Hello Friends,
We have reached the end point of our committee work and will be starting our week-long Easter Break.
All of our major policy and finance bills have been heard and passed off of the MN House floor. They are now on their way to conference committees, where they will be compared to their Senate companion bills. At that point the differences will be hammered out and they will be sent back to us for a final approval vote.
We will return on April 18th to start conference committee work, and will adjourn for the year in the third week of May.
If approved, these bills will be sent to the Governor's Office where he will sign them into law or veto them.
This week we spent long hours on the floor, debating bills and voting on amendments.
The major bills I would like to touch on are:
Public Safety: House File 896 is our omnibus Public Safety bill. Some of the highlights include additional law enforcement training requirements, increased penalties for protesters who block highways and airports (I was a co-author), codifying terrorism as a state crime, increasing penalties for assaulting medical workers, an option to lease-to-own the Appleton State Prison, increased supervision and penalties for sex offenders and mandatory minimum sentences for child pornography possession and dissemination.
One of my bills, House File 1179 was included in our omnibus policy bill. It continues to fund the Emergency Response Teams in Duluth, Moorhead, St. Paul and in St. Cloud. These teams are vital assets to those communities, which have major rail lines running through them - like our district.
Second Amendment Rights: I was also a co-author on House File 238. It is known as the Stand-Your-Ground Bill. It would allow YOU to defend yourself and your loved ones in the event you were the victim of a home invasion or attacked while in your vehicle. This bill passed through committee, and will be heard on the house floor after the break. We expect to have it
on the Governor's desk before the end of the session. He needs to hear from you; tell him to sign it into law!
Health Care: Today, we passed our health and human services omnibus health care bill.
As you know, the Democrats had 8 years of ObamaCare forced down our throats. Many of you have felt the sting from increased premiums, losing your doctors, driving long distances to get to a doctor in your new coverage network, spending hours on the phone with the MNSure phone system, and watching your premiums increase by 60 percent. Or, even worse, you lost ALL of your health insurance because you could no longer afford it.
We also know that there have been attempts on the federal level to fix the problems. The MN GOP is working here at home, and with our federal counterparts, to begin to
turn this 8 year nightmare around. We have made some big first steps.
First off, we were able to help 90,000 Minnesotans by providing them with a decrease in their premiums by 25 percent! We were then able to negotiate with the Governor's Office and give Minnesotans the Minnesota Premium Security Act. This new law brings Minnesota closer to its pre-Obamacare days. This act allows for small pools of individuals who buy their insurance to not bear the high-cost burdens of others with high risk individuals, and has the state mitigate that cost instead. House Republicans also included a requirement that insurance companies provide plans with MORE access to other networks, doctors and hospitals, in other words increasing competition.
Repealing MNsure. Our state's health insurance exchange has cost taxpayers over $400 million, and has failed at nearly every promise, including enrolling enough Minnesotans to sustain itself. Every additional year that MNsure exists costs Minnesotans up to $30 million in extra premium taxes and unnecessary bureaucracy.
The House Republican plan repeals MNsure and calls for a transition plan to be presented to the 2018 legislature.
There is much more work to be done; 8 years of Obamacare is a HUGE knot to untie.
Finally, as you may know, I have been personally fighting multiple state agencies that have been squishing people in our district. I will not stop fighting for YOU!
Below is a video clip of a recent floor battle I was engaged in. I was defending the folks who live in Orrock Township. The DNR wants to make enormous changes to the Sand Dunes State Forest. These changes could drastically effect the way folks live there. Was the DNR listening to the people? I don't think so.
Spoiler alert: I won this battle for our district. The DFL was NOT able to remove my language protecting the folks in Orrock.
The bill passed and is on its way to conference committee. Stay tuned for more!
Here is the link to my successful floor battle.
Have a most blessed Easter / Passover Holiday.
God's peace,
Jim