Dear Neighbor,
Another busy week in the House is coming to a close, with the House and Senate both approving legislation providing $1 million to combat avian influenza-related expenses on Thursday.
Avian influenza recently has emerged in Minnesota, presenting a threat to our state’s poultry flocks. The hope is steps taken in recent years can help us avoid suffering a setback as large as 2015, when nine million birds in Minnesota were killed by the avian flu or euthanized to slow its spread.
And, as a public-service announcement, please remember poultry remains safe for human consumption so there’s no reason to exclude it from your diet.
In other news, I am authoring legislation allowing legislators to request information regarding how much any given proposed mandate on employers would cost them to comply. For example, a committee hearing recently took place for a House Democrat bill requiring Minnesota to be net-zero on carbon by 2035, with building efficiency scheduled to increase by 8 percent every six years.
The big question on my mind that nobody could answer is: How much will this cost people? The supporters of the net-zero proposal did not seem interested in collecting that information, much less sharing it with the public. That’s a problem that needs to be fixed so people – and even a bill’s author – have a better understanding of the consequences a proposed mandate would have in the real world.
There are other states with similar laws, and I hope we can build bipartisan support for making it happen here in Minnesota. Stay tuned.
The Legislature will be entering the home stretch of the 2022 legislative session after taking next week to observe the Easter/Passover holiday. Time is running short to address some key issues, including improving public safety in our state.
Public safety has become a major issue for Minnesotans with violent crime soaring in our state, primarily in the Twin Cities metro area but with ripple effects throughout Minnesota. It is rather concerning to see such little progress on solutions at this point in the session, with little more than lip service provided to the issue in the House.
A “Safety in our Cities” package of bills House Republicans unveiled earlier this session has not received hearings. In addition, a handful of Democrat-authored bills to address violent crimes and issues related to recruiting and retaining law enforcement officers also have not received hearings.
On the other hand, the Senate has been moving a public safety bill which features many of the initiatives House Republicans support, including criminalizing the offense of carjacking, increasing penalties for violent crimes by repeat offenders and heightening transparency when prosecutors dismiss charges on a case. This issue is too important to let sit on the back burner all session so I hope to see movement soon.
Until next time, I wish you and yours a blessed Easter/Passover holiday and I hope you are able to spend extra time with friends and family.
Sincerely,
Matt