Al Franken

How can this possibly be acceptable?

It is an honor to be here today, and I thank you for holding this hearing on such a critical and timely topic for our nation and particularly Minnesotans.

Shouldn't everyone have access to dental care?

Those are the people who would most benefit from a mid-level dental provider.

We need to ensure that dental health care is accessible.

I think that I would argue the most substandard is offering no care at all.

This year alone, there will be 70 additional dentists providing care in tribal areas.

I want to make sure that kids in Indian Country don't have rotting teeth. That is my responsibility.

We are talking today about teeth rotting in the mouth of children because of a lack of dental care.

I think we are all entitled to our opinions. But we arrive at opinions by looking at facts, and facts come from studies, not summaries and memoranda.

We are essentially sending kids who are in possession of drugs and sending them to crime school.

We have 5 percent of the world's population and 25 percent of the world's prisoners.

These are special courts for nonviolent drug offenders that steer them toward rehabilitation and treatment.

I think it is important for people to realize that this is pro-law enforcement rape kit management.

Today we have a chance to extend the same commonsense protections to every American and to every American worker by passing ENDA.

I remember, until 1967, it was illegal in a number of States in this country for interracial couples to get married.

I've seen a change in attitude--for example, in our military.

We've got 29 States in which you can be fired for, not just being gay or transgender, but for them suspecting that you are.

Once you lay out these principles--that it's not lawful to be prejudiced, to discriminate against people who are gay and transgender and lesbian and bisexual--it changes things.

In a way, what we're doing, by not letting people be themselves in the workplace, is suppressing productivity.

It seems like not having ENDA means that people aren't able to bring their full selves to work.

It's perfectly legal to fire somebody because they're gay or because they're suspected to be gay.

In 30 years, this isn't going to be an issue.

I hope that my future grandkids will only read about when it was legal to fire someone because they're gay or transgender.

I don't think that it's wrong to try to do both things at the same time which is make sure that people get covered.