Latest Releases
U.S. Senator Tina Smith Joins Senators Murphy, Coons, Merkley, 20 Colleagues Urging Biden Administration to Work with Israel to Take 5 Steps to Get More Humanitarian Aid Into Gaza
WASHINGTON– U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-MN) joined U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism, Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and 20 colleagues in a letter to President Biden urging the administration to encourage Israeli officials to take five specific steps to significantly increase urgently needed humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza. “The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is dire and the civilian suffering is at an unacceptable and staggering level. Ninety-three percent of Palestinians in Gaza are facing crisis levels of hunger. Eighty-five percent of the population is displaced. Seventy percent of those killed are women and children,” the senators wrote. “While the scale of the crisis is massive, the humanitarian assistance that is entering Gaza is just a fraction of what is needed to save lives. Since aid operations resumed on October 21, delivery of lifesaving assistance to Gaza continues to be hampered, despite no evidence of Hamas theft or diversion of humanitarian assistance provided via the United Nations or international non-governmental organizations (INGOs).” In order to significantly increase the amount of humanitarian aid entering Gaza, the senators recommended the administration work with Israeli officials to take five specific steps: “The largest daily amount of humanitarian aid entered Gaza on November 28th, during the seven-day humanitarian pause. Additional and longer humanitarian pauses are needed to enable a surge of assistance to enter Gaza and the safe movement of goods and people within Gaza. A humanitarian pause will
U.S. Senators Tina Smith, Cynthia Lummis Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Protect Prospective Homebuyers from Predatory Financing Agreements
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Tina Smith (D-MN) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) introduced the Preserving Pathways to Homeownership Act, bipartisan legislation to establish basic protections for consumers who seek to purchase a home using a land contract, or contract for deed. Land contracts are an alternative form of seller financing for real estate transactions, often marketed as a way for people who can’t get a conventional mortgage to realize the dream of owning a home. However, land contracts can lack many of the consumer protections available in mortgage lending: full disclosure of costs and fees, protections if a homeowner misses payments or falls on hard times, and protections in the case of fraud. Unscrupulous sellers have used these arrangements to take advantage of unsuspecting buyers. They design the land contract to fail and move to evict when the buyer inevitably breaches it. Buyers typically lose their home and everything they’ve invested in it, and the seller can repeat this process with other buyers. It is estimated that across the country, more than 8 million homes have been sold with land contracts, underscoring the widespread nature of this issue. “Without a safe, decent place to call home, nothing in your life works – not your job, your health, your education, or your family. It is appalling that some Minnesota families trying to pursue the dream of home ownership, who are struggling to receive traditional mortgages, whether due to their credit rating, or because the tenets of their faith preclude them from paying and profiting off
U.S. Sen. Tina Smith Says EPA Plan to Hide Which Refineries Are Allowed to Stop Blending Renewable Fuels Would Hurt Farmers, Rural Communities
WASHINGTON, D.C. [05/02/19]—U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-Minn.) said today the Trump Administration’s plan to go back on its promise to name which U.S. oil refineries are allowed to avoid requirements to blend renewable fuels into the nation’s fuel supply could ultimately contribute to job losses across rural America and strike another blow to the nation’s struggling farm economy. Sen. Smith, who has been an outspoken advocate to expand the use of renewable fuels, said hiding the identity of refineries that receive special Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) waivers to the nation’s biofuels laws will help big oil companies at the expense
U.S. Sens. Smith, Udall, Cortez Masto Reintroduce Legislation to Increase Access to Nutritious Meals for Native Students
WASHINGTON, D.C. [05/02/2019]—Today, U.S. Senators Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) reintroduced a bill to give Tribes the authority to directly provide Child Nutrition Programs. The legislation—the Tribal Nutrition Improvement Act of 2019—recognizes that Tribes understand the needs of their communities best, especially when it comes to ensuring children have consistent, healthy, and nutritious meals all year long. Limited access to affordable and nutritious food in Indian Country puts Native children at a high risk of hunger and nutrition-related diseases like diabetes and obesity. The Tribal Nutrition Improvement Act of 2019 would help reduce this risk by allowing federally recognized Tribes to directly administer programs like the National School Lunch Program,
U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips Introduce Legislation to Support Family Mental Health Services
WASHINGTON, D.C. [05/02/19]—U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-Minn.) and U.S. Representative Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) have teamed up to introduce companion bills that would update landmark legislation to prioritize making sure the child welfare system supports and connects families to needed mental health services. The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) was enacted 45 years ago and governs important child protection programs and services to prevent, assess, and identify child abuse and neglect—and it is the only federal program exclusively dedicated to these aims. Sen. Smith and Rep. Phillips’s bill—the Supporting Family Mental Health in CAPTA Act—would update CAPTA to improve
U.S. Sens. Tina Smith and Bill Cassidy Lead Bipartisan Push to Lower Wasteful Health Care Spending
WASHINGTON, D.C. [05/01/19]—Today, U.S. Senators Tina Smith (D-Minn.) and Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.) introduced bipartisan legislation to help develop innovative ways to reduce unnecessary administrative costs in health care spending. Estimates suggest that while administrative costs could account for over one quarter of total health care spending in the United States, much of it is not directly related to delivering patient care. Sens. Smith and Cassidy’s bill—the Reducing Administrative Costs and Burdens in Health Care Act, which was first introduced last Congress—would direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to take steps toward reducing unnecessary administrative costs across the
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