Minneapolis Star Tribune reports…

Gov. Tim Walz and legislative leaders met with senior White House officials on Thursday to highlight a historically productive 2023 session, holding up Minnesota as a model for other states looking to enact paid leave programs and sweeping clean energy policies. …

The trip is the latest stop on a national campaign to prop up the long list of progressive proposals Walz and the DFL-led Legislature passed in a five-month span, from an ambitious clean energy standard and legalizing marijuana to codifying abortion rights. The governor also recently spoke at an event with the Indiana Democratic Party.

The White House events focused on Minnesota’s passage of a statewide paid family and medical leave program, as well as climate and infrastructure legislation.

The work on broadband was part of the mix…

The governor said both sides asked questions about funding that’s available and how it’s going to be rolled out. Walz noted that Democrats included $2.4 billion in the state’s two-year budget that can be used to leverage federal dollars for construction projects in the state.

“We maxed out matching funds like no other state,” he said. “[Senior officials] really wanted to hear how to do that, so they can go to other states and tell them, ‘you should be doing it this way.’ ”

Dziedzic, DFL-Minneapolis, said the group talked a lot about clean energy and broadband. “You can’t do precision agriculture in greater Minnesota without the broadband and Wi-Fi,” she said in a phone interview, describing the process of applying modern technology to farming.

She said White House staffers were appreciative of what Minnesota had accomplished in the session, but Dziedzic wanted to hear from them about getting a good return for the state. “Minnesota sends more money to the federal government than we get back, so from my perspective it’s about how can we maximize federal dollars to help Minnesotans,” she said.