Latest Releases
Bipartisan Momentum Builds for Warehouse Worker Protection Act
Washington (September 25, 2024) – U.S. Senator Tina Smith, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee, along with Senators Ed Markey (D-MA), Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Bob Casey (D-PA), applauded the bipartisan momentum behind the Warehouse Worker Protection Act, legislation that would protect warehouse workers by prohibiting dangerous work speed quotas that lead to high rates of worker injuries. The legislation as re-introduced includes new enforcement authority for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), as well as an exemption for small businesses. Senators Smith, Markey, and Casey, first introduced the Warehouse Worker Protection Act in May. “The Warehouse Worker Protection Act is about protecting the health and dignity of workers from the scourge of corporate greed at Amazon and other large companies,” said Senator Markey. “This movement is strong and growing, and we will not rest until warehouse workers know when they clock in that they will return home unharmed.” “Corporations too often prioritize profit over their workers’ safety and well-being, treating them like cogs in a machine. It has to stop. This legislation combats the warehouse industry’s worst practices while ensuring corporations do right by their employees in treating them with the dignity they deserve,” said Senator Hawley. “The momentum to protect workers is growing. These big companies hold a lot of power, they are literally controlling the lives of workers minute by minute with their productivity metrics and quotas,” said Senator Smith. “With this bill, we are saying, enough is enough. We’re putting accountability into this system and power back in the hands of workers
U.S. Senator Tina Smith Joins Colleagues to Introduce Resolution to Make Sure Every Woman Can Access Emergency Health Care
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-MN) joined her colleagues to introduce a resolution to ensure that every patient has the basic right to emergency health care, including abortion care, regardless of where they live. The introduction comes as new reporting from ProPublica states that Republican abortion bans are preventing women from receiving lifesaving emergency health care and resulting in preventable deaths. Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade over two years ago, nearly two dozen US states led by Republicans have banned or severely restricted access to abortion. These strict laws have created confusion around the treatment doctors can provide even when a pregnant patient’s life is in danger, as physicians fear that they may lose their medical license, be sued, or even charged with a felony if they perform life-saving emergency care. Despite the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act’s (EMTALA) requirements that Medicare-participating hospitals treat and stabilize pregnant patients in need of emergency medical care, women are being turned away from emergency rooms. “Patients will suffer while lawsuits and litigation move forward. There should be no legal question when medicine is clear: Abortion is health care,” said Senator Tina Smith. “Pregnant women deserve access to emergency medical care. Doctors should be free to provide that care without interference from right-wing, anti-choice politicians.” In Moyle v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court had the opportunity to reaffirm that federal law requires pregnant patients to have access to life-saving emergency care in every state, but instead, the Court dismissed the case and sent it back to the lower
U.S. Senators Tina Smith, Jerry Moran Push to Make Oral Cancer Medications as Affordable for Patients as Intravenous Chemotherapy
WASHINGTON, D.C. [10/27/21]— U.S. Senators Tina Smith (D-Minn) and Jerry Moran (R-Kans.) today introduced bipartisan legislation to ensure cancer patients who receive oral medications are not hit with thousands of dollars in unaffordable out-of-pocket costs that health plans routinely cover for patients receiving traditional IV chemotherapy treatments. Their Cancer Drug Parity Act responds to the recent improvements in cancer drugs delivered orally by preventing insurers from charging cancer patients higher copayments for those medications than they charge those receiving their chemotherapy medicine intravenously. Almost 2 million Americans are diagnosed with cancer each year. In 2017, one in eight patients who
U.S. Senator Tina Smith Leads Push To Ensure Historic Investment In Childcare, Universal Pre-K as Part of Build Back Better Budget
WASHINGTON, D.C. [10/25/21]— U.S. Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn) said today that after 18 months of a devastating pandemic, historic investments in childcare and universal pre-kindergarten education will be necessary to help working families – especially women – return to the workforce, a key element in getting businesses and the economy back on track. In a letter Friday, Sen. Smith led a group of 15 key Senators in pressing President Biden and Congressional leaders to include $450 billion in the Build Back Better budget package now being negotiated for both childcare and universal pre-k. “Our economy will not work, nor
U.S. Senator Tina Smith Backs Administration Decision to Complete Two Year Mining Safety Study, Which She’d Pushed For
MINNESOTA [10/20/21]— U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-Minn.) said today that she backs the decision by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Interior (DOI) to complete a two-year study that will determine the safety of copper-nickel mining in the watershed that feeds the world-renowned Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW), which is she pushed for earlier this year. The safety study was abruptly halted in 2018, without explanation. In March, Sen. Smith pushed U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to direct key agencies under their jurisdictions to finish the study. Sen. Smith released the following statement on
U.S. Senator Tina Smith to Vote No on Minneapolis Police Ballot Amendment
MINNESOTA [10/18/21]— U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-Minn.) today released the following statement on her decision to vote No on the Minneapolis police ballot amendment: “I will be voting no on Amendment #2 to the Minneapolis City Charter. Like many of my Minneapolis neighbors, I have wrestled with how to vote. My core value is to find the right path toward the transformational change we need in public safety, so that everyone is safe in their home and communities. We know this promise has not been realized for many black and brown communities, which have been traumatized by an epidemic of violence
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