Friends and Neighbors,
I hope you all are doing well. Everything is changing, but it has been great to see people pulling together during this time. Although we are not at the Capitol, we are still working on your behalf. Here is a short update on a few highlights of the week.
Tele-townhall
On Thursday, Senator Abeler and Senator Hoffman held a tele-townhall at the Anoka County Government Center to discuss how COVID-19 is impacting day-to-day care for vulnerable adults. They focused on concerns brought to light by disability service providers, such as Day Training & Habilitation, employment services, adult day services, and non-emergency medical transportation service providers. Over 100,000 persons in Minnesota are utilizing disability services. Many of them are going without the day-today care they rely on to stay healthy and mobile. I found the tele-townhall impactful and it highlighted yet another unintended consequence of efforts being made to slow the spread of coronavirus.
We are trying to make sure everyone is cared for during this time. This townhall is one of many steps dealing with the COVID-19 crisis and I am thankful that Senator Abeler is leading on this issue by bringing in a variety of stakeholders for discussions. I encourage you to watch the townhall below if you are interested. If you have any ideas or concerns to share, please contact my office.
Here is a link to the recording to the tele-townhall:
https://www.facebook.com/mnsrc/videos/552812515354550/
Small Business Resources
For those of you with small businesses, I know these are hard times. We are so thankful for the role you play in our communities and can’t wait for you to be back open and operating at full capacity! In the meantime, I hope you will find some assistance through these resources below:
- Small Business Emergency Loans
- Small Business Loan Guarantee Program
- Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program
- SBA Paycheck Protection Program
Working Group
Although we are not meeting at the Capitol right now, we are still working for you! This week our Majority Leader, Senator Gazelka, led a working group to continue discussions on a variety of issues. On Thursday, via tele-conferencing, they spoke with Mary Krinkie from the Minnesota Hospital Association as well as other representatives who spoke on behalf of nurses and long-term care providers. We have provided funding to make sure they have the tools they need, but accountability and uniform practices will be helpful moving forward. They are all working hard, and we are here to make sure your tax money is being used appropriately and efficiently.
Before the meeting concluded Senator Gazelka highlighted a few things discussed during the working group that we will continue looking into:
- Emergency assistance compact for healthcare personnel coming to work from out of state
- Finding financial solutions for rural hospitals
- We want hospital workers to know we have their back and we will keep working to get them the supplies they need to stay healthy. We appreciate their work and can’t do this without them!
- Long-term care facilities are experiencing cases and we need to develop a plan to help them mitigate the spread in their facilities
The working group will continue to meet to discuss jobs, small business, farmers, and more to make sure that no one will be overlooked during this time.
I hope you all are well and staying healthy. Please contact me with your questions and concerns at sen.bruce.anderson@senate.mn or 651-296-5981. In the meantime, I continue working and will update you as often as I can!
Bruce