Special Session Begins
On Monday, the legislature returned to St. Paul for the start of a special session as Governor Walz chose to once again extend his powers and to wrap up work on the state budget. Several budget bills are unfinished and many issues are still unresolved.
While it should have been done during regular session, some common sense, and progress is happening. The good news is that Republicans appear to have been successful in stopping all of the billions in Democrat tax increases. Additionally, thanks to Republican efforts, businesses, and unemployed Minnesotans won't be hit with tax increases on their Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans or unemployment benefits.
There is still a lot of work to do to finalize the budget. I am going to focusing on:
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Ending the Governor's Emergency Powers: After a year, we should know and be doing what is needed. Case counts and positivity rates are at record lows, and the emergency is clearly over. It's time to end the emergency powers and restore the legislature's role as a co-equal branch of government.
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Stopping Health Care Costs From Skyrocketing—and preventing the individual market from further collapse: Democrats are pushing for harmful policies that would cause health care rates to skyrocket and reduce health plan choices for thousands of Minnesota families.
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Safety in our Cities: Crime in the Metro area has been skyrocketing, and is now impacting parts of greater Minnesota. We need to focus on tackling rising crime, and making sure Minnesotans feel safe in their communities. I will always back our law enforcement in doing their job to protect us, and make sure they have the resources they need to keep our families and communities safe.
Democrats are currently blocking policies that could ensure that health care costs remain stable and choices are available for Minnesota families, as well as villainizing law enforcement instead of addressing skyrocketing crime rates in the Metro. I remain committed to supporting local control, Minnesota families, and our local law enforcement as we continue this special session.
Monday also marked the 458th day living under emergency powers and House Republicans once again brought a motion to the floor to return to our constitutional balance of powers, to end the peacetime emergency. This was the 19th time that we have officially taken a vote to stop the rule by one and remove the Governor’s powers.
We govern best when the voices of the people, through their elected representative, are heard. Our system is not one-sized-fits-all and is definitely not supposed to be one man rules all. I spoke on this on the floor.
While House Democrats refused to join us, I am hopeful the powers will be ended soon.
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