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SRO Bill Signed by the Governor
This week the House passed the final version of HF 3489 on Wednesday afternoon after an 8-minute conference committee meeting the previous day to bring the House and Senate versions of the bill in line with each other. This is the School Resource Officer bill that has taken a bipartisan effort to address the shortfalls in the Democrat?s Education Omnibus bill from last year. Last night the governor signed the bipartisan bill that will allow schools across the state to return their resource officers where they are desperately needed in the schools. Democrats needed Republican votes to pass this bill, and even in its final version, nine DFL House members voted against the bill in their continued effort to dismantle public safety and endanger students, teachers, and staff. After months of Republican calls for action and stops to allow every stakeholder to give their input, I'm relieved we were finally able to get this important legislation passed.
Small Business Assistance
With a record-setting lack of snow this winter many small businesses have become eligible for disaster assistance loans to ease challenges that have been caused by the reduced income. If you are a small business owner that has seen reduced revenue because of the slow season you may be eligible for this program. You can view eligibility requirements and the application process on the Small Business Administration website here: Disaster assistance | U.S. Small Business Administration (sba.gov)
Urgent Bill Blocked by the DFL
We concluded the week by attempting to declare an urgency on GOP Representative Scott?s bill (HF 548) to raise the crime of knowingly purchasing a firearm for someone who is known to be prohibited from possessing a firearm to the level of a felony, commonly referred to as straw purchasing. As news outlets are beginning to report that the criminal who murdered three first responders in Burnsville illegally acquired the weapons used through a straw purchaser, Democrats stood on the House floor and defended the practice of not prosecuting the crime of straw purchasing, this type of crime has been linked to several deaths in Minnesota. They parade out every bill they can possibly think of to limit the rights of law-abiding gun owners yet when Republicans want to strengthen current gun laws that hold criminals accountable, democrats take the side of the criminals.?
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Committee Work
After blowing through the entire $18,000,000,000 budget surplus & increasing taxes by $10,000,000,000, the majority party is working hard this year to fix a lot of problems they created last year by rushing through their historic spending. They continue to rush this year, determined to take away as much local control as possible from our school districts and implement one-size-fits-all policy that is damaging outside of their metro-centric focus. The fast pace will continue next week as the 1st & 2nd Committee Deadlines are next Friday when bills need to have been heard and had action taken in at least one committee in both legislative bodies.
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/RepKristaKnudsen
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225 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Saint Paul, MN 55155
651.296.9918 |
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