Dear Neighbor,
Greetings from St. Paul. Another busy week is coming to a close, Easter is just around the corner and the Legislature will be in the home stretch of the 2024 session before we know it.
Here’s a look at some of my latest notes from the House:
Religious freedom
Religion is something local residents and people throughout Minnesota hold near and dear. Start messing with someone’s religion and things can get personal – really fast – which makes it all the more concerning the legislative majority has delivered not just one, but two strikes against our religious freedoms.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how House Democrats voted down a House Republican committee amendment to restore a religious freedom provision that was deleted from Minnesota Human Rights Act law last year. This week, instead of righting this wrong, Senate Democrats took the same bad vote as the House majority, failing to restore in state law to our long-held consensus that religious communities in Minnesota have the autonomy to decide questions of faith.
The proposed measure ensures religious organizations and faith-based schools can, among other things, hire teachers and ministers consistent with their mission and values. Already, at least one faith-based school is facing an employment complaint at the department of human rights because of the removal of the provision.
House Democrats, Senate Democrats and Gov. Walz had more than two weeks to take a deep breath and come back ready to do what’s right for Minnesotans. Instead, they dug deeper into the position that your religious freedoms take a back seat to the state’s rule, and the separation of church and state no longer exists in Minnesota.
This won’t be the last word you hear on this issue. House Republicans will continue pressing this issue because freedom of religion is about as important as it gets to people in this state and nation.
The same amendment was proposed in the Senate this week, but was voted down along party lines, just as when Republicans proposed it in the House. It remains to be seen what will happen with the overriding bill and I will continue advocating for the religious freedom component to be restored.
As I have previously noted, before last year, when gender identity was included (or subsumed) within the MHRA definition of sexual orientation, the still-existing religious exemption for sexual orientation covered gender identity claims as well. When a new, separate definition of gender identity was created last year, there was no corresponding religious exemption added. This issue caused alarm among Minnesota’s faith community and House Republicans worked with religious leaders to craft an amendment to MHRA legislation S.F. 4292. House Democrats and Senate Democrats then voted against that language.
Local visitors
Thanks to the amazing local group from Cloquet, Fond du Lac and Duluth for diligently advocating for the homeless challenges many are facing throughout our communities.
I appreciate all the fantastic teachers from Esko coming down to St. Paul to discuss important issues and advocate on behalf of all the amazing teachers we have in our state.
A big shout out to C & L Distributing on your new location in Cloquet. Thank you for stopping by the Capitol.
Public safety
The brave men and women who protect and serve us in law enforcement and put their lives on the line every day while doing so deserve to have the resources they need to do their jobs effectively. We also need laws that enhance public safety by cracking down on crime, catching dangerous offenders and ensuring the criminals are held fully accountable.
That is why House Republicans conducted a press conference this week to call for hearings on a series of several bills we have authored to support our law enforcement officers, hold criminals accountable and keep our communities safe. These bills have been specifically requested by our partners in law enforcement.
One of the bills House Republicans propose (H.F. 4837) would allow more flexibility in how public safety aid is used by local governments so they can meet their specific needs. Our citizens and law enforcement officers alike deserve no less. This is in contrast to what the majority did last year by placing tight restrictions on how a $300 million bump in funding for local law enforcement could be used. The fine print said usage of this money is limited to:
- Community violence prevention and? intervention programs
- Community engagement
- Mental health crisis responses
- Victim? services
- Training programs
- First responder wellness
- Equipment related to fire, rescue, and? emergency services
- To pay other personnel or equipment costs
Tactical vehicles, for instance, do not qualify, even though we continue seeing instances where they could save lives. Neither does something as practical as improving lighting to increase safety.
I hope we can reach bipartisan agreement on ways to get a handle on violent crime, which remains too high in our state, and welcome my friends across the aisle to come to the table to discuss solutions.
Saluting Ag
On a final note, National Ag Day was this week and I want to take a moment to salute local farmers and other workers in this industry for all they do to keep our state and nation fed. You are truly the backbone of our state and nation!
Have a great weekend and please stay in touch.
Sincerely,
Jeff