Legislative Update
Dear friends and neighbors,
I hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend. I appreciated the opportunity that I had to spend time in district with family and attend a ceremony, which I will share more about in this newsletter. Outside of the holiday weekend, legislators have been hard at work in St. Paul, making steady progress towards finalizing our budget bills. I'll share the details that I have here.
Negotiation Update
Although I can't share much, because not everything is fully negotiated, I do know that we are making steady progress towards completing the budget bills and being ready for special session. The process has taken much longer than it should have, especially considering the Democrat's 23-day boycott at the beginning of session. I am hopeful that we will be able to wrap up the outstanding bills and have our special session within the next week, so that we can put a pin in this year and enjoy this summer.
Memorial Day Ceremony
I was honored to attend the Faribault Memorial Day ceremony on Monday. This was a great community event to honor our fallen heroes. I am grateful for the sacrifices of these brave men and women, and for the opportunity to recognize their service on this day.
 Fraud Updates
Fraud has been a hot topic and huge priority for us this session. As I'm sure you've heard or seen, we are nearing $1 BILLION of uncovered fraud in Minnesota over the past 6 years. The most recent uncovering was at a nonprofit called New Vision Foundation in St. Paul, which is a nonprofit that works with disadvantaged youth by teaching coding and digital literacy. They were connected to the 'Feeding Our Future' fraud by Executive Director Aimee Bock, who was recently convicted in relation to the fraud scheme. Additionally, a woman named Hibo Daar was arrested at the airport as she was attempting to flee the country to Dubai. Daar was arrested due to her connection to the 'Feeding Our Future' scandal, because she fraudulently claimed to feed thousands of children during the pandemic through here nonprofit "Northside Wellness." She attempted to flee following another site raid. Amid this news, the House Republican caucus is standing firm in fighting fraud in these final days/weeks. While Democrats have:
- Wasted an $18 billion surplus.
- Raised taxes by another $10 billion.
- Pushed the state towards a $6 billion deficit.
- Held zero hearings on the rampant fraud stealing state dollars from those who actually needed them.
House Republicans are continuing to fight to make Minnesota more affordable, safe, and a better place to raise a family. I am proud to fight for Minnesotans by working towards these goals through legislation this session.
Capitol Visitors
Senator Jasinski and I had the opportunity to lead a group from Faribault Middle School through a tour of the Capitol this week. It was great to see all the students and talk to them about the work that we do here.
 I also saw two special guests at work this week, my kids! Here we are on the Senate and the House floors. They got to hear from Chief Clerk of the House, Patrick Duffy Murphy, in the second photo. I appreciated the opportunity to show them around my "office," and educate them about the importance of our state government!
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