Dear Friends and Neighbors,
Here is an update with the latest news from St. Paul.
MCCL Statistics
Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life released information earlier this week showing that in 2017, taxpayer-funded abortions hit a record high of $1.06 million for 4,356 abortions. Those are heartbreaking statistics, and I want to take a moment to remind everyone that we have two crisis pregnancy centers in our area – the Women’s Pregnancy Center in Grand Forks, and the LifeCare Pregnancy Center in Thief River Falls.
Omnibus Bills
It has been a very busy week in committees, wrapping up omnibus bills in their committees of origin and having our last meetings in policy committees. I’d encourage you to check out the almost 1000 page Health and Human Services bill. In the past, Republicans were criticized for having large omnibus bills, but the HHS bill alone has more pages than the bill for every area of state government last year. In addition, their budget bills are funded by tax increases and don’t keep the many promises they made before the session.
They also cut reimbursements for nursing homes by about $68 million, despite hearing in committee about how that would negatively affect our local nursing homes. Including the federal and private share of those losses, the cuts to our nursing homes would be close to $200 million. I’ve heard from several of the nursing homes in Northwest Minnesota about how this will severely impact them. I will continue to fight for adequate funding of our great nursing homes, and against these catastrophic cuts.
This Week
I had a lot of visitors this week – below are some photos from my visits with Teamsters, U of M students from Crookston, and local teachers!
It’s an honor and a privilege to work for you at the Capitol. Don’t hesitate to contact my office at any time this session to share your thoughts, concerns, or ideas. I am here to serve you!
Sincerely,
Deb
