With just a few days left for the Minnesota Legislature to pass bills, it’s still unclear whether there will be action on some of the biggest items at the state Capitol.

There’s still no sign of success in persuading Uber and Lyft to stay in the state, and a deal still needs to be made on close to a billion dollars in infrastructure investments. The last day to vote on bills is Sunday, and lawmakers can only hold floor sessions on four of those remaining days.

Republicans are using the limited time, and a supermajority threshold on public borrowing votes, to pressure DFLer majorities in control of the Senate and House to concede to some of their demands.

While action on rideshare isn’t on the list, their demands include dropping a bill to put a version of the Equal Rights Amendment to Minnesota voters that would put the right to an abortion and protections for gender identity and sexual orientation in the state Constitution.

Infrastructure bill

After a late night of filibustering on a DFL-backed bill to ban “junk fees” in the House, GOP leaders on Tuesday told reporters that they wouldn’t back a $900 million or so infrastructure bill unless DFLers leave behind the ERA amendment, gun control measures and offer more funding for rural emergency medical services.

“Bipartisanship is going to be the spoonful of sugar that makes this whole end of session go down,” said Sen. Minority Leader Mark Johnson, R-East Grand Forks, who briefed reporters on negotiations at a Tuesday capitol news conference with House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring.

Despite being in the minority, borrowing money for infrastructure, which traditionally happens in even-numbered years, requires a three-fifths majority in both chambers in order to pass. That’s one of the few leverage points available to Republicans — though it doesn’t just inconvenience DFLers. If Republicans kill a bonding bill it means they won’t be able to deliver local projects in their districts either.

In a joint statement Tuesday, House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, and Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, called Republican demands unreasonable and said that emergency services funding and the bonding bill remain a priority.

House Speaker Melissa Hortman (Courtesty photo)

“Republicans have jeopardized the completion of important work by intentionally throwing up roadblocks and delays on the floor, in negotiations, and again today by attempting to score political points with the press and public,” the leaders said.

ERA amendment, bonding bill

The Equal Rights Amendment’s prospects are already dimming as time runs out. The House had planned to take that up Tuesday but tabled the measure after hours of Republican filibustering. The Senate has already passed a version of ERA, though it’s unclear if they’d accept a version that includes abortion.

“Democrats right now in the House are spending their time passing bills … a lot of them have no chance of passing in the Senate,” said House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring.

There isn’t a vast gap between the DFL and GOP bonding bill proposals. Republicans want $860 million in borrowing and $30 million in cash for projects across the state, with a preference for heavy infrastructure projects. As of last Friday, the DFL targets include $930 million in borrowing and about $30 million in cash.

Senate Majority leader Erin P. Murphy. (Courtesy of the Minnesota Senate)

Past the ERA amendment, boosting funding for emergency services and new bonding targets, GOP lawmakers are pushing to remove gun control language from a bill increasing criminal penalties for people who buy guns for others who are ineligible to do so, such as felons.

While both parties support increasing penalties for what’s known as straw purchasing, Republicans oppose DFLers inclusion of language banning binary triggers, a modification that allows a semi-automatic weapon to fire both when the trigger is pulled and released – greatly increasing its rate of fire.

Republicans also don’t want the state to have a public buy-in option for Minnesota Care. Some DFL lawmakers this session have been pushing for greater access to the state’s public health insurance system.

Rideshare bill

One issue at the Legislature likely to have the most immediate impact on Minnesotans is for now not tied to end-of-session negotiation points outlined by Republicans Tuesday.

Uber and Lyft have said they’ll pull out of Minnesota under a bill that would set the statewide minimum wage for ride-hailing drivers at $1.27 per mile and $0.49 per minute.

DFLers last week announced the bill as a compromise with the Minneapolis City Council, which earlier this year passed an ordinance setting the minimum wage at $1.40 per mile and $0.51 per minute in city limits — prompting the ride-hailing services’ initial threats to leave.

The Senate Finance Committee approved that bill on partisan lines Monday, with all Republicans opposed. It has not yet been scheduled for a floor vote.

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At a downtown St. Paul fire station Tuesday, Robert Peez shook hands with a line of firefighter/EMTs and paramedics, who each clapped him on the back.

