Star Tribune
After debt deal success, Rep. Tom Emmer faces obstacles
WASHINGTON — House majority whip Tom Emmer’s window to celebrate avoiding a potentially calamitous debt default was short lived.
The Minnesotan and third-highest ranking House Republican declared during a Tuesday news conference that, “Republicans have been succeeding since the beginning of the year.”
“Do not underestimate [Speaker] Kevin McCarthy and the House Republicans,” Emmer said.
Hours later, Emmer was on the House floor navigating an animated scene in the back of the chamber.
The GOP suffered an embarrassing setback when a small group of Republicans turned on House leadership and helped sink a procedural vote on what’s known as a rule, something that according to congressional data hadn’t happened in about 20 years.
in retaliation for the bipartisan debt ceiling deal McCarthy brokered with Democratic President Joe Biden and other intraparty tensions.
“We’ve got some trust issues and we’ve got to get those resolved,” Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett, one of the GOP lawmakers going against leadership, said.
Their move prevented any other major votes on Tuesday and the day after, and leadership called off plans for Thursday’s floor action. The House is not set to return until early next week.
“The extremists in the House Republican Conference have once again taken control of the House floor,” Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said at a news conference.
The debt limit bill was signed into law last weekend just before a critical June 5 deadline to avert the threat of a default. Dealing with the debt ceiling had loomed as a challenge for the GOP for months after officially taking control of the House earlier this year.
“This was a real tough vote,” said Texas GOP Rep. Troy Nehls, who voted for the bipartisan agreement. “You look at the first five months, it was somewhat of a honeymoon.”
The move by a vocal sliver of the party to reject leadership in such a public way by stalling the House this week underlined the difficult task for top Republicans. But McCarthy dismissed any concerns about Emmer’s leadership, as the whip tasked with counting votes and building Republican support for legislation in the narrow majority.
“He does a great job,” McCarthy told the Star Tribune.
Unease within the GOP was clear when 71 House Republicans, including Minnesota Reps. Michelle Fischbach and Brad Finstad, voted against the temporary suspension of the debt ceiling last week. And while two-thirds of the GOP lawmakers in the chamber voted for the agreement, more Democrats ended up voting for the bill than Republicans.
Emmer claimed during his Tuesday news conference that “the debt limit fight last week displayed just how far House Republicans have come as a team.”
But that team struggled this week. While some conservatives criticized McCarthy and GOP Majority Leader Steve Scalise to reporters, Emmer didn’t appear to be getting similar pushback.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican who also went against leadership on the procedural vote, said on Monday night before the logjam began that Emmer has “that Midwestern crankiness that’s so endearing.” People respect Emmer as a “truth teller,” Gaetz said, and “even when we don’t like what he has to say, we know he’s being honest with us.”
But that didn’t mean Gaetz saw the debt ceiling vote passing as a victory for Emmer.
“I don’t know if it’s a win for any particular politician,” said Gaetz, who opposed the bill. “I think it’s a loss for the country.”
Emmer has charged that Democrats got nothing out of the deal and House Republicans forced Biden to negotiate.
“Our only concession by the way was averting an economic disaster that would have hurt American families and small businesses,” Emmer said Tuesday.
Democrats don’t view the agreement that way.
“Our goal was to not default and try to preserve the progress that we made when we were in the majority,” said Michigan Democratic Rep. Dan Kildee. “We didn’t default and we preserved that progress.”
The legislation suspended the debt ceiling into early 2025, moving the issue past what is likely to be a contentious presidential election. The new law also has spending limits and other changes, with the Congressional Budget Office estimating it would shrink projected budget deficits by about $1.5 trillion over roughly a decade.
The House GOP narrowly passed a conservative debt ceiling increase in April filled with other Republican goals. It never had a realistic chance of passing the Democrat-held Senate, which meant some sort of compromise was needed that was likely to rankle the edges of both parties.
Emmer’s office did not respond to requests from the Star Tribune this week for comment or an interview.
In an interview with the Daily Mail website, Emmer was asked about more Democrats voting for the final debt ceiling agreement than Republicans.
“I was very upset. We should have had 218 Republicans vote for that bill,” Emmer said, adding that while the new law didn’t solve the problem, “it’s the beginning of the solution.”
Emmer also said in the interview the GOP holdup on the floor Tuesday was spontaneous. He predicted, however, that Republicans would end up stronger than before.
“This team was extremely successful and has been for the first five months doing things that people never thought possible,” Emmer said.
“I said for the last five months … do not expect us to be successful always,” he added. “There will be a day where we run into adversity, there will be a day where we have a disagreement. That’s what teams do. We’re going through that period right now.”
The Tuesday setback meant that lawmakers lingered around Capitol Hill earlier this week waiting to see when the House could get back to passing bills.
“This is a family working out its differences and that’s what you’ll see,” Tennessee GOP Rep. Andy Ogles said. “It’s not the first time and it’s not going to be the last time this happens.”
