Latest Releases
U.S. Senator Tina Smith Presses Multi-Billion Dollar Corporation on Predatory Practices That Are Pricing Out Lake Elmo, Minnesota Residents
MINNEAPOLIS, MN – Today, U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-MN), Chair of the Senate Housing Subcommittee, sent a letter to the Chief Executive Officer of Equity LifeStyle Properties (ELP), an Illinois-based corporation, expressing deep concern over the company’s mistreatment of residents in Lake Elmo, Minnesota. Her letter comes following extensive reporting that residents of Cimarron Park, which is owned by ELP, are being priced out by egregious rent increases, dealing with hostile management and suffering under unfair rules that make selling or moving into a new home more difficult. “This corporation’s well-documented practices of hiking rents and making it more difficult to find other housing options only serves to boost shareholder profits while hanging Minnesotans out to dry,” said Senator Smith. “Residents have been pleading for help for nearly four years, and Equity LifeStyle Properties has failed to show they are even listening to concerns. I want them to meaningfully engage with residents instead of putting their shareholders ahead of hardworking Minnesotans.” Cimarron Park is home to roughly 500 Minnesota families. Their conflict with ELP was first reported by WCCO News in December 2020, when residents decried a rent increase at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since that initial report, residents said the situation had only worsened, with the Minnesota Star Tribune reporting declining services and poor management earlier this year. Most recently, residents reported unfair rules that make selling or moving into a new home unnecessarily expensive, trapping households into a cycle of ever-increasing rent, now totaling a 30% increase over the last five years. Equity LifeStyle Properties owns roughly 72,0000 homes and operates
U.S. Senators Tina Smith, Amy Klobuchar Press Postmaster General Louis DeJoy About Minnesota Mail Delays
MINNEAPOLIS, MN – Today, U.S. Senators Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar (both D-MN) sent a letter pressing Postmaster General Louis DeJoy for answers on recent mail delays across Minnesota, particularly in the Rochester area. The follow-up comes after both Senators led the entire Minnesota and North Dakota Congressional delegations in a bipartisan letter pressing the Postmaster General to improve service following an Inspector General report. That report found nearly 130,858 missing or delayed pieces of mail at six post offices over the course of only two days. “Letter carriers, especially in rural areas, work extremely hard to make deliveries on time, especially around the holidays. But without support from district management and the Postmaster General in Washington, their jobs go from difficult to nearly impossible,” said Senator Smith. “These new reports only confirm what we’ve already been hearing, which is that USPS leadership is not doing enough to support their workers and deliver mail on time. The Postmaster General needs to take accountability for service issues and do something about it.” “Minnesotans rely on the Postal Service to deliver their prescriptions, Social Security checks, and more, and they need and deserve timely service,” said Senator Klobuchar. “We have heard reports of mail being delayed for four days or more in Rochester. That’s why Sen. Smith and I are calling on Postmaster General Dejoy to address these issues, ensuring that Rochester and the rest of Minnesota’s residents receive reliable service.” You can read the full letter to the Postmaster General here. Senators Smith and Klobuchar requested the audit of the Minnesota-North
Senator Smith, Colleagues Introduce Legislation to Help Make College Textbooks More Affordable
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senators Tina Smith (D-MN), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Angus King (I-ME), and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), along with U.S. Representative Joe Neguse (D-CO-02) introduced bicameral legislation designed to help students manage costs by making high quality textbooks easily accessible to students, professors, and the public for free. The Affordable College Textbook Act would authorize a competitive grant program to support the creation of and expansion of open college textbooks—textbooks that are available under an open license, allowing professors, students, researchers, and others to freely access the materials. “Textbooks are a key part of a college education – but for
Senators Smith, Young Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Support Farmers, Conservation
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) re-introduced legislationto support farmers seeking to adopt conservation and innovative climate practices on their farms. The Conservation and Innovative Climate Partnership Act would bridge the divide between the innovative research taking place at land-grant universities and those who farm for a living by helping family farms adopt climate friendly strategies like planting cover crops and using no-till practices. “Strong farm programs that encourage sustainable conservation and climate practices help farmers maintain productive operations for generations to come,” said Senator Smith. “They also help us reduce greenhouse
Sen. Smith Leads Bipartisan Legislation to Safeguard American Food Exports and Protect Farmers
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Tina Smith (D-MN), Mike Braun (R-IN), Roger Wicker (R-MS), and Chris Coons (D-DE), introduced bipartisan legislation to protect farmers in the event of animal disease outbreaks. The Safe American Food Exports (SAFE) Act would give the USDA clear authority to preemptively negotiate regionalization agreements for known animal disease threats, ultimately preventing unsafe agriculture exports from getting shipped around the globe and keeping trading markets open for American farmers with disease-free livestock. “I hear from Minnesota farmers all the time about the toll avian flu outbreaks have on families and the economy. Animal disease outbreaks can unnecessarily disrupt trade
Senator Smith, Colleagues Call on Fed to Strengthen Rules for Banks with Assets Over $100 Billion
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Angus King (I-Maine), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) wrote the Vice Chair for Supervision of the Federal Reserve (Fed) Michael Barr, calling on him to exercise the Fed’s authority to apply stronger regulation and supervision to banks with assets totaling $100 to $250 billion. “The fall of both SVB and Signature, the near-crash of First Republic, and the struggles of other regional banks shed new
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