Letter: Special session vital to hear all voices - Grand Forks Herald

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In April, a number of organizations in North Dakota joined together to call upon our state’s leaders to address needs resulting from the impacts of COVID-19. These proposals, known as WE STAND Together, recommend policies in core issue areas to support working families.

Since the rollout of that plan, the ND Women’s Network and AFL-CIO have released a more thorough review of a paid family leave proposal, which was an original component of WE STAND Together. In addition, several legislators and hunger experts released an outline on how to improve our state’s food distribution network to help thousands of our neighbors who are unable to simply get enough food to eat. And, most recently, the Democratic-NPL Party has called for a special session of the Legislature to debate how to best use $1.25 billion in federal funds coming into North Dakota to help address these needs.

Only a handful of this state’s leaders have been involved in deciding how to spend most of this funding and, should Washington authorize additional funds, may decide how to spend hundreds of millions more. The sheer amount of funding involved seems to support an argument for bringing all North Dakota legislators together to debate these matters, but more importantly, every once in a while situations arise that require us to listen to more voices rather than fewer. This is one of those times.

COVID-19 is spiking again in 40 states and will continue to impact our economy for the foreseeable future. Our farm and ranch families are under tremendous strain across the state as a result of low commodity prices and lost export markets; this strain is becoming worse as we are facing serious weather conditions all across North Dakota. The recent oil crash has impacted thousands of working families.

If a special session is called, our elected leaders won’t be able to solve all these issues in four days, but all corners of our state will be represented and working to address these crises together.

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Bring all the issues that need to be discussed to the table and bring our legislators together, safely, so we all have a voice at the table.

It’s how democracy works.

Keys is executive director of the North Dakota Voices Network.

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Letter: Special session vital to hear all voices - Grand Forks Herald
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