Al Franken

I think the value index within the Affordable Care Act is an incredibly important piece of this legislation.

That is what this is all about. That is prevention and that is just smart.

We need to do more to encourage that and to exemplify companies like that.

The Healthy Families Act only says 7 days, 7 days, of paid sick leave a year.

I think we can learn from our competitors, and we have to remember that the competitive edge is about not just businesses, it is about making sure that our children can compete and can thrive in the world ahead.

Yesterday our colleagues on the other side of the aisle stopped the Senate from reducing the enormous burden of debt that students take on. At a time when college is more expensive than ever, this body's inaction will increase each…

I was interested in the statistics about paid family leave. That we are one of just a few countries, the others are Swaziland, and Papua New Guinea that I can find.

I think it would, at least, begin to move us in the right direction.

Here we are, a House of Congress having a hearing on a subject that unquestionably impacts women disproportionately, and our witnesses are actually women.

A real testament to what everyone in that family became--a productive member of society, and it was all because of government programs.

Minnesota is one of those States with the highest patent-intensive employment in the country.

We need to be doing everything we can to stop this, and I am pleased at your efforts to increase prosecution of these crimes.

We just passed the deadline for students to decide where they are going to college this fall. This is one of the biggest financial decisions students will ever make. Nationally, student loan debt is over $1 trillion. It is higher than…

I remain convinced that this is a serious problem and think we need to be doing as much as possible to encourage companies to be aggressive about monitoring their systems to stop this type of theft.

When my wife Frannie and I decided that I should run for the Senate, we were greatly influenced by the example set by Senator Paul Wellstone and his wife Sheila. The Wellstone example serves as a constant reminder of what public service is…

The two bills here in the Senate present very serious threats to our privacy and civil liberties.

I would also like to thank Senator Al Franken for working with me on the put-back risk provision of the discussion draft.

Today I would like to discuss my strong opposition to the resolution before us, the resolution disapproving of the National Labor Relations Board's final rule governing election procedures. This rule seeks to modernize and streamline a…

I just think we need to get the legislation right such that the bill does not unnecessarily sacrifice civil liberties.

If we changed that legislatively, it could make sense, because Senator Isakson was talking about the input of the industry.

Weatherization has a lot of positive impacts, it reduces energy costs, protects the environment and reduces demand on power generation.

There were 4,340 workplace deaths in 2010. That is 4,340 too many.

I just feel that it's our responsibility here in the Senate to be addressing this and addressing it head on.

Gladys Mensing lives in Owatonna, MN. She loves being around people. That is a good thing when one has a family as big as Gladys does. She is the loving mother of 8 children, with 15 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. Gladys, as I…

I believe that we can do better, and today we should be serious about trying to figure out how to do that.