Minnesota Legislature to pay for enhanced home security for members in wake of lawmaker shooting attacks

CBS News

2 days ago

Both chambers of the Minnesota Legislature will now cover the costs for enhanced home security for members in wake of the politically motivated shooting attacks on lawmakers and their spouses last month.
The secretary of the Senate confirmed to WCCO that the funds will come from the Minnesota Senate's existing state budget appropriation and any member who requests that support will get the assistance. The state House will have a similar policy, a source said, to pick up the tab for roughly $4,500 towards the cost of installing additional security measures.
Authorities say a masked gunman assassinated DFL Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark and attempted to kill DFL Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette in a politically-motivated attack in the middle of the night. He also had an alleged hit list targeting other Democratic state and federal elected officials.
The change in both chambers would be in addition to the up to $3,000 elected officials can draw from their state campaign account to pay for security, including for arming homes and services like identity theft protection and credit monitoring. In 2021, lawmakers authorized that expense.
Sen. Aric Putnam, DFL-St. Cloud, used some of those funds to cover installing a security system at his house a few years ago after receiving threatening messages online and by phone.
He said the Legislature tapping into its budget for additional resources to help lawmakers is a good idea.
"We always had these concerns, but now our attention is drawn to them a little more and I think it's an opportunity for us to kind of use that attention to make people more safe," he told WCCO in an interview.
Sen. Julia Coleman, R-Waconia, said she installed a security system right after the June 14 attacks and the $3,000 she could use from her campaign account was just shy of the total cost of boosting safety at her home.
"I'm grateful that we have that opportunity and that resource available because it's a steep price to get the equipment installed, but it's not quite the amount for what I consider a pretty basic system and basic monitoring," she explained.
The new policy in the Legislature will expand the amount of funds available to lawmakers who choose to take similar steps.
Coleman said "it's about damn time" for the change.
The move in Minnesota comes as the U.S. House leadership in Washington this week announced a pilot program significantly increasing the amount of money members of Congress can use towards personal and home security for the next few months.
Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said he would evaluate "all the data points, see how effective it was, how it was utilized, and then make decisions going forward" once the beefed-up security funding ends at the end of this fiscal year on Sept. 30.
"We live in an enhanced threat environment," Johnson told CBS News.
There have been discussions for years about security in the Minnesota Capitol Building, which right now does not require visitors to pass through a metal detector before entering. The tragedy adds a new level of urgency.
Some current and former lawmakers believe that should change; while others, like Putnam, think keeping the state's seat of government accessible to Minnesotans is important.
Also in the immediate wake of the shootings, the names of cities and towns where lawmakers live were removed from the state legislative website.
Next month, the special advisory panel tasked with oversight of Capitol security will meet for the first time since the attacks.