Legislative Update
House Floor Debate
House Democrats have kept with their trend of rejecting nearly every reasonable Republican amendment this week. It’s disheartening that the slim majority continually push bills that are the most extreme positions in our nation, and refusing to consider amendments that would allow options, choices, or reasonable exceptions. Not all people, or communities, across Minnesota are the same.
This week on the House Floor, we debated HF 19, a one-size-fits-all sick leave mandate for nearly every business in the state. The bill as it is written will crush Main Street businesses who are still recovering from COVID shutdowns and dealing with high inflation, a supply chain crisis, and workforce shortages.
The bill forces burdensome record-keeping requirements onto businesses, and imposes massive fines up to $10,000 per violation if businesses make mistakes. These huge fines, along with the already thin margins that a lot of businesses operate with, could put many of our local businesses out of business for good.
The bottom line is this bill goes too far. Many businesses are already offering sick time in a way that works for both the business and their employees - this bill will eliminate those policies and replace them with a much more confusing and burdensome mandate for job creators to comply with.
New Commission Appointment
This week I was appointed to the Legislative Audit Commission, the LCC Administration and Rules subcommittee, and the Claims committee. This is in addition to my four regular House committees - Elections Finance and Policy, Health Finance and Policy, Human Services Finance, and Property Tax Division.
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