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Representative Dreier delivers farewell floor speech, highlights accomplishments and urges defense of rights
Summary
Representative Dreier used her farewell remarks on the House floor to thank staff and colleagues, list legislative accomplishments including medical debt and housing measures, and urge protection of voting rights, queer Minnesotans and children from gun violence.
Representative Dreier delivered a farewell speech on the House floor, thanking staff, colleagues and constituents and summarizing what she described as key legislative accomplishments and shortfalls.
Dreier opened by thanking staff across functions for their “brilliance, the creativity, that the work ethic” and praised colleagues for their service. She said she was grateful to the people who elected her and to family and caucus members who supported her work.
She framed her tenure as beginning amid crises — the COVID-19 pandemic, the murder of George Floyd and widespread wildfires — and said those events shaped her priorities. "I was elected to fight for justice, for affordable health care for all and a plan it for future generations can flourish," she said.
Dreier listed a series of policy achievements she said she helped advance, including reforms on medical debt and garnishment, steps to improve treatment access for rare diseases, increased support for the Medicaid dental system, housing funding in bonding bills, investments in solar for public buildings and support for soil and water conservation districts. She characterized the work as often bipartisan and aimed at improving lives across the state.
She also said the session contained "hard truths," citing disappointments: she said some health care protections were removed for immigrant residents, that families had been abandoned by policy choices, and that services for people with disabilities remained underfunded. "There is no Republican support for protecting people from future ice incursions heartbreakingly. We were not able to get a vote rejecting the will is 70% of Minnesotans to protect children," she said, linking the failure to pass measures she framed as protections from gun violence.
Dreier called for protecting civil and human rights at both federal and state levels, urging colleagues to "protect their queer community, especially trans youth," defend reproductive rights, stand up for immigrants and honor tribal sovereignty. She warned that democratic institutions were under strain, saying, "We must defend our democratic system. Our federal government is floating the constitution," and urged broad participation in voting.
She closed with an appeal for listening and civility, asking members to give one another grace and to "reject divisiveness and hate," and thanked Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman for her mentorship.
The remarks were delivered as Dreier concluded her third term on the floor; she said she is moving to the Senate and expressed hope she has honored voters' trust.
