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Legislative Update

Dear Neighbor,

A recurring theme has developed in St. Paul the past couple weeks regarding polar-opposite views on women’s issues and, in turn, women themselves.

On one hand, House Republicans continue acting on bills to support females just as the vast majority wants. Meanwhile, House Democrats time and again oppose bills that support women in a way that effectively denies their existence.

For instance, consider how a House committee hearing unfolded for a bill (H.F. 435 [ [link removed] ]) banning biological males from being housed in the state’s only female prison, in Shakopee. The bill is an effort to clean up current state law which states the Shakopee facility must house “persons committed to the commissioner of corrections by the courts of this state.”

House Republicans propose simply replacing “persons” with “only biological females” because female inmates deserve the safety and privacy they need to recover and gain the skills necessary to reenter society.

Out there on the fringe, the ever out-of-touch House Democrats not only opposed this bill in the hearing, but they doubled down on the premise that we can't discern the difference between a man or a woman by looking at them.

“It’s a lot more complicated than that,” one Democrat said – which comes as a wild surprise to literally every doctor or midwife who has declared on sight, “It's a boy!”

The upshot is House Democrats want to keep putting men in the Shakopee women’s prison. They say it's for their “safety.” But as my line of questioning [ [link removed] ] with Commissioner Schnell during the bill hearing reveals, this is not actually about safety. In their eyes, safety is not a concern that they're uplifting.

Democrats could very well re-up their extreme, anti-female approach on Monday when the “Preserving Girls Sports Act” (H.F. 12 [ [link removed] ]) comes to the House floor. This bill simply states, “Only students of the female sex may participate in an elementary or secondary school athletic team or sport that an educational institution has restricted on the basis of sex to women or girls.”

House Republicans seek safe and fair competition for girls. Polls [ [link removed] ] confirm 80 percent of the public agrees with this position. In other words, if House Democrats do indeed align themselves with the radical activists by voting against H.F. 12, they will again be refusing to acknowledge girls exist.

What these issues reveal when we talk about the safety of girls and women, whether in sports or in prisons, is that people’s feelings about safety are paramount. Exactly why we are concerned about safety is a dangerous question to ask Democrats because the answer is clear: There is a fundamental difference between a male and a female. That’s a fact of life Democrats refuse to acknowledge. At its core, this is about Democrats gaslighting you into ignoring what you know to be true … denying the existence of girls and women all along.

Good thing Minnesotans won’t fall for it.

In other news:

*Light rail*

The very same day House Democrats blocked on the floor a bill (H.F. 14 [ [link removed] ]) to place a moratorium on new light rail lines in light of major cost overruns and project delays for existing projects, MNDOT and the Met Council announced the Northstar rail line may be discontinued and replaced with bus service. The Star Tribune reported [ [link removed] ] the main reason is ridership has fallen an astounding 98% from this already non-viable model during the pandemic as workers transitioned to remote work.

We can transition to buses doing the same job as rail for 10 percent of the taxpayer cost. And here’s the beautiful thing about busses: They can turn! You can actually alter the routes as needed in order to accommodate changes in your community!

It’s such a no brainer you really have to ask yourself why 66 Democrats voted against a moratorium on light rail. What good reason could they possibly have? There isn't one. In fact, the only reason they offered was because it's somehow racist. Somehow, in their bizarro world, the Democrat argument is that not building a choo-choo train is racist. Don't ask me how to explain the logic, because there is none.

Once again, this issue puts a highlighter to the difference in seriousness between parties. House Republicans are offering you a serious solution to a problem at a 10th of the cost. Unserious House Democrats are calling you a racist for supporting that position.

*Emergency powers*

House Republicans this week also brought to the floor a bill (H.F. 21 [ [link removed] ]) which creates more stringent checks and balances regarding the governor’s emergency powers. This would prevent history from repeating itself when Gov. Walz declared himself the king of Minnesota for a year and a half during the pandemic.

The way state law is currently written, a governor can continue extending emergency powers indefinitely so long as the Legislature does not put a stop to it. The House Republican bill flips that on its head and says a governor can invoke emergency powers, but a supermajority in each legislative body must approve extending them beyond 14 days. The powers also can be extended in 14-day increments – half the current 30-day extensions provided the governor. If it’s a true emergency, you should have no problem getting everybody on board with the notion that it is, in fact, an emergency, and emergency powers should be granted.

This is a serious bill to address the harm that was done, not by the pandemic, but by Walz’s response to a pandemic which dragged out and ruined people's lives, destroyed people's businesses, caused an entire generation of kids to fall behind in the classroom and more.

Unfortunately, House Democrats once again took an unserious vote by blocking this bill on the House floor, leaving the door open to future tyrannical overreach at the expense of Minnesotans.

Sincerely,

Walter






chamber

Please visit my personal legislative website at www.house.mn [ [link removed] ] for the latest news and information.





State Rep. Walter Hudson
2nd Floor, Centennial Office Building
658 Cedar St., St. Paul, MN 55155
[email protected]
(651) 296-1534







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