Last week brought me to Washington, D.C. for votes, but I am glad to be back home this week to enjoy the rising temperatures with my fellow Minnesotans!

Legislative Update

Last week, my colleagues and I gathered together in Washington to vote on another package of COVID-19 related relief spending. However, this time was different. This legislation was crafted by Speaker Nancy Pelosi alone, with no input from other members of the People’s House and no discussion around what priorities were important to constituents all across America.

I voted against this legislation because it adds an additional $3 trillion in debt and fell short of a good faith effort to address the needs of our country. It failed to include additional funding for the Paycheck Protection Program – a lifeline for businesses struggling to keep their employees and stay afloat – but directed tens of millions of dollars to programs unrelated to the COVID outbreak. It also included changes to our election system, eliminating state control and fundamentally altering the way we vote in the United States.

Moving forward, I hope Pelosi will work with her Republican colleagues and the President. She has done this before with the passage of the CARES Act, which included non-partisan legislation like the Isaiah Baker and Margie Harris-Austin Act, which I co-led. This important bill would reimburse providers for time Direct Support Professionals spend supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities during short-term hospital stays. I was proud to see it become law.

Following passage of this bill, I also signed on as an original cosponsor to the Deal With the Debt Today Act. We have to get our spending under control. This legislation would take the important steps of requiring emergency or disaster spending to be offset over a 10 year period, ensuring Congress makes a conscious effort to address our nation’s growing debt.

Protecting Supply Chain

This week, I signed on as an original co-sponsor of H.R. 6883, the Protecting Protein Production and Consumer Access Act, which expands liability protections for meat processing facilities following President Trump’s use of the Defense Production Act to ensure they reopen.

We need to protect the steady flow of American grown beef, pork, and poultry products in grocery stores for consumers. Processing plants are vital to ensuring the supply chain can continue to function. This legislation protects them from frivolous lawsuits as they continue to serve their fellow Americans.

I also became a cosponsor of the Assistance and Gratitude for Coronavirus Heroes in Agribusiness who are Invaluable to the Nation, or the AG CHAIN Act, which would provide a federal tax holiday and a payroll tax exemption for all essential employees in the food and agriculture industry. As we work to keep the supply chain moving, we must also support the important workforce who support it.

For pork producers in need, and any member of the agriculture community facing untold losses due to the COVID-19 outbreak, learn more about the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program distributed by the United States Department of Agriculture at www.farmers.gov/cfap.