After months of maintenance problems and safety concerns in downtown St. Paul’s Lowry Apartments, city officials condemned the building, forcing dozens of tenants to abruptly relocate to hotels this week.
On Monday afternoon, city staff responded to a plumbing leak in the 11-story building at 345 Wabasha St. N. Officials reported significant damage and signs of vandalism, including copper wire theft that left electrical systems exposed. The leak also raised concerns about mold.
To make repairs, the building’s water must be shut off — a move that would leave tenants without boiler heat and fire sprinklers, Deputy Mayor Jaime Tincher said in a Tuesday email to state Rep. Maria Isa Pérez-Vega and City Council Member Rebecca Noecker, who represent the area.
After determining heat and water could not be restored quickly, Tincher wrote: “There was no other option than to conclude the building was not safe for residents to stay.”
Property manager Halverson and Blaiser Group (HBG) agreed to provide alternative housing for tenants for up to 30 days, Tincher said. City staff worked with Ramsey County’s Housing Stability team and Metro Transit to help 71 residents pack and move.
Before then, the building belonged to downtown St. Paul’s largest property owner, Madison Equities. After the January death of the company’s founder and longtime principal, Jim Crockarell, the dire state of the group’s real estate portfolio became apparent.
The Lowry Apartments, the sole property with a high concentration of low-income housing, quickly became the most troubled. Residents reported frequent break-ins, pest infestations, inoperable elevators and more, to no avail.
Star Tribune
Metro Transit allocated $12 million to boost security, cleanliness on Twin Cities light rail and buses
They will be soon. With more money to spend, Metro Transit plans to bring on 40 more this year. With their ranks growing, TRIP agents, clad in blue, have recently started covering the Metro C and D rapid transit lines between Brooklyn Center and downtown Minneapolis.
The big investment in public safety initiatives comes as Metro Transit is seeing an uptick in ridership that plunged dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic and has been slow to recover. This year ridership has been a bright spot, the agency said.
Through October, the agency has provided 40.1 million rides, up 7% compared with the first 10 months of 2023. In September, the agency saw its highest monthly ridership in four years, averaging nearly 157,000 rides on weekdays, agency data shows.
At the same time, crime is down 8.4% during the first three quarters of 2024 compared to the same time period last year, according to Metro Transit Interim Police Chief Joe Dotseth. However, problems still persist.
On Nov. 29, Sharif Darryl Walker-El, Jr., 33, was fatally shot on a Green Line train in St. Paul. Just a week earlier, a woman was shot in the leg while on the train and taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Earlier this year, a robbery attempt on the Green Line in St. Paul left a passenger shot and wounded.
“Our officers are spending time on the system and sending a clear message to everyone: Crime will not be tolerated on transit,” Dotseth said. “And we will work to ensure those commit those crimes are held accountable.”
The ACLU of Minnesota has sued Otter Tail County, its sheriff and correctional officers at its jail, alleging unlawful punishment of a man known to them who has serious mental health issues.
Ramsey Kettle, 33, a member of White Earth Nation and lifelong Otter Tail County resident, was jailed in February on charges that were dropped two months later. The ACLU says that the sheriff’s office attempted to cover up the mistreatment, but a whistleblower working at the jail reported the abuse to the state. A 46-page lawsuit was filed this week in U.S. District Court of Minnesota.
“Mr. Kettle was subjected to extreme, punitive treatment in violation of his constitutional rights and standards for basic human dignity,” the ACLU said in a statement. “Otter Tail County officers, with approval of the acting jail administrator, kept Mr. Kettle locked up in solitary confinement for days without food, water, or appropriate medical and mental health care.”
Otter Tail County spokesperson Shannon Terry said in an email to the Minnesota Star Tribune that “Due to the impending litigation, Otter Tail County has no comment or statement at this time.” Terry did confirm that Kettle was released from custody April 24, when the charges were dropped.
Kettle was immediately placed in solitary confinement after he arrived at the jail Feb. 9, the lawsuit says. Jail staff didn’t assess Kettle’s poor mental health, which the ACLU says was well-documented and known to officers. The ACLU says Kettle “exhibited increasing signs of physical and mental distress” and officers allegedly “laughed at him, mocked him, and left him to suffer.”
Kettle had been booked at the jail multiple times before. In March 2022, he was convicted of making terroristic threats and sentenced to two years. On the day he was scheduled to be released from Rush City Correctional Facility after serving his full sentence, he was charged in Otter Tail with four counts of aggravated witness tampering stemming from the conviction.
“Rather than going home on February 9, 2024, as he had anticipated for nearly two years, he was transferred to Otter Tail County Jail to await trial on these new charges. The new charges were unfounded and intended solely to keep Mr. Kettle incarcerated,” the lawsuit states.
District Judge Johnathan Judd dismissed the charges as lacking foundation.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings