Dear Neighbor,
We are only two weeks into the 2026 session but it’s already become clear this is another session of Democrats taking an unserious approach to serious issues.
The House is tied 67-67 and Democrats hold a one-seat majority in the Senate. Bipartisanship is required for any bill to pass the House, which should be a signal for lawmakers to set aside radical, activist-driven policies. But here we are, with 79 days left to get our work done this session and House Democrats are wasting time catering to extremists by taking radical positions instead of doing the work Minnesotans are counting on us to do.
Before we get into more of that, I want to congratulate the Andover boys hockey team for winning the section championship last night. This has been an amazing postseason run for the Huskies. Good luck and keep it going at state next week!
Here’s the latest from St. Paul:
Gun-control bills
 House Democrats this week came forward with a series of extreme bills that ban guns, magazines and criminalize otherwise law-abiding citizens but do not hold criminals accountable or offer solutions to flag mentally ill individuals. They are pushing bills that are unconstitutional, unenforceable or have already been shown not to work in other states, at the federal level, and in countries like Australia and Canada. We’ve even seen recent mass shootings in those places despite the types of gun laws Democrats claim will fix this issue. I have kids in middle school and high school, so school safety matters deeply to me. It’s every parent’s worst nightmare. I’m grateful that families are speaking up, sharing their experiences, and bringing their ideas to the Capitol. That’s how the process is supposed to work. We need to focus on improving school safety for all students, including private schools and charter schools. And there’s serious work to be done with mental health resources. Ultimately, we need to come together around solutions that will truly make a real difference. Just this week there was a case in Minneapolis where a man on gun charges was released on $35,000 bond and allegedly shot and killed two relatives less than three hours later. Let’s work on putting away true criminals instead of making criminals out of law-abiding citizens who use guns to protect themselves and their families. OIG bill House Republicans continue working to advance a bill that would create an independent Office of the Inspector General with real law-enforcement authority to help crack down on fraud that has overtaken our state. Last week House Democrats tried to strip the OIG bill of its teeth and then prevented a floor vote on the real bill which passed the Senate 60-7 last spring. This week, House Democrats were back at it by refusing to advance this legislation just because Republicans want a real bill and refuse to let them weaken it by stripping the office’s independence and enforcement authority. Four times in the first two weeks of session the Democrats stood in the way of moving this bill, preventing us from making progress. It is unfortunate Democrats are working with the governor's office to gut and slow walk the bill as we are seeing play out day after day. Optum report |
 A newly released Minnesota report examining fraud in social services programs is heavily redacted, limiting what the public can see about the scope of problems and who may be responsible. The report confirms significant oversight failures and vulnerabilities in state programs, but the missing details make it difficult to evaluate how widespread the fraud was or how agencies potentially failed to act on warnings. State officials say some information had to be withheld to protect ongoing investigations and legal cases. It also undermines trust in our government and will further fuel concerns over transparency and accountability at the state level. In response, House Republicans are working to have the report released unredacted and a bill to do make that happen received a committee hearing this week. Democrats want to say the right things now that they found religion about fraud at the end of last year, when national coverage exposed the problem to such a degree they could no longer ignore it. Now they want to talk the talk, but Republicans are making them walk the walk, and we're going to continue to force the issue. We’re going to continue to push on that because Minnesota taxpayers are justly outraged by fraud. It was interesting to hear President Trump, during this week’s State of the Union Address, call attention to Minnesota’s miserable failure of an administration that hasn't been able to prevent billions of dollars of fraud, including making our state so bad we have fraud tourism coming to Minnesota. The more attention this issue gets, the harder it will be for Democrats to sit on their hands. We’ll see what Week 3 of the 2026 session brings. A new state economic forecast was issued today and it demonstrates that pro-business economic policies and economic growth are the real solutions to the fiscal disaster created by Minnesota Democrats. We need to reverse the policies that are holding our state economy back if we’re going to participate in the national economic rebound. I will dive into this in more detail another time. Until then, please stay in touch and I hope you have a good weekend. Sincerely, Harry |