Congressman Rick Nolan made several stops on a recent visit to Cook County. He visited with a handful of local government officials at The Landing at Devil Track on Monday, August 4.
U.S. Congressman Rick Nolan made several stops on a two-day visit to Cook County on August 4 – 5, starting off with a veterans round table at the Cook County Senior Center in Grand Marais.
Nolan talked to about 20 veterans about the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act of 2014, a bipartisan bill to reform the VA and improve veterans’ access to and quality of care.
He also visited with members of the Grand Portage Reservation Tribal Council, toured Hedstrom Lumber Company and Sawtooth Mountain Clinic, and visited with the public at a luncheon on Tuesday, August 5 at Cook County Higher Education.
Following the Monday morning forum with veterans, Nolan also met with a handful of local city, county, and economic development officials at the Landing at Devil Track Resort. Nolan fielded questions on a variety of issues.
Asked about funding for Highway 61, Nolan said he fought hard to be appointed to the transportation committee. He said somehow funding has to be found to pay for repairs and improvements to roads and bridges across the United States. He said the transportation committee is looking at three measures—a gasoline tax, a sales tax per barrel of oil or a mileage tax.
In answer to questions about early childhood education, Nolan said he strongly believed in the importance of programs such as Head Start.
A question on women’s rights led to discussion of the push for a federal minimum wage. Nolan said he feels this directly correlates to equal wages for women, as the majority of minimum wage workers in the country are women. He also noted that the Affordable Care Act benefits women by eliminating the insurance industry’s policy of declaring being female a “preexisting condition.”
Asked about his opponent’s claim that he does not support the Second Amendment, Nolan said he has a long history of hunting at his home near Emily, Minnesota. “I support gun safety,” he said. “If someone’s been convicted of spousal abuse; if someone is convicted of a felony, I don’t feel compelled to give them a gun. There have always been restrictions on guns. You can’t bring a bazooka into the Capitol. There needs to be some common sense.”
Nolan talked about the unproductivity of the current Congress, noting that most representatives spend hours every week in call centers, campaigning. He said when he served as Representative for Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District 30 years ago, there was bipartisan cooperation. He said in those days every bill came up through committee, with 7 – 8,000 hearing and subcommittees each year. “This Congress has only had 500,” he said, explaining, “What that means is all the members of Congress don’t get a chance to share their concerns—or offer suggestions.”
“It’s become a very undemocratic institution,” he said. “We’ve got to change the way we do politics in this country if we want a Congress that works and a government that isn’t broken.”
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