When they first met in October, he was unconscious. He’d had a massive heart attack at age 54.

“You saved my life,” he told the firefighters and M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center staff as he met with them Tuesday to thank them.

Each year in the U.S., more than 356,000 people go into cardiac arrest while not in the hospital and 60 percent to 80 percent of them die before making it to the hospital, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Peez, who lives in Landsberg, Germany, near Munich, worked for Maplewood-based 3M Co. for more than 20 years. He’s a global lab manager for Solventum, which spun off from 3M. At home, he’s a volunteer firefighter.

In October, Peez arrived in Minnesota for a business trip. After a long and stressful day of traveling, he checked into his hotel in downtown St. Paul in the evening. In his hotel room, Peez started feeling a slight pain in his chest, which he hadn’t experienced before. On a scale of one to 10, he said it was a three or four.

“But the pain just didn’t go away,” he said, and he started Googling. He read about signs of a potential heart attack. He took one of his business cards and wrote his supervisor’s name and phone number on the back, and then went to the lobby.

Peez told an employee at the front desk he was having chest pain and asked if he could call an ambulance. The worker told Peez that paramedics would be there quickly. That’s the last thing he remembers before waking up in a hospital room.

Coordinated response ‘like a pit crew’

Logan Dedden, the primary medic who responded, found Peez unconscious on the ground with no pulse. “He was a gray color we don’t like to see,” Dedden said.

They gave him CPR, used a defibrillator, and provided him with oxygen and medication to get his heart pumping again. They called ahead to University of Minnesota Medical Center-East Bank, where they rushed him.

“We felt very much like a pit crew,” said Capt. Joaquin Rosales of how they worked together to help Peez. Along with him and Dedden on the call was firefighter/EMT John Vitale, firefighter/medic Derek Isham, firefighter/EMT Ryan Mueller and fire equipment operator/paramedic Patrick Conner.

Dr. Dan Popa, a physician in the hospital’s emergency room, said a lot of credit goes to the paramedics and EMTs. “Without that, for sure you wouldn’t have made it,” he told Peez.

Registered nurses Alexia Gallegos and Samantha Cardenas, who were among those who visited the fire station Tuesday, remember the urgency of providing care to Peez.

“Robert was a very sick man when EMS brought him in,” Gallegos said.

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Peez had a pulse again, but it was weak, and an electrocardiogram showed signs that Peez’s “heart muscle cells basically were screaming out for oxygen and starting to die,” said Popa, who stabilized Peez before he was sent to the hospital’s cardiac catheterization laboratory. The hospital aims to get cardiac patients there within 60 minutes and “the quicker the better,” Popa said.

In a large artery, cardiologists put in two stents and later added a smaller stent.

Peez’s supervisor (the one whose information he wrote on his business card) was at the hospital when he regained consciousness and told him he’d had a heart attack. Other colleagues also looked after him, including bringing him homecooked meals.

A rewarding reunion

Robert Peez, left, thanks emergency room caregivers Dr. Dan Dopa, shaking hands with Peez, and registered nurses Alexia Gallegos and Samantha Cardenas. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

While people may be hesitant to get medical attention when they have chest pain, Popa said the onset of chest pain in someone who’s middle-aged or older “is very, very concerning and definitely a reason to start seeking medical care.”

Peez said he hadn’t had previous heart problems. He changed his lifestyle after his heart attack — he stopped drinking soda, started eating more salads and healthier foods, and began going on walks. He’s lost about 26 pounds.

Firefighters and medical staff don’t usually get to meet people they helped.

“These folks go on a ton of calls and not all of them are this positive,” Assistant Fire Chief Steve Sampson told Peez. “It’s really rewarding for us to meet you and to think about your family at home and your friends being able to enjoy you for a long time to come. ”

Peez, who is again in Minnesota for work, sent regards from his wife, Monika, and 19-year-old daughter.

Popa said he jokes with patients that he hopes he’ll never see them again, because he doesn’t want them having to come back to the ER. But it was special “to get to see someone like Robert,” he said. “The whole system combined and everybody’s efforts together saved his life.”

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