Tarryl Clark for Congress

Working for working families

• Creating scholarships to ensure families have access to early childhood education.
• Authoring legislation to create reasonable utility payment plans, to ensure low-income families and seniors have access to heat in the winter.
• Giving seniors the educational and protective tools to fairly examine reverse mortgages.
• Helping families stay in their homes through the Minnesota Subprime Borrower Relief Act.
• Authoring a bill to provide an income tax credit for adoption expenses.
• Returning money to middle-class taxpayers, co-authored a bill increasing the homeowners maximum allowable state property tax refund.
• Authoring legislation to expand the access to grants for higher education.
• Leading the charge to close the achievement gap in our state's schools, including ensuring children can read by the 3rd grade, and preparing students in science, math and technology to complete in the global workplace.
• Working to stabilize funding for our schools and relieving mandates to allow for more local control.

Supporting Minnesota’s veterans

• Co-Chairing the Warrior to Citizen statewide campaign, building reintegration programs for our returning soldiers in association with the National Guard's Yellow Ribbon efforts.
• Authoring legislation to allow teachers to earn the difference between their teacher’s salary and their military pay.
• Co-authoring a new law providing leaves of absence for family of service members seriously injured or killed, as well as income tax subtraction for military pensions.
• Expanding the GI Bill, co-authoring legislation to include access to graduate school and specify a minimum award.
• Co-authoring a law providing counseling services for returning soldiers.
• Authoring legislation allowing veterans to declare their veterans status on their driver’s license or state-issued ID.

Standing up for community needs

• Securing investments for Saint Cloud, including the Saint Cloud Civic Center, Saint Cloud Technical College, and facilities at Saint Cloud State University including the National Hockey Center.
• Ensuring safe roads and bridges, including securing funds to replace the DeSoto Bridge in Saint Cloud.
• Working to ensure MnDOT’s investments in road construction and repair are equitable across the state, especially in Central Minnesota.
• Authored the Central Minnesota bioscience initiative.
• Investing in community projects, including authoring the bill to purchase land for the Saint Cloud Airport and a bill to make Rockville Fire Hall construction materials tax exempt.
• Leading the charge for Northstar Commuter Rail, and advocating for its completion all the way to Saint Cloud.
• Securing the funding to acquire land for the Rocori Trail.
• Passed the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment to dedicate funds for clean water, fish, game & wildlife habitat, and cultural programs.

Ensuring Affordable Health Care

• Championing “Cover All Kids” to ensure all of Minnesota’s children have access to quality health care.
• Partnering with our Federal delegation to ensure Minnesota is not punished by the federal government and its Medicare reimbursement rates for providing high-quality care at a lower cost.
• Ensuring Central Minnesota's nursing homes are reimbursed at fair and equitable rates.
• Standing up for health care consumers, fighting for a "good faith" provision that allows patients recourse against their insurance companies if they are denied or if their insurer doesn't act on a claim.
• Ensuring quality health care in rural communities.
• Fighting to improve quality, affordability, and accessibility of health care in Minnesota by increasing transparency, reducing chronic conditions, paying for results and focusing on quality instead of quantity of procedures.

Consumer Protection

• Demanding accountability and transparency in government.
• Banning toxic BPA from children’s products.
• Responding to a constituent request, co-authored Justin's Law, tightening online prescription distribution.
• Co-authoring law providing a "cold weather rule" for public utilities.
• Authoring the Good Faith Bill, to ensure insurance customers get what they pay for.
• Protecting tax-exempt status for our state's non-profit community.

Protecting public safety

• Advocating for victims of domestic violence, leading efforts to make it easier for victims to break a lease and extending orders for protection language.
• Helping to create a Central Minnesota gang strike force.

Creating jobs

• Working with industry, Labor, and communities through partnerships and legislation to create 'vertical' construction and green jobs.
• Authoring and passing a bill to stimulate jobs through economic development, including workforce development programs; business, community, and rural economic development; and the Small Business Growth Acceleration Program, and entrepreneur and small business development grants.

Leading the way for Minnesota

• Recognized by the St. Cloud Times as one of the "10 most influential people of the decade."
• Recognized by the League of Minnesota Cities with its 2009 Legislator of Distinction award for supporting city-friendly legislation.
• Honored by Central Minnesota Habitat for Humanity for her contribution to Women Build 2008.
• Recognized by the Minnesota Association for Justice with the Richard E. Martin Legislative Achievement Award in 2007/08.
• Awarded Legislator of the Year by the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees in 2009.
• Earned 2009 "100% Minnesotan Award" from Conservation Minnesota for her work on land protection and renewable energy..
• Member of the bi-partisan Minnesota Legislative Sportsmen's Caucus.