Many features of this site require JavaScript. Learn how to enable javascript.
Our team brings more than three decades of combined government and political experience to assist clients with shaping policy and advocating for their needs in both Minnesota and Iowa.
Email: kgoodno@fredlaw.com
Office: 612.492.7348
Email: mrahn@fredlaw.com
Office: 612.492.7884
Business and non-profit leaders know that one avenue to organizational success is cultivating and maintaining relationships with government, legislative leadership, and key stakeholders. We provide the gateway to that success through our extensive connections in all facets of government and industry.
Fredrikson & Byron’s policy and advocacy professionals understand how governmental decisions impact our clients and will help them develop and navigate proactive and reactive strategies to address their needs. Our team’s solid relationships with key decision-makers and strong understanding of governmental and legislative processes are a critical part of the plan for success.
Providing quality guidance and advocacy requires knowing the political environment and key stakeholders, as well as understanding the interactions between government and our clients’ work. It also requires listening and responding to our client’s specific goals. With years of public service in federal, state and local government, our team provides access to key decisionmakers and stakeholders as well as an in-depth understanding of the legislative and political processes. We monitor, strategize, and advocate on behalf of clients, combining integrity with insight and knowledge to effectively navigate our relationships inside and outside of state government.
Policymakers trust our expertise when it comes to legislative and administrative ideas and solutions. Our combined experience provides clients with a broad understanding of the inner workings of the Governor’s office, the legislature and state agencies. We have a proven track record of collaboration with key stakeholders whose goals intersect with those of our clients.
Through gaining a thorough understanding of each client’s unique needs and objectives, we are able to apply our team’s extensive knowledge of the legislative climate and political dynamics to produce positive outcomes. Our government relations approach involves strategic and sequential steps that include state agency and legislative activity targeted at achieving the desired results.
Our team’s commitment to our clients is year-round. The transition between legislative sessions is a time for opportunity; laying the groundwork for new legislation while the legislature is at rest is a vital part of a successful government relations strategy. The summer and fall months are used to relay information, work with agency staff, visit legislators in their districts and organize meetings between our clients and key legislators in order to prepare for the upcoming session.
A well-developed and responsive government relations strategy plays a key role in effective organizations. To be successful, organizations should look for opportunities to expand their governmental knowledge and involvement.
Our team represents businesses, non-profits, trade groups and advocacy groups in a number of industries and on many different issues. Our strengths are in education, energy, health care, housing, human services, taxes, transportation, appropriations and procurement, regulatory, justice and equity, and capital funding.
We believe that we have a responsibility to be good corporate citizens by being actively involved in groups that support our community and our clients. Our government relations staff are board members, committee members and active participants in many groups outside the office.
Minnesota is fortunate to be home to a large number of social service organizations dedicated to supporting Minnesotans with disabilities to live their lives where and how they choose. In recent years, however, it has become increasingly challenging for these service providers to maintain the workforce needed to provide these critical supports. This is largely due to legislatively set service reimbursement rates that do not provide for the wages necessary to attract and retain a sufficient number of quality staff. Representing disability service provider organizations, Fredrikson’s Government Relations Practice Group members Kevin Goodno and Anni Simons have served in leadership positions of a nonpartisan coalition of more than 100 disability service organizations that has successfully secured multiple state general fund investments in the legislatively set disability services reimbursement system. These reimbursement rate increases, implemented during multiple legislative sessions, have resulted in significant annual ongoing increased funding for the critical services that support Minnesotans with disabilities.
In an effort to strengthen access to high quality community mental health services across the state, a broad coalition of community mental health service providers came together with the goal of passing legislation to broaden the paths qualified candidates can take into the mental health services workforce, in a way that doesn’t sacrifice quality of mental health services. Representing these community mental health service providers, Fredrikson’s Government Relations Practice Group member Anni Simons partnered with a second mental health services lobbyist to lead these service providers through the stakeholder engagement and legislative process to successfully reach their goal. The enacted legislation represented the outcome of a yearlong collaborative process involving ongoing discussions and negotiations with mental health advocacy groups and MN state agencies. By addressing the previously narrow, prescriptive and complex statutory requirements for background qualifications, the enacted law provided a concrete step forward in mental health service providers’ ability to carry out their missions.
As our state faces a growing number of seniors interested in accessing needed services and supports in their own homes, there is continual need to examine when and how state level regulations for facility based care apply to home based care. Representing a group of providers of home based care services, Fredrikson’s Government Relations Practice Group members Kevin Goodno and Anni Simons successfully enacted legislation bringing clarity to the specific area of statutory notification requirements for when individuals involved in the criminal justice system access facility or home based care services. The enacted legislation better ensures the safety of individuals who provide care services to Minnesotans throughout the state, while also clarifying the applicability of current statute for all impacted stakeholders.
The healthcare industry is multifaceted, and during Noah’s tenure with Fredrikson & Byron, he has delivered desired outcomes for clients again and again. From increasing the state Medicaid reimbursement rates for air ambulance services to, most recently, being instrumental in defeating problematic PBM legislation, Noah is known to be a results-driven advocate in the healthcare sphere. With the Addition of Logan Murray, Angela Caulk, and Linda Upmeyer, the Iowa Government Relations team hopes to not only expand on Noah’s work but also grow the reach and scope of the team’s success.
