Dear Neighbors,
It’s been another busy week in St. Paul as some of the bills I’m working on have been introduced.
One of these bills that I am authoring would declare Minnesota a mining-friendly state. This legislation has bipartisan support and makes clear that it is the state’s official policy that Minnesota is mining friendly. This is an important declaration of support for communities as lawmakers and local stakeholders look for ways to promote responsible mining in the Northland.
Ultimately, this is about making clear that Minnesota supports mining. With this legislation, we can come together and cement into law what we’ve known for more than 140 years—mining is our past, our present, and our future. Policy like this creates a mission statement for our state to support and develop our mining industry. The Iron Range is blessed with an abundance of critical minerals including taconite, copper, nickel, cobalt, manganese, and many others that we need to build the economy of tomorrow.
The policy also puts Minnesota workers and communities first as to not rely on outsourcing the extraction of critical minerals to hostile foreign nations that have zero environmental regulations. Let’s support our Northland by mining these minerals here so that future generations continue to live, work, and thrive on our Iron Range.
I recorded a brief video discussing this bill and I encourage you to take 60 seconds to watch. Click here or the photo below.
House File 1
On Thursday, the House approved HF 1, a bill that would allow abortions throughout pregnancy with no guardrails to keep women and girls safe in the process.
As a pro-life legislator, I support bills that put the health and wellbeing of children and women first. Sadly, this bill does the opposite. It would provide unlimited abortion access up until the moment of birth including in the 2nd and 3rd trimesters when the unborn can feel pain and when the probability of health complications for women rises exponentially. Further, it would not require abortion facilities to be licensed.
Reasonable people on both sides of this issue can respectfully agree and disagree on what safeguards Minnesota should adopt. However, in more than a year of campaigning across the Northland, I did not meet one constituent that supported this sort of extreme proposal that just passed in the House.
Staying in Touch
As always, please do not hesitate to reach out to me with any questions or concerns you may have. I can be reached by phone at 651-296-4936 or via email at rep.spencer.igo@house.mn.
Have a great day,
Spencer