John,
Rural communities scored a major win after the Trump administration repealed a Biden-era nursing home staffing mandate that would have devastated care. At the same time, my team and I took action to demand transparency in Minnesota’s SNAP program. Here’s what you need to know:
The Biden staffing mandate repeal is a major win for rural Minnesota, and we earned it by staying out in front from the start. Biden’s mandate would have forced nursing homes to meet staffing ratios that simply aren’t possible in rural communities, leading facilities to cut admissions, take beds offline, or even close their doors entirely. I warned that this rule would push seniors farther from home, eliminate care options, and make an already severe workforce shortage even worse. Biden ignored his own CMS report showing there is no single staffing level that guarantees quality care, as well as the voices of rural providers who said plainly they couldn’t comply. That’s why I introduced legislation to block the rule and led the fight in Congress to keep this policy from taking effect. Thankfully, the Trump administration listened to rural voices and recognized what Biden refused to admit: one-size-fits-all mandates do not work in federal policy. This repeal protects access to care close to home, keeps nursing homes open, and prevents seniors from being displaced because of Washington’s unrealistic demands. I will keep working with the Trump administration on practical solutions that strengthen the nursing workforce instead of punishing rural communities.
This week, I joined my Minnesota Republican colleagues and House Agriculture Chairman Glenn "GT" Thompson in demanding that Governor Walz finally turn over Minnesota’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) data to federal officials. This is a basic request that 28 other states have complied with. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is reviewing this information nationwide to identify fraud, protect taxpayer dollars, and ensure that the 400,000 Minnesotans who rely on SNAP aren’t harmed by the state’s failures. But instead of cooperating, the Walz administration is refusing to share the data and is even taking legal action to block federal oversight of a federally funded program. Federal auditors have uncovered legitimate problems in states that did comply, including deceased individuals still receiving benefits and people enrolled in multiple states at once. Minnesota’s own record is troubling: years of misreported data, skipped security reviews, and $77 million in erroneous payments in 2024 alone. I’m working to make sure Minnesota is not a blind spot in this national review because we deserve transparency and a safety net that actually works for the families who depend on it.
