January 22, 2023

Dear John:

This week we marched for life and I introduced two pro-life pieces of legislation.

The Defund Planned Parenthood Act prohibits the organization from accessing any federal mandatory or discretionary funds. In order to maintain their federal funding, organizations must certify that they will not perform or support entities that perform abortions.

Planned Parenthood has repeatedly demonstrated their contempt for the sanctity of life and the laws enacted to protect it. They boast about receiving $633.4 million dollars from taxpayers annually to provide so called “comprehensive health care services”. Meanwhile, their reports show that they performed 383,460 abortions in 2020 whereas the amount of prenatal services that they provided dropped from 40,000 to 9,000 in just 10 years. It is clear that Planned Parenthood is not in the business of supporting women but instead providing abortions on demand.

The Protecting Life and Taxpayers Act ensures taxpayer dollars do not support the destruction of unborn life by requiring all federally funded entities to certify that they will not perform abortions or provide funds to any other entity that performs an abortion, with exceptions for rape, incest, and to protect the life of the mother.

Americans across the country value the lives of precious unborn babies and it is wrong to force them to spend their tax dollars on something that goes against their closest held values. I am honored to introduce these pieces of legislation that helps protect the unborn, women, and taxpayers.

ATF Rule on Stabilizing Braces

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) recently posted its final stabilizing braces rule. Stabilizing braces were designed to help disabled veterans fire large format pistols, and the ATF has recognized their legitimate function for years. This change gives the ATF the sole discretion to decide whether a stabilizing brace is legal or whether the person who owns it is now a felon.

This rule may not even be constitutional. Administrative agencies like the ATF cannot add to a congressional definition. Only Congress can do that. When the Democrats argued for an assault weapons ban last year, I offered an amendment to protect the sale and possession of stabilizing braces. It then became abundantly clear that they did not even understand their own bill and what it was they were trying to regulate out of existence. I have been fighting to protect the rights of our disabled hunters, wounded veterans, and law-abiding gun owners, and I will continue to do so.

Ag Advisory Board Meetings

Earlier this week, I got to meet with my Southern and Northern Agriculture Advisory Groups. These groups are made up of producers from across the 7th District.

With less than nine months left before the current Farm Bill expires, it is critically important to receive farmer input to ensure the next authorization is as farmer-friendly as possible. I was glad to hear from these committees what works, what doesn’t, and where improvements can be made in the current farm bill.

We also discussed the importance of export markets for farmers, the need for the Foreign Market Development Program and Market Access Program, and the role of the Ways and Means Committee in urging the Biden Administration to pursue new market opportunities.

Additionally, we talked about solutions to a prevailing workforce challenge in agriculture, including my H-2A Reform Act. Changes to existing workforce programs that increase reliability, transparency and cost effectiveness are sorely needed to ensure American Agriculture is competitive on the world stage.

Finally, the producers on my committees urged protection of critical risk management tools including crop insurance, Dairy Margin Coverage, and a reliable disaster recovery program in the upcoming Farm Bill.

I had a great time touring the American Crystal Sugar factory in Moorhead - it was so nice getting to talk about the sugar program and also see their work firsthand!

This week, I got to tour the Microsoft campus in Fargo and learn more about their civic engagement program, TechSpark. It was great learning more about a company that employs so many people from the 7th District

I had a lot of fun touring Anheuser-Busch checking out their malt plant and talking about their policy priorities and ideas.

Thank you for reading!

As always, my office is open and ready to serve constituents of Minnesota's Seventh Congressional District! Please do not hesitate to get in touch if there is anything I can do to help. Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

Michelle Fischbach

Member of Congress

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