Al Franken

I just want to do one thing in terms of responding to Senator Grassley, who is a friend. We enjoy a very good relationship on the Judiciary Committee, and we are just friends. But the idea that these new provisions in the VAWA bill are…

To me, this just makes sense, this piece of legislation and it seems absurd to me that we are letting this money be unobligated.

In the meantime, we are seeing economic development for stalled.

So, under this level of funding, it is not going to get done by 2063. It will just never get done.

The taxpayers are losing money on this.

I mean, what this does is just actually increase the cost of the projects, does it not?

This is not a new project, and this is a project that has bipartisan support.

These are not new projects. In other words, I support this legislation, and I would just say to the ranking--or not the ranking member, but Senator Barrasso, that these aren't new projects.

These are local communities who cannot run a deficit. These are local communities that are seeing economic development not happen, that would have otherwise happened.

Yes and Minnesota has not gotten a drop of water from it, and these communities have paid 100 percent of their share.

These communities are losing economic development projects. They are losing--you know, we lost an ethanol plant in, the expansion of a pork processing plant in Worthington.

I rise today to talk about our Nation's defenses against cyber attacks, and I wish to commend the Senator from Maine for her leadership. She is the ranking member, of course, on the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs…

``The Dark Side of Death'' by Tom Davis. The good news: my chemotherapy is working and I'm still buying green bananas. I've lost about 50 pounds. (I need to lose 49.) . . . False hope is my enemy, also self pity, which went out the window…

I rise today to talk about loss. I know I speak for all Minnesotans when I say how shocked and saddened we have been by the loss of life in Colorado. Our hearts go out to the families and friends of those who died, and to those who were…

I wish to thank the Senator from North Dakota, Mr. Hoeven, for his courtesy of allowing me to speak now so that I may take the Chair and listen to his speech. I rise today to urge my colleagues to support our economic recovery, endorse…

Obviously, what I'm saying here is the reason that our kids should be getting this high quality childcare is for their intellectual development, for their readiness to go to kindergarten so that they can become productive citizens.

Again, we've all agreed that early childhood care is crucial to kids' intellectual development and readiness to learn.

I think that our Nation's future is very much tied up--I think it's obvious--is tied up with this issue of access to quality childcare.

The legalization of Internet gaming is controversial in and of itself for many reasons.

Gaming has been an incredibly powerful economic development tool for Tribes.

Any changes to current gaming laws must take into account the special place that Tribes hold in the gaming industry.

Without the revenue and opportunities that Indian gaming provides, none of this would be possible.

It has strengthened Tribal sovereignty and allowed Tribes to take hold of their own future.

People think of facial recognition as something out of a science fiction novel. In reality, facial recognition technology is in broad use today.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.