Progressive Regulatory Overreach

Progressive Regulatory Overreach

I serve on the Agriculture Committee of the Minnesota House of Representatives. In this committee, we deal with a lot of important issues that impact the farmers of our state and the food on our shelves. Livestock and animal issues are also topics that we discuss regularly. In our state, the Minnesota Board of Animal Health oversees issues related to traditional agriculture animals such as cows, hogs, turkeys, etc. They do an incredible job and I fully support them.

Typically, the Minnesota Board of Animal Health spends most of its time focusing on these traditional agricultural animals. However, this week a fellow member of the Agriculture Committee suggested that Minnesota should create a new board that would separately regulate companion animals such as pets, currently under the jurisdiction of the Board of Animal Health. In addition to a new department to regulate dogs and cats, this legislator suggested that lizards and insects would be regulated as companion animals as well. This is unnecessary growth in government.

For my full comments on this issue, please see the video below:

Open Up the Legislature!

Minneapolis and St. Paul just announced that they will no longer force people to get vaccinated or show a negative COVID test if they want to eat in a restaurant. The fact that I even had to write the previous sentence just tells you how far we’ve fallen. These types of government regulations are the kind you find in dystopian novels. However, they’re also found right here in our everyday lives.

In the Minnesota House of Representatives, we are still not open to the public. Why we continue to remain closed off from the people we serve is beyond me. From the earliest days of the pandemic, I was advocating against Governor Walz’s emergency powers and against closing the Minnesota House. The last two years have kept many Minnesotans from receiving the kind of representation they are constitutionally entitled. This needs to be fixed before a third regular session passes under these conditions.

Currently, members of the Minnesota House who are unmasked are prevented from speaking on the House floor. The time is long past due for foolish rules like this to end. The elites keep acting like we can’t see the double standards they force on us, but we do see them. The masking must end, the duly elected representatives of the people must be allowed to speak, and the public must have access to their government!

Tim Miller