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Legislative Update
Greetings,
We have a lot of events occurring in House District 19B, even as we brave the sustained colder temperatures occurring this time of year. I hope you are staying warm, and thank you for keeping in touch!
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Owatonna Chamber of Commerce Power of Progress Annual Meeting
I just wanted to give a shout out to the great team at the Owatonna Chamber as they support our businesses and our various organizations across the district. Jeanne and I thoroughly enjoyed attending the annual meeting, reconnecting with everyone who was there, and hearing from both our young and more senior entrepreneurs who work so hard to build a stronger community every day.
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Waseca Chamber of Commerce Successes of 2026 Community Awards
Next, I want to give a shout out to the great team at the Waseca Chamber as they just hosted the bi-annual community awards events. Again, Jeanne and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the awardees and hearing from the nomination team as they described all the great achievements and positive impacts on our community.
Both of these events and many more remind us of the importance of community involvement and the successes of volunteerism throughout our great nation! Thank you for supporting our communities!
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University of Minnesota Southern Research and Outreach Center
It is my honor to serve on the University of Minnesota Southern Research and Outreach Center (SROC) Advisory Board. Of all the wonderful things they do, I am most impressed with the breadth and depth of research occurring at the center. Examples include Agronomy, Renewable Energy, Horticulture, Nematology, Soils, Swine and Dairy research. Equally impressive is some of the spinoff research occurring in the areas of health and PFAS mitigation. Keep up the great work!
Speaking of the SROC, if you are the parent of a 3rd, 4th, or 5th grader, the University of Minnesota Bell Museum staff will be hosting a three-day camp at SROC in Waseca this summer! This is a day camp which will be held on Tuesday, August 11th – Thursday, August 13th, 2026 from 10:00am – 4:00pm each day. For more information, visit their website here. If these dates do not work with your schedule, a link to the 2026 Statewide Summer Camps can be found at the bottom of the page.
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MN AGRI Biofuels Infrastructure Grant
Much of our work occurs in the background without newspaper of social media headlines. As legislators, we make telephone calls, hold meetings, and write letters to support positive change for the members of our community. This week, I am sharing two wins: a grant and a funding resolution.
One of our local HD-19B businesses successfully competed for a grant to expand the types of biofuel offered at their full-service fuel station. In this case, Senator Jasinski and I both wrote strong recommendation letters and helped our local businessperson earn a grant that enables the expansion of the products they offer to our residents and helps build out our biofuels industry. This is an example of a win-win situation for everyone.
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Funding for Home Healthcare Services
For one reason or another, the Minnesota Department of Human Services stopped processing reimbursement claims for home healthcare services at noon on Tuesday, December 23rd, 2025, due to the upcoming holidays. However, DHS did not adequately notify the healthcare providers of the last-minute policy change. Thus, any provider who submitted their reimbursement claims between noon on Tuesday, December 23rd, 2025 and midnight on December 25th, 2025 (the original deadline), were not reimbursed as planned. As our legislative team worked with the healthcare providers, we discovered that many of them submitted their valid claim on December 24th, 2025 as part of the normal billing cycle.
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Fortunately, one of our local HD-19B healthcare providers who reached out to me about the problem received two cycles of back payments yesterday. Of course, we want to address fraud, but this provider pays thousands dollars each year for subscription fraud prevention software that geolocates each individual provider and verifies the care occurs as planned. We want these efforts to continue. We want to support Minnesotans receiving valid care. We cannot afford last-minute decisions by our State Agencies to change the process. We cannot afford decisions without communication. Our providers thought they did something wrong as Minnesota DHS did not communicate anything concerning the holiday billing cycle. We can do better and we must do better!
I am very grateful for the many voices that spoke up about this issue and that a resolution was reached to provide relief to our hardworking and legitimate providers.
Thank you for the opportunity to serve!
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Coffee with Tom
Please feel free to join me for Coffee with Tom in Owatonna will be Friday, February 6th at the Owatonna Chamber of Commerce building from 12:00pm-1:00pm.
Our next Coffee with Tom meeting in Waseca will be on Friday, February 13th at the Waseca Chamber of Commerce from 12:00pm-1:00pm.
The 2026 Legislative session will begin on Tuesday, February 17th at 12:00pm in the State Capitol House Chambers.
Thank you for your support and feedback!
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I want to hear you
I am always here to listens to concerns or ideas of my constituents. I can be reached via email [email protected] or phone 651-296-5368.
 If you would like to contact Rep. Sexton, DO NOT reply to this email. Please reach out directly to [email protected].
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2828 Centennial Office Building
658 Cedar Street
St. Paul, MN 55155 [email protected]
651.296.5368 |
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