Andy worked on behalf of a pro-bono client to reform the process by which children in foster care are notified of their right to legal representation and secured ongoing state and local government funding for his client to provide pro-bono legal representation to these children. This work led to recognition by Minnesota Lawyer magazine.
As an expert in the state’s capital investment process, Andy secured the largest ever state capital grant to a local government to address a complex road and rail grade separation project. As part of the negotiations, Andy also aided the city in receiving funding above and beyond their legal requirements from the affected railroad. Between the state grant and the excess railroad commitment, the city’s cost share was kept under 20% of the over $70 million project.
Andy has many success stories in the affordable housing space including:
The Minnesota Association of Townships approached the Government Relations team to discuss confusion that was created due to redundancies in the state’s land planning and use statutes. The Government Relations team drafted a legislative solution that would minimize any disruption in township governance and in one legislative session was able to pass that solution into law. Townships now have clear zoning authority in the state of Minnesota.
The Rural Health Advisory Committee exists to advise the Commissioner of Health on the medical needs of Greater Minnesota. A voice for the dental profession was absent on this committee until the Fredrikson Government Relations team lobbied the legislature to add a permanent seat for a licensed dentist. Despite several attempts to have the position more broadly defined, we successfully advocated for a dentist to be added as the leader on oral health issues.
May 19, 2022
Former Iowa Speaker of the House of Representatives, Linda L. Upmeyer, has joined Fredrikson & Byron’s Government Relations Group as a senior policy strategist in Des Moines.
December 15, 2021
Save the date for Fredrikson & Byron’s 13th annual Minnesota Legislative Session Outlook event. The 2022 legislative session may feel similar to 2021 but, in some ways, will be different.
June 29, 2021
By Michael R. Cummings and Melissa J. Rahn
On June 26, 2021, passing with bipartisan support, Minnesota’s Natural Gas Innovation Act (Special Session HF6, the Commerce and Energy Omnibus) was presented and signed into law by Governor Walz.
February 16, 2021
By Kenneth S. Levinson and William M. Howieson
Minnesotans whose “home state” is here and who purchase “nonadmitted insurance” directly from insurers not licensed to sell insurance in Minnesota are required to file Form IG255 annually with the Department of Revenue.
January 6, 2021
Former Minnesota State Senator Jeffrey D. Hayden has joined Fredrikson & Byron’s Government Relations Group. Hayden brings the perspective of an experienced State Senator with a demonstrated history in the government administration industry to his government relations and policy work.
November 12, 2020
The 2021 Minnesota Legislative Session Outlook included conversation on a divisive election, a global pandemic, civil unrest and a dismal economic forecast.
December 19, 2019
On Wednesday January 29, 2020, Fredrikson & Byron’s annual Minnesota Legislative Session Outlook was held at the InterContinental St. Paul.
December 5, 2019
Attorney Noah J. Tabor has joined Fredrikson & Byron to lead its Government Relations Group in Iowa.
December 18, 2018
Fredrikson & Byron’s 2019 Session Outlook event provided an early opportunity to hear from legislative leadership in preparation for the January 8 start of session.
October 22, 2018
Fredrikson & Byron’s annual Minnesota Legislative Session Outlook event took place on Thursday December 6, 2018.
April 9, 2018
Government Relations Specialist Andy G. Pomroy has been appointed to the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless Board of Directors.
February 16, 2018
Fredrikson & Byron’s 2018 Session Outlook event provided those in attendance with an entertaining preview of what to expect during the upcoming session with tensions still lingering from political battles throughout the interim.
December 19, 2017
Fredrikson & Byron’s annual Minnesota Legislative Session Outlook event took place on Wednesday, February 7, 2018 and featured a panel of legislative leaders who discussed the upcoming session’s major topics.
March 13, 2017
Attorney Kevin P. Goodno was recently appointed to the Bush Foundation’s Board of Directors. The board is comprised of up to 15 leaders from across the region who bring a wealth of experience and expertise in the public, private and nonprofit sectors.
October 10, 2016
Fredrikson & Byron’s Minnesota Legislative Session Outlook event was held on Thursday, December 8, 2016, featuring key leaders from the state legislature.
September 26, 2016
The short answer is “yes.” Whether you are inspired by this year’s U.S. presidential debates or otherwise to host your own debate, a 501(c)(3) can engage in various election-related activities, so long as the 501(c)(3) follows certain rules so as not to jeopardize its tax-exempt status.
January 5, 2016
Please join us for the 2016 Minnesota Legislative Session Outlook to be held on February 29, 2016.
November 24, 2014
Kevin Goodno, shareholder at Fredrikson & Byron, presented his thoughts on the challenges faced by the disability service system in Minnesota.
July 15, 2014
Members of the Fredrikson & Byron Government Relations Group served as leaders for the “5% Campaign”, a statewide, nonpartisan coalition of more than 100 organizations that successfully secured a 5% rate increase for Home and Community Based Disability and Senior Services during the 2014 legislative session.
