A proposal to set new limitations on employment for state lawmakers failed on the floor of the Minnesota House of Representatives. That proposal was brought forward by Republican Rep. Elliott Engen during a lengthy floor session on Monday night.
Speaking to his fellow lawmakers, Engen expressed concern that lawmakers could use their elected positions to award tax dollars to organizations that also employ state legislators.
In Minnesota, the state legislature is considered a part-time legislature as it only meets for the first few months of the year. As such, many lawmakers have other employment outside the legislature during the interim period.
“There is a direct correlation between the $2.2 billion in nonprofit spending that took place last biennium and the number of folks who are engaged in this,” Engen said. “We need to stop it.”
In turn, Engen offered an amendment that would ban lawmakers from being employed by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that are named recipients of state funds. Engen offered that proposal as an amendment to HF 3679, a bipartisan bill about state reports.
DFL Rep. Larry Kraft spoke against Engen’s amendment, calling it “not serious” and noting that the House already has conflict of interest rules. Kraft also questioned why the proposal only banned legislator employment from groups that are “named” recipients of tax dollars.
In short, Kraft argued that a state legislator working for a “named” organization is no different than a state legislator who works as a farmer and benefits from a program that was created by the state legislature.
Responding to this, GOP Rep. Walter Hudson argued that a farmer voting on a farm bill is not a conflict of interest because that vote affects an entire class of people, i.e. all farmers, and does not specifically benefit the legislator in question.
In contrast, Hudson said tax dollars being designated for a specific group that also employs a legislator is a “categorically different” situation.
Engen’s amendment ultimately failed in a 66-66, party-line vote with Democrats opposing the proposal and Republicans supporting it. However, two lawmakers, DFL Rep. María Isa Pérez-Vega and GOP Rep. Paul Torkelson, did not vote on the Engen amendment at all.
Moments after that vote was taken, Torkelson voted in favor of the underlying bill Engen tried to amend. That bill passed 132-0 with Pérez-Vega again not voting.
According to the Minnesota Legislature’s website, “amendments may pass by a simple majority of those voting.” As such, Engen’s amendment appears to have failed because Torkelson did not vote in support of the amendment.
Alpha News contacted Torkelson and the House Republican Caucus for this story but did not hear back prior to publication.
Luke Sprinkel
Luke Sprinkel previously worked as a Legislative Assistant at the Minnesota House of Representatives. He grew up as a Missionary Kid (MK) living in England, Thailand, Tanzania, and the Middle East. Luke graduated from Regent University in 2018.
