This week in politics: MNsure, buses, and the internet
Political editor Mike Mulcahy runs down this week's political news.
There is now an internet privacy proposal, the Met Council is concerned about cuts to funding and Republican lawmakers want to abolish MNsure.
Should your internet provider be able to sell your browsing history?
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Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, successfully proposed an amendment to a larger bill in response to Congress rolling back an online privacy rule that would allow internet service providers to track your web history and sell it.
The rule was issued at the end of the Obama administration to prohibit internet providers from collecting information about users and would have gone into effect had Congress not voted to stop it.
"The federal rule would be silent, we can step in and make it a condition of the provider's contracts," said Latz.
Read more about Latz's bill here.
Metropolitan Council fears the transportation bill will result in higher bus fares and fewer routes
Adam Duininck, chair of the Met Council, says the House transportation bill shortchanges metro bus and rail lines.
"Right now the way the law is written ... the bulk of the reductions in the funding would have to come from our regular bus service," said Duininck.
He's worried that the GOP-backed bill would hurt also the chances of future light rail projects.
Should MNsure go away?
Rep. Matt Dean, R- Dellwood, believes that MNsure, the state's online health insurance exchange, has "tanked," and the health and human services funding bill he is sponsoring would abolish it.
He says health insurance buyers on the individual market would be better off without it.
"It's just breaking apart this thing so that people on private health insurance plans don't have to deal with MNsure. They can deal with their health insurance company," said Dean.
However, Minnesota Health and Human Services Commissioner Emily Piper believes a one-shop-stop for people needing individual insurance, Medicaid or MinnesotaCare is easier for people to access.
"Having two separate doors ... one at the federal level, one at the state level, I don't think things simpler for people I think it makes it more complicated," said Piper.