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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Steve Drazkowski (R)

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Legislative Update: Frontline Worker Payments, Election Integrity, and HF 3736

Friday, February 25, 2022

Payments for “Frontline” Workers    

Yesterday, the Minnesota House of Representatives voted on HF 2900. This bill is the Democrat plan to give $1 billion of your money to “frontline” workers. Essentially, this bill allows any frontline worker to apply for a onetime $1,500 check. As you can imagine, the definition of a frontline worker is extremely broad and encompasses many Democrat interest groups and unions.

Fundamentally, this bill takes taxpayer funds and turns it into legislative charity. This is your money, but the Democrats are trying to decide who should get it based on their value of people. Such blatant disregard for basic fairness is shocking. What about the people who are paying the bill for this spending? Once again, state government is acting like a massive charity organization at your expense.

This is not a legitimate function of government. This is just another way for politicians to condition people to the idea that they should rely on government to pay their bills. There is no emergency, there is no need to spend this massive amount of money. We need to encourage people to get back to work. People need to be empowered to be proactive and resilient. The government has done everything it can throw out the pursuit of work. This backwards thinking will ruin our economy, ruin our state, and ruin our people if we let it.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0XblbXi4ak

I voted against HF 2900. However, the bill was passed by the House of Representatives by a vote of 71-61. Legislation like this is crushing Minnesota. Fortunately, this bill has not been passed by the Senate and has not become the law of the land yet.

Election Integrity – Photo ID

Democrats are in the process of trying to radically change our election laws. In the Minnesota House of Representatives, many progressive legislators have brought forward bills that would make our elections less secure and further harm confidence in our voting system.

One of the most dangerous bills is HF 3024. This legislation would allow state government to automatically send absentee ballots to eligible voters in the state. This means that hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots would be flying around in our mail system without any procedures to make sure the correct individuals are receiving the proper ballots. In Minneapolis, a massive ballot harvesting scheme occurred precisely because of the lack of security surrounding absentee ballots.

In Minnesota, we need laws that strengthen the integrity of our elections. We need to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat. Last year I introduced HF 211 to do just that. This bill requires voters to show photo identification, such as a driver’s license or other state issued identification card, before they can receive a ballot to vote.

This is a commonsense measure that will make sure only legitimate, eligible individuals are casting ballots in our elections. Currently, 17 states require photo ID in order to vote. Additionally, 19 other states require either photo ID or non-photo ID. Minnesota is among a minority of states that does not require any documentation when you vote. This is outrageous. Without proper security measures on our elections, dishonest people will always try and take advantage.

Please check out the below video to learn more about photo ID, Minnesota election laws, and the ballot harvesting scheme in Minneapolis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN5ogJc9JaU

New Legislation: HF 3736

This week I introduced legislation, known as HF 3736, to ban state government and local government from offering vaccine incentive programs. As many of you know, our state and local governments went off the rails during the COVID-19 pandemic. Vaccine incentive programs were certainly among the weirdest ideas that government dreamed up in the midst of last year.

These incentive programs attempted to coerce people into getting a COVID vaccine in exchange for money, gift cards, and college scholarships. Everyone from Governor Tim Walz to local municipal governments participated in this trend. I found this practice to be sickening. Choosing to get a vaccine is a private medical decision that requires a sober mind. Societal elites attempting to bribe people into making medical decisions is creepy, suspicious, and weird.

The vaccine incentive programs aimed at children were especially awful. We do not need government trying to coerce children into getting an injection in exchange for a $200 gift card. This kind of thinking is sick, and it subverts parental authority. I will not stand for it, and we need to outlaw this manipulative, coercive practice.

Steve Drazkowski