October 19–25, 2026
A quiet week for legislation touching Duluth directly, with three federal bills wrapping up and one San Francisco Bay measure the only item on the horizon.
A genuinely slow week at all three levels of government. Nothing passed that changes daily life in Duluth in an immediate way, but here is what cleared and what is coming.
For clergy and religious workers.
The one item from this week worth knowing about if you or someone you know is ordained or works in a religious ministry: Congress passed a law (HR 227) that is now on the books. It opens a two-year window for clergy, ministers, nuns, and Christian Science practitioners who previously opted out of Social Security and Medicare to change their minds and rejoin the system. If you opted out years ago on religious or conscience grounds, you now have that window to revoke the exemption, start paying into Social Security going forward, and become eligible for retirement and Medicare benefits down the road. This is now law.
Elsewhere at the federal level.
Several other federal bills wrapped up this week with no real connection to Duluth. One dealt with a land sale on a specific parcel in Sacramento, California. Another, worth a quick note: Congress also signed into law (HR 7022) a bill that lets wireless carriers send emergency alerts through satellite networks in addition to regular cell towers. If your carrier opts in, you could receive severe-weather warnings, missing-persons alerts, and other public safety notices even in areas where cell coverage is spotty. That matters anywhere in northern Minnesota where dead zones are a fact of life. The change is now law, though which carriers participate and when is up to the carriers themselves.
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Coming up next week:
San Francisco Bay restoration funding. HR 1382, which expands federal funding for cleanup work around San Francisco Bay and opens that funding to private companies and nonprofits, cleared committee and is headed toward a House floor vote. There is no firm vote date confirmed yet. This one does not touch Duluth or Minnesota.
See what's up for a vote now · Find your representatives