Rep. Brad Finstad said his year in Congress has given him a new lens in how it works

Aug. 22—ROCHESTER — In the year since his

election to Congress in a special election,

Rep. Brad Finstad says he has acquired a new lens in understanding how the place works — and often doesn't work.

He said 80% of its members are there "to roll up their sleeves" to advance the country and "put us in a better place for our kids." Then there are the 10% of members on each side of the political aisle who are mainly interested in the "verbal fistfight."

"They want to punch people verbally in the throat whenever they can to gain political points," Finstad said. "That's where you see most of the divisiveness and breakdown happen."

Finstad made his comments Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023, at an Eggs & Issues held at

Two Discovery Square

in downtown Rochester and attended by about 80 community members.

Finstad's observations about the rancorous political climate in Washington D.C. underscored the challenges that lay ahead, as Congress approaches another hard deadline in hashing out spending bills and trying to avoid a government shutdown.

Finstad, a New Ulm farmer and GOP legislator representing Minnesota's 1st Congressional District, said when he and other lawmakers return to Washington in September, they will face the nigh-impossible task of passing 11 appropriation bills in 12 days of voting.

"So I'm not great at math, but I will tell you some of this math doesn't add up," he told the Rochester audience.

At the same time, the conservative House Freedom Caucus earlier this week said it would oppose any short-term stopgap unless leadership meets an array of demands. Both Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said a temporary fix will be necessary to avoid a shutdown at the end of September to give Congress more time to pass out new spending bills.

In an interview with the Post Bulletin afterwards, Finstad said he thought a government shutdown would be avoided, because of the one-on-one conversations taking place behind the scenes. He cited the efforts of Rep. Tom Emmer, the House majority whip and a representative from Minnesota, who is working with individual members to win their support on individual bills.

Finstad said there have been unintended consequences to the GOP conference's commitment under Speaker Kevin McCarthy to pass appropriation bills one at a time that have made the work of legislating more challenging. In the past, Congress passed massive, throw-in-the kitchen-sink omnibus bills, but few knew what was in them.

"And so we took a different approach, which sounded great at the time, but I think people are starting to realize that that means there's been a lot of work that has to be done," Finstad said. "So when I talked about 12 days to pass a budget, appropriation bills and a Farm Bill, you're gonna see a lot of fast-paced leveraging and conversations and work."

John Kirchner, vice president of the Midwest Region of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, talked about the state of the economy and the need for more workers. He said there has long been an expectation of a shallow recession, but "that hasn't happened yet." A slow-down still may happen in the fourth quarter of this year or early next year.

Surveys show that small businesses are "doing pretty well," but many suffer from what Kirchner called "second-hand pessimism." He stressed the need for permitting reform in Washington D.C. so building projects can move along more expeditiously. It shouldn't take longer for a permit to be issued for a project than for that project to be built, but in some cases, it does.

Kirchner said a yawning workforce gap is adding to the challenges small businesses face. He said there are 9.9 million open jobs right now across the country, but only 5.9 million people looking for work, leaving a 4 million worker gap.

And even though the labor force is larger than it was before COVID, it still doesn't fill the need. The U.S. lost a million workers because of COVID-related immigration restrictions. Baby Boomers are retiring. The pandemic incentivized people to take early retirement.

But if even the workforce gap disappeared and businesses had all the workers they needed, there would still be childcare and housing challenges, Kirchner said.

"While it is a human capital issue, it's also a childcare issue and a housing issue," Kirchner said.

In the interview with the Post Bulletin, Finstad declined to say whether he would vote for an impeachment inquiry into the scandals surrounding Hunter Biden, President Biden's son, calling it "loaded hypothetical."

He noted, however, that an inquiry, if it were approved by the GOP-led House, could bring more clarity.

"I think we owe it to the American people to be more transparent," he said. "If it comes to an inquiry, I would hear the presenters out, those that make the case. But at the end of the day, the more transparent we can be, especially now in this highly politically tense environment, it would be good for us."