MANKATO — In a rare local appearance, Congressman Brad Finstad spoke to a group of community leaders at a roundtable event hosted by Greater Mankato Growth this week.
Topics discussed ranged from agriculture to trade and immigration.
During his address, 1st District Rep. Finstad, a Republican from New Ulm, talked about issues he thought were having the most impact on southern Minnesotans. Those issues included immigration and fentanyl trafficking, taxes, the 2018 farm bill, and cuts to Medicaid and SNAP.
“It is an honor to represent 750,000 of our friends and neighbors in Congress,” Finstad said, kicking off his address Wednesday. “I would like to tell you it’s fun and it’s easy, but it’s not. But as a farmer I’m kind of wired that way. Every day we wake up and we know something will not be fun and it will not be easy but we somehow figure out how to get through the day and that’s the approach I take in Congress.”
He then transitioned into speaking about the most important issues he’s hearing about in Congress, beginning with public safety.
“We’ve come through a very tough time with a nonexistent border that created a lot of challenges for the law enforcement, for county government, for state government (and) for our police officers who saw a huge uptick in fentanyl and overdoses.”
In July the Minnesota Department of Health released a report showing that suspect overdose deaths in the state rose by 10% between January and July from the same time in 2024, to a total of 474 in 2025 compared to 430 the year before. That bucks a trend Minnesota had been seeing, with overdose fatalities decreasing from 649 across that span in 2022.
Finstad attributed many of these overdose deaths to “cartel trafficking” and “fentanyl trafficking” going through what he called the “nonexistent border.”
Tariffs were another issue mentioned in the address. While Finstad praised Trump’s tariff actions for opening trade doors and “getting people to the table,” he admitted there has been some headaches that came with it.
“The six months of the tariff disruptions have been tough and there’s been a lot of uncertainties in the marketplace. I know you’ve all felt it in one way or another.”
A constituent later asked for what Trump was calling an “emergency” over, saying the president didn’t have the ability to declare an executive order without first declaring an emergency.
“Maybe ‘uncertainty’ wasn’t a strong enough word,” Finstad said, referencing his previous comment. “I don’t pretend to be a constitutional lawyer, but there are certain powers the executive branch always has and how they can or cannot describe something as an emergency is the debate that Congress has.”
The congressman addressed the 2018 farm bill, which just received another extension through September.
“The farm bill is a bill that, every five years, Congress revisits and what we have seen over the last three years is there’s been a lot of agreement in some areas and then a lot of headstrong, feet-in-the-sand opposition on a couple of key components on the farm bill.”
One of the issues with the bill he highlighted was its spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. According to Finstad, over the course of 10 years, the bill is a “$1.6 trillion bill” that spends “$1.2 trillion” on SNAP.
Those numbers come from a Congressional Budget Office baseline created for the bill in 2024, which shows that it could cost somewhere around $1.3 trillion over 10 years with $1.1 trillion being spent on SNAP.
“That has been the area that has prevented farm policy from moving forward because there’s been some heavy debate,” Finstad said.
Some of those issues were settled recently with the passing of the Trump administration’s mega-policy package, which Finstad referred to as the “Reconciliation Bill.” That bill cut about $30 billion from future SNAP funds beginning in 2027, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Following his address, Finstad fielded questions from the audience. One audience member, frustrated with their home insurance rates going up due to the effects of climate change, asked Finstad if he believed in the science of climate change.
“I believe in science; I’ve devoted my life to it,” Finstad said, referencing his family’s work owning a soil laboratory. In response to this question, the congressman also mentioned his letter to Canada inquiring about the recent wildfires that have moved smoke to Minnesota and caused a number of air quality alerts.
“When it comes to climate change practices, there are definitely things that we have to do better. … I got a little pushback because I sent a letter to Canada and I said, ‘Can you just explain what you’re doing? Because this is the third year of the summer of smoke in southern Minnesota,’” he said.
At the end of the event, Finstad directed anyone else with questions to send them to his staff.