Tim Mahoney, Minnesota District 67A

Rep. Tim Mahoney, DFL-Saint Paul, said he’s frustrated by interest in a ban on testing of blood from newborns to catch rare diseases before they kill newborns.

“This saves lives,” he said. “This gets early diagnosis.” A doctor might have to do 50 or 60 tests to diagnose a rare illness. But with standard screening of all babies, the babies with rare illness get early diagnosis and treatment.

“There is a move at the capitol to shut that down, because of DNA privacy issues. I don’t understand it. It is ludicrous,” Mahoney said.

“I’m not trying to build a nuclear plant,” said Rep. Tim Mahoney, a Democrat from St. Paul and sponsor of the House bill. “We’re just trying to allow people to talk about it because right now you can’t.”

This lax attitude in the program is unfair to workers who are injured on the job, companies who are following the rules and all Minnesota taxpayers. Reform is needed and now. It is time for more oversight to mandate employers are compliant and to ensure workers receive their full benefits. In many cases workers cannot return to the job after the injury. Workers’ compensation is a safety net and workers shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to collect the benefits they are rightly owed.

This is Our Time

Seventy-six years ago this month, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt took the oath of office and offered Americans a new vision for progress and prosperity in our country. Offering swift action for millions of struggling citizens at the height of the Great Depression, Roosevelt led the country through an unprecedented restructuring of government to meet the crisis and emerge from recession stronger than ever before.

Last week I took the oath of office to serve our community for a sixth term in the Minnesota House of Representatives. It is an honor to serve as your state representative, and I take the responsibilities that come with this office very seriously – particularly in these uncertain economic times. Like Roosevelt in the ‘30s, this year my colleagues and I are charged with the difficult task of dramatically rethinking how government can meet a serious, generational economic crisis with confidence, a commitment to responsible reform, and the vision to enact forward-thinking policies capable of securing long-term prosperity in our state. I pledge to devote my best efforts to fulfill that responsibility, no matter the obstacles that lie ahead.

Minnesotans are enduring uncertain economic times. Our state is facing the highest unemployment rates and the worst recession we’ve seen in 25 years. Over the last 12 months Minnesota has lost nearly 20,000 jobs. Economic experts predict that number will increase to 50,000 by this time next year.

In the upcoming legislative session, we must take decisive action to put Minnesota’s economy back on track. Driving innovation in new and promising industries – such as green technology – is the state’s most promising avenue for rebuilding our economy and putting people back to work. By partnering with private business and academia, lawmakers can help grow tens of thousands of local, reliable, good-paying jobs for working Minnesotans.

ST. PAUL – Rep. Tim Mahoney (DFL – St. Paul), who chairs the Biosciences and Emerging Technologies Committee in the Minnesota House of Representatives, responded to the green jobs proposal Governor Tim Pawlenty unveiled Monday morning. Mahoney called the initiative “encouraging” but said the proposal lacked a necessary focus on rebuilding the foundation of Minnesota’s economy – our workforce.

“I didn’t know JobZ was chameleon – apparently if it isn’t working, it just changes color,” said Rep. Mahoney. “Relying on broken programs won’t work any longer. Instead, we have to broadly explore the best ways to strengthen the long-term economic competitiveness of Minnesota. Education investment, research and design, and job re-training are critical in our efforts to capitalize on emerging green job technologies and secure our economic future in Minnesota. A narrow solution that simply relies on tax cuts isn’t enough to sustain a prosperous state economy for the long-term.”