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Dear Neighbors,
I hope you and your family are having a safe and healthy holiday season. This has been a difficult year for many in our community, and as we look towards 2021, it’s important that we carry with us the same resilience and sense of community that has brought us through these trying times.
Knowing that I will not be returning as your state representative next year has not made the past month any less busy. The first batch of vaccines are being administered in our state, economic relief is on the way for working families and small businesses, and I’m looking forward to spending the next two years advocating for our community - in my own way.
Minnesota’s Vaccine Plan
This month, Minnesota received its first shipment of the COVID-19 vaccine. Since we’ll have a limited supply for the time being, we’ll be following a strict plan that has been put in place in partnership with the federal government to make sure we’re making the most of this vaccine. You can view Minnesota’s COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Plan here, which was formulated with the goal of making the process as quick, equitable, and safe as possible.
The first to receive the vaccine in Minnesota will be health care workers and long-term care residents, followed by essential workers, seniors, and people with preexisting conditions that are more likely to become seriously ill with this virus. While the arrival of the vaccine is incredibly good news, we’re still a long way from it becoming available to all who want one. In the meantime, it’s important that we continue adhering to the public health guidelines that have kept our communities safe - social distancing, hand washing, wearing a mask, and getting tested when we feel sick.
Assistance for Small Businesses and Working Families
The measures put in place to slow the spread of COVID-19 are saving lives, but we need to make sure that those measures are balanced with assistance for the small businesses and working families they impact. To that end, my colleagues and I in the Minnesota Legislation Legislature have been spending the past month putting together a bipartisan package of economic assistance legislation, which has now been signed into law. It’s not perfect, but while the federal government has more resources to more fully address the issues facing our community, they were simply moving too slow in their response for Minnesotans.
The package of COVID-19 assistance legislation we passed isn’t a fix-all solution, but it does provide a lifeline for those struggling to get by until federal relief can arrive. The bill includes a 13-week extension of unemployment insurance and direct financial support for businesses. The Department of Revenue estimates that 5,800 small businesses will receive $82-88 million beginning before the end of the year. Another $114.5 million will be distributed to counties to provide grants to impacted businesses, and movie theaters and convention centers will receive $14 million.
You can find more information on applying for unemployment here, and you can find specifics on eligible businesses, program requirements, and payment amounts here.
Stay In Touch
I’m incredibly proud of the work we’ve accomplished these past two years, both for our community and our state, and I want to thank you for all of your support. Big challenges remain - we have a pandemic to get through, inequality to address, and so many voices to lift up. It’ll be difficult, but I firmly believe there’s nothing we can’t do when we work together.
I’ll remain your state representative until January 5 when the new session starts. I hope sometime in the near future we’ll all be able to get together in person.
Until then I wish you all a happy new year.
Your Partner in Saint Paul,
Jeff Brand
State Representative, District 19A
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