Legislative Update

Dear Neighbor,

The House is now wrapping up its second week of business, and Democrats still have not shown up for work.

It seems Democrats were pinning their hopes on a Jan. 28 special election restoring a 67-67 tie in the House, at which point they could come to the Capitol never having actually served in the minority. Except the courts come out late last week and said we're not going to have an election on the 28th and, because Gov. Walz has been committed to pretending the House has not been organized, they have to wait until at least March 5.

Now, House Democrats are encouraging people to storm the Capitol and, quote, stop the GOP. In fact, one House Democrat took to social media several hours before a Capitol hearing to issue marching orders (see left).

The question is, what's the dog whistle there? There's nothing House Democrats can do as elected officials in a minority status to stop us in an official capacity. That's why House Democrats are not at the House; that's the entire basis of their boycott.

So, what ploys are these unelected people going to deploy to stop us from engaging in our official legislative business?

There's only a select number of answers – and none of them are legitimate. For instance:

Click above image for video.

Just hours after the above debacle took place, a different House Democrat promoted another upcoming storming of the Capitol as though they think this is a good look for them.

This is such a cowardly tactic for House Democrats to simultaneously stay away from the Capitol while sending their shock troops and minions in to disrupt our proceedings. The Democrats’ advocacy of criminal behavior from elected officials is vile and we're exploring our options for how to deal with it.

Meanwhile, while House Democrats are throwing tantrums, House Republicans are busy doing the people’s work. This week, we made good progress on two of our core priorities: cracking down on fraud and making Minnesota a more affordable place to live and do business. Here’s more:

Anti-fraud bills

House Republicans have introduced a series of bills aimed at curbing fraud, waste, and abuse in state programs.

The bills establish a centralized Office of the Inspector General to combat fraud and abuse in state government (including requiring a fraud reporting hotline and mandating agencies to halt payments when fraud is suspected), strengthen grant management requirements, mandate fraud reporting, and establish criminal penalties for violations to protect taxpayer dollars, among other measures.

Affordable Minnesota

House Republicans are working to make Minnesota affordable by repealing Democrat provisions that hurt family budgets. This includes nixing the automatic gas tax increase, delivery taxes, social security taxes, and policies that are driving up the costs of energy.

These actions on fraud and affordability reflect what most Minnesotans want, so I must ask House Democrats who are encouraging obstructionist behavior: Why don't Democrats want us looking at fraud? Why don't they want us looking at their mandates? Why don't they want us to protect life? Why are they OK with people not being able to afford their bills? Is it simply that they care more about trying to get back to “power sharing” status?

The answer appears to be that Democrats are bent on preventing House Republicans from answering the call of Minnesota that sent us into this House majority in the first place.

Good luck with that.

Sincerely,

Walter