Latest Releases
Minnesota Housing Organizations Celebrate Smith’s Bipartisan Rural Housing, Homelessness Bills Advancing in U.S. Senate
ST. PAUL, MN – Minnesota housing organizations from across the state are celebrating legislation by U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-MN), top Democrat on the Senate Housing Subcommittee, advancing to the Senate floor. Smith’s bills were included in the first comprehensive, national housing reform legislative package in over a decade, dubbed the ROAD to Housing Act of 2025, which passed the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee unanimously (24-0). “The lack of safe, decent, affordable housing in this country is a choice that we’re making, but with this new legislative package, we’re choosing a different path. For the first time in over a decade, this committee is taking bipartisan action to cut red tape, boost the supply of housing, lower housing costs, and improve how we tackle homelessness in ways that best work for individual communities,” said Senator Smith. “The biggest share of the average Minnesotan’s monthly budget is their rent or their mortgage. Taking action on the housing crisis is one of the best ways we can make life more affordable and better for families, because if you don’t have a safe, decent, affordable place to live, nothing else in your life works.” Smith’s legislation included: “We all need a safe, stable place to call home. The ROAD to Housing Act of 2025 brings together real, workable solutions that will help more families put down roots and thrive. From making it easier to build high-quality homes using modern methods like modular construction, to expanding access to small-dollar mortgages and
U.S. Senators Tina Smith, Todd Young Reintroduce Bipartisan Legislation to Help Farmers, Analyze Long-Term Soil Health
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Tina Smith (D-MN) and Todd Young (R-IN) reintroduced bipartisan legislation that will help bolster soil research and improve agricultural resilience and productivity in the Midwest and across the country. Experts estimate that American farmers could store up to 220 billion pounds of carbon annually across all US croplands. However, current technology cannot accurately measure soil carbon levels, impacting our ability to track soil health improvements, correlate those improvements with on-farm benefits, and reward farmers for their contributions to environmental health and resilience. “Farmers in Minnesota understand the importance of having reliably healthy, productive soil,” said Senator Smith. “This bipartisan legislation would help farmers by supporting a long-term research effort that deepens our understanding of soil carbon storage potential in agricultural land. These tools can help make our farms more resilient and give farmers access to realistic, impactful strategies for their operations. It’s a win for farmers today and the farmers of future generations.” “Hoosier farmers and producers feed our communities, drive our economy, and play a critical role in our supply chains. This legislation will equip and empower our agriculture sector to choose the best practices for their individual operations,” said Senator Young. The Advancing Research on Agricultural Soil Health Act will allow strategic investment in technologies to measure and monitor soil carbon. This information can improve our understanding of agriculture’s potential to store emitted carbon and empower farmers and ranchers to choose the best practices available to them. Specifically, The Advancing Research on Agricultural Soil Health Act would
U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar, Tina Smith Join Colleagues in Introducing Legislation to Double Pell Grant Amounts
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last week, U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith (both D-MN) joined their colleagues Senators Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), Patty Murray (D-WA), Jack Reed (D-RI), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) to introduce the Pell Grant Preservation and Expansion Act of 2024, legislation that would nearly double the Pell Grant maximum award. During the 1975-76 school year, the Pell Grant was enough to cover three-fourths of the average cost of attendance at a four-year public college. Today, a Pell Grant covers less than 30% of tuition, fees, and living expenses. The Pell Grant program is the cornerstone of federal financial aid for higher education, serving over 6 million undergraduate students. Representatives
U.S. Senator Tina Smith Unveils Legislation to Repeal the Comstock Act
WASHINGTON, D.C. [6/20/24] —Today, U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-Minn.) introduced a bill to repeal an arcane 1873 law, called the Comstock Act, that Republicans and anti-choice extremists want to misuse to ban abortion nationwide. Comstock has been cited recently by Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas in oral arguments during the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA and invoked in Project 2025 – broadly seen as a roadmap for a future Trump administration – as a way for an extremist, anti-choice administration to use unilateral executive action to effectively ban abortion nationwide. “The Comstock Act is a 150-year-old zombie law banning abortion that’s long been relegated to the dustbin of
U.S. Senator Tina Smith Celebrates 4th Year of Juneteenth Being Recognized as a Federal Holiday
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Tina Smith celebrated the fourth year that Juneteenth was officially recognized as a federal holiday in the United States. The annual holiday celebrates the date that news of emancipation of slaves in the South reached Galveston, Texas, two years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Senator Smith’s bill establishing the holiday was signed into law by President Biden in June, 2021. Smith helped introduced a bipartisan Senate resolution this week for the legislative body to commemorate the date. She celebrated Juneteenth in Minnesota at the Northside Juneteenth Festival Celebration on June 15th. “The end of slavery in this country is
U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar, Tina Smith, Minnesota Fire Chiefs Celebrate Passage of the Fire Grants and Safety Act
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Tina Smith (D-MN) issued the statements below after the Senate passed the Fire Grants and Safety Act, bipartisan legislation to continue providing federal funding for the Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) and the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Grant programs. This bill now goes to the President’s desk to be signed into law. The Assistance to Firefighters Grant program helps firefighters and other first responders obtain critically needed equipment, protective gear, emergency vehicles, training and other resources. The SAFER Grants program provides direct funding to fire departments and volunteer firefighter organizations to
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