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
Klobuchar, Smith Secure $180,000 in Funding for Animal Disease Preparedness and Response
WASHINGTON –U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith announced that they have secured $180,000 in grant funding from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for disease preparedness and response activities in Minnesota. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture will receive $133,000 and the University of Minnesota will receive $47,000. “This critical funding will ensure that the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and University of Minnesota will be able to continue their work researching and protecting U.S. animal health,” Klobuchar said. “Animal disease preparedness is an important part of ensuring that Minnesota’s farmers and ranchers can respond quickly to a potential disease outbreak. This
U.S. Senators Klobuchar, Smith Help Introduce Legislation to Protect Community Television
WASHINGTON, D.C. [01/23/20]—This week, U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith (D-Minn.) helped introduce the Protecting Community Television Act, which would ensure that community television operations continue to receive the resources they need to educate and inform viewers in the cities and towns where they operate. Currently, local governments are permitted to require—as part of cable franchise agreements—that cable companies meet demonstrated community needs by providing in-kind contributions that benefit schools, public safety buildings, as well as public, educational, and government (PEG) channels, also known as community television stations. However, last year the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to permit cable
Klobuchar, Smith, Hagedorn Announce $1 Million for Infrastructure Improvements in Winona
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith along with Representative Jim Hagedorn (MN-1) announced that the Department of Transportation (DOT) has awarded the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) $1,000,000 in grant funding to improve infrastructure in Winona. The award will allow MnDOT to complete a project on Broadway Street, including reducing the roadway from four lanes to three lanes over 1.9 miles and adding sidewalks and pedestrian ramps to improve safety. “This funding will help pave the way for improvements in Winona’s infrastructure and make our roads and pedestrian byways safer,” Klobuchar said. “I am pleased that we were able to secure
U.S. Senator Tina Smith Helps Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Strengthen Chronic Disease Management Effort
WASHINGTON, D.C. [01/16/20]—U.S. Senator Tina Smith helped introduce bipartisan legislation—led by Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Tom Carper (D-Del.)—to lower health care costs by allowing high-deductible health plans to provide chronic disease prevention services—including insulin for diabetes—to plan enrollees before they reach their plan deductible. The Chronic Disease Management Act builds on legislation introduced last year, and it follows updated guidance issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury last summer. In July of last year, the Internal Revenue Service issued a notice expanding its interpretation of what constitutes preventive care to include certain items and services that are prescribed to someone with certain
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