Legislative Update from Rep. Bobbie Harder

Small Business Week and Paid Family Leave

This week was National Small Business Week. We have a lot of great small businesses in our district, and it's always fun to support them.

Unfortunately, during Small Business Week, the House majority decided to pass their paid family leave bill, which imposes huge mandates on businesses across the state and raises taxes on both employees and employers to the tune of $2.9 billion. This bill would hurt so many small businesses, and I've heard from many in our community that oppose this kind of mandate.

As an alternative, House Republicans proposed a plan that would provide family and medical leave insurance through the private market, and incentivize businesses for providing this benefit instead of penalizing businesses that can't afford the massive Democrat mandate. You can read more about the MN FaMLI plan in the graph above. Unfortunately, the amendment was voted down.

Second Amendment Event

After the Public Safety omnibus passed last week, I attended a local Second Amendment event to hear the concerns of people in our community about the gun control policies included in the bill. It was great to see so many people out supporting our constitutional rights.

Carver County Visitors

I had a visit from Carver County Commissioners Tom Workman and John Fahey, who were at the Capitol for a House Transportation meeting.

Conference Committees Continue

In these last few weeks of session, the main business will be done in conference committees, where House and Senate members are working out the differences between the bills each body passed. However, since each conference committee only includes 3 to 5 members from each the House and the Senate, most legislators are left out of those negotiations. I will be following the work of the conference committees closely, and I hope the bills come back to the House floor significantly better than before.