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
Thune, Smith Introduce Bill to Ease Application Process for the Impact Aid Program During COVID-19 Pandemic
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Tina Smith (D-Minn.) today introduced the Impact Aid Coronavirus Relief Act, legislation that would allow school districts participating in the Impact Aid Program to use their student headcount from the 2020-2021 school year, which have already been calculated, on their Impact Aid applications for the 2021-2022 school year. School districts will begin to complete their Impact Aid applications for the 2021-2022 school year this fall, and this bill would ensure that schools do not need to recalculate federally connected students during the uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Impact Aid is a program that reimburses school
U.S. Senator Tina Smith, U.S. Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester Introduce Plan to Make Public Facility Infrastructure Better Prepared for Public Health Emergencies
WASHINGTON, D.C. [06/24/20]—As the country continues to confront the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-Minn.) and U.S. Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) introduced legislation to make public facilities both more energy efficient and better prepared for future public health emergencies. The Open Back Better Act would provide stimulus funding for energy efficiency and resiliency retrofit projects in schools, medical facilities, government buildings, education institutions, libraries, and more. Sen. Smith and Rep. Rochester said their legislation promotes environmental justice by prioritizing low-income, COVID-19 impacted communities. Funded energy efficiency and resiliency retrofits could include project components designed to improve safety and indoor air quality. This is particularly important for facilities re-opening before there is a vaccine for COVID-19. “Now, more than
U.S. Senator Tina Smith Leads Push on USDA to More Quickly Allocate COVID-19 Relief Funds to Bolster Rural Broadband Access
WASHINGTON, D.C. [06/23/20]—Today, U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-Minn.) led her Senate colleagues in calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to speed up spending the resources allocated within COVID-19 relief legislation to expand broadband access for Minnesota families and people across the country. In her letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue this week, Sen. Smith and her colleagues point out that Congress recognized the urgent need for broadband access in rural communities, and made sure the CARES Act included $100 million for the ReConnect Program. However, much of the allocated funds are still unspent. Sen. Smith’s letter was also signed by
Klobuchar, Smith Announce $1.25 Million for Public Transit Infrastructure Funding between St. Paul and White Bear Lake
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith announced that the Department of Transportation (DOT) has awarded the Metropolitan Council and Metro Transit $1,250,000 for public transit infrastructure to support development along the 15-mile Rush Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project, a future 15-mile transit route with 21 stations between Union Depot in Lowertown Saint Paul and downtown White Bear Lake that is anticipated to begin service in 2026. The funds will be used to plan with communities for future development along the route. “This investment will support development along the Rush Line, create good-paying jobs, and spur additional investments
English