statement, his family also said it was believed he had been planning to soon ask for his partner’s hand in marriage.

“The family is just broken hearted. That’s all I can say,” said Joan Maland, an aunt of David Maland and a spokeswoman for the family, in a Tuesday night interview. “He loved his family and was looking forward to a life with the love of his life and her daughter.

“I can’t explain how sad we all are.”

Maland was involved in a traffic stop Monday afternoon on Interstate 91 in Coventry, Vt., about 20 miles from the border. The stop at one point escalated to an exchange of gunfire, according to a statement from the FBI.

Maland was struck and later died. The circumstances of the traffic stop and the shooting were not provided, but the agency said a German national, in the U.S. on a current visa, was also killed in the incident. A third individual was injured and hospitalized.

In a joint statement Monday, U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders, Peter Welch and U.S. Rep. Becca Balint of Vermont said, “Our deepest condolences go out to the agent’s family, and to the Border Patrol.”

Joan Maland described her nephew as an avid outdoorsman who loved his family and was committed to his profession. He is survived by his parents, a younger brother and his partner.

“He had a tremendous respect and pride for the work he did: he truly embodied service over self,” the family’s statement said.

Maland was the first Border Patrol agent to be killed in the line of duty in little more than a decade.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.