Al Franken

I rise today to speak about reopening the government. We are now 5 days into a government shutdown that should never have happened. Minnesotans do not want a government shutdown. They want us to do our jobs, not refight the same old…

I wish to talk a little bit about health reform. Soon over 1 million Minnesotans will have the opportunity to buy their health insurance on MNsure, Minnesota's health insurance marketplace. Minnesotans who buy their own insurance in the…

Thank you, Senator Lee, for those kind words, although there seemed to be a lot of violence in them.

I imagine that experience will make for a relatively smooth transition to the Tenth Circuit.

Access to justice is a critical issue, and some of the most gratifying cases that I have worked on are cases in which I represented people who did not have enough money to afford their own lawyer.

Welcome, Judge McHugh, and congratulations on your nomination.

Thank you, Judge McHugh. You are a great nominee, and you have, I think, the support of everyone here in this hearing.

I hope that we can act quickly and in a bipartisan manner to give them up-or-down votes.

College affordability has been a focus of mine since I got to the Senate.

I am a big fan of looking at 2-year colleges as a platform, a pathway, and not a ceiling.

Yes, I actually want to follow up. Thank you, by the way, Mr. Chairman, for inviting me to attend this hearing. It's a very important hearing. And I want to pick up where you were on dental care.

I would love to work with Senator Feinstein and, Mr. Litt, I would love if you would work with me to make sure we get the reporting requirements right as we move forward with the bill.

Native Americans volunteer for military service at a higher rate than any other ethnic group in the Country.

This is really a non-controversial piece of legislation.

I think that these programs protect our country and have saved lives.

I think we should create a strong permanent set of public reporting requirements that will empower the public to reach their own conclusions about the merits of these programs.

When we can't measure the true level of need, it is difficult to secure the resources to improve access to safe and affordable housing.

I think it is important for everyone to remember that homelessness in our tribal communities often doesn't look like homelessness in other parts of the Country.

I think that is bad for privacy and bad for democracy.

Thank you, Madam Chairwoman, for holding this hearing.

I rise today to discuss a problem I have spoken about many times over the past 3 years, beginning with debate on the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill. That bill, which Congress passed in July 2010, contained a provision I authored with…

I am glad the DOJ is going forward in pursuing this case, but as I said it is not enough. It is backward- looking and addresses past harms. My concern is that the conduct continues to this day. The credit raters are still influenced by the…

My Fair Generics Act would make the exclusivity privilege available to subsequent filers if the first filer bargained the privilege away in a pay-for-delay settlement.

The NLRB was created to protect Americans' rights under the National Labor Relations Act. However, Board vacancies are threatening the NLRB's ability to operate, which has had a real impact on the lives of workers and employers.

I'm proud to sponsor the Klobuchar-Grassley Preserve Access to Affordable Generics Act.