Latest Releases
Klobuchar, Smith Secure Funding for Mental Health Services in Detroit Lakes
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Tina Smith (D-MN) announced that they secured $75,000 in funding in the Fiscal Year 2024 federal budget to support mental health services in Detroit Lakes. The funding will provide A Place to Belong with resources for outreach and recruitment of persons with mental illness. A Place to Belong is a social club for adults who are diagnosed with a serious mental illness. “We need to make mental health care more accessible, especially in rural communities,” said Klobuchar. “With this funding, A Place to Belong will have additional resources to ensure local residents who are experiencing a mental illness can get the care they need.” “A Place to Belong helps create a community for people tackling serious mental illness, things like peer support and shared meals,” said Smith. “Everyone should feel like they have a place to belong, and I’m proud to have brought necessary resources to support that work.” Klobuchar and Smith have been actively involved in securing this federal funding for projects benefiting communities across the state through a process called “Congressionally Directed Spending” (CDS). During the CDS process, Klobuchar and Smith have considered project proposals and advocated for funding in close coordination with leaders from across the state. Projects are expected to receive funding over the next several months. ###
Klobuchar, Smith Secure Funding for Infrastructure Project in Harris
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Tina Smith (D-MN) announced that they secured $1,574,000 in funding in the Fiscal Year 2024 federal budget for a project to extend municipal sewer and water services in Harris. Klobuchar and Smith requested the funding along with U.S. Representative Pete Stauber (R-MN). “The City of Harris has been attracting new businesses, but the water and sewer service lines need to be expanded to accommodate the growing demand,” said Klobuchar. “With the federal funding we secured, Harris will be able to upgrade this important infrastructure.” “Minnesotans deserve to have safe, clean water,” said Smith. “The City of Harris is no exception, and this investment will update the city’s water and wastewater infrastructure system, directly impacting all of its residents.” Klobuchar and Smith have been actively involved in securing this federal funding for projects benefiting communities across the state through a process called “Congressionally Directed Spending” (CDS). During the CDS process, Klobuchar and Smith have considered project proposals and advocated for funding in close coordination with leaders from across the state. Projects are expected to receive funding over the next several months. ###
U.S. Senator Tina Smith, U.S. Representative Lauren Underwood Introduce Bill to Bolster Vaccination Efforts and Keep Families Healthy
WASHINGTON, D.C. [2/11/21]—U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-Minn.) and U.S. Representative Lauren Underwood (D-IL 14) recently introduced their Community Immunity During COVID-19 Act, which would support local efforts to boost routine vaccinations, and ensure that immunization providers and local organizations can lead community-specific initiatives to reach all community members, particularly underserved populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. “As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, we can’t afford to fall behind on routine vaccinations and risk losing progress in preventing once-common diseases, like measles,” said Senator Smith. “This is especially important for children, who are recommended to get pediatric vaccinations at certain stages in their development. In my home state
U.S. Senator Tina Smith Lauds White House for Heeding Her Push for COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force
WASHINGTON, D.C. [2/11/21]—Today, U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-Minn.) said the Biden-Harris Administration’s recent announcement of the COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force is welcome news, since she helped introduce legislation last Congress—the COVID-19 Racial and Ethnic Disparities Task Force Act of 2020—to do just that. Sen. Smith is also pleased to see that Mary Turner of Plymouth, Minn., the current President of the Minnesota Nurses Association, has been named to the task force. “We know that COVID-19 has not been the great equalizer—it has laid bare the inequities in our country, and it has hit hardest our elders, frontline workers, and
U.S. Senator Tina Smith to Nation’s Rural Health Care Leaders: COVID-19 Has Hit Rural America Hard
WASHINGTON, D.C. [02/10/21]—Today, U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-Minn.), a member of the Senate Health Committee, told rural health leaders from across the country that the COVID-19 pandemic has created a devastating crisis in rural health care delivery, and has exacerbated the already-steep challenges that have plagued rural providers in Minnesota and across the country for years. Sen. Smith, in her virtual remarks to the Rural Health Policy Institute on Wednesday, said the pandemic has increased costs and decreased revenues for rural health providers, who also have struggled to get the ventilators and protective equipment needed to treat an influx of
U.S. Senator Tina Smith Teams up with Senate Colleagues to Introduce Justice for Black Farmers Act
WASHINGTON, D.C. [2/10/21]—This week, Senate Agriculture Committee member U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-Minn.)—along with Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)—introduced landmark legislation aimed at addressing and correcting historic discrimination within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in federal farm assistance and lending that has caused Black farmers to lose millions of acres of farmland, and has robbed these farmers and their families of the hundreds of billions of dollars of inter-generational wealth that land represented. Just over 100 years ago, there were nearly 1 million Black farmers
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