Tina Smith

I take this work seriously, because I have heard time and again from tribal leaders who have been frustrated by policy decisions being made without Native voices at the table.

It is meaningful to convene this Committee hearing on the sovereign lands of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community and I thank the Tribe for their generosity in hosting us.

This place that is now called Minnesota is the ancestral home of the Dakota and Anishinaabe people, and other indigenous people, who have lived in and cared for this beautiful part of the world for millennia.

I think the opportunity with the Infrastructure and Jobs Act is significant.

I think a lot of times Federal agencies are trying to figure out how to implement something when Congress also has a job to do that it hasn't done.

Funding needs to be flexible.

I remember quite well, leaders, the many conversations we had between the CARES Act and the American Rescue Plan, which I think was an example of a significant improvement in terms of providing direct funding.

It is important to understand the government-to-government relationship between Minnesota tribes and the Federal Government.

This is a relationship based on the Constitution, the laws and treaties between the United States and sovereign tribal nations, and it is our responsibility to respect and recognize these treaty responsibilities.

This bill can be a turning point for how the Federal government partners with Tribal Nations.

I am committed to making sure these resources are equitably distributed and accessible to tribal nations.

I introduced legislation this week that will ensure that medication abortion is available in states where abortions will still be legal. This is something that`s going to be incredibly helpful to women and I think about my home state of…

It has been a long day. It`s been a devastating day. But I just am thinking about the women who showed up about at clinics in Texas and Mississippi and other states around this country, expecting to be able to exercise their freedom and…

we also the fight back at the ballot box, and hold these Republicans accountable who have fulfilled their dream of making abortion -- overturning Roe.

The Federal Indian boarding school policy created deep intergenerational harm to Native communities across the United States.

What we have in this country is a Republican Party that is hell-bent to tell women what it thinks they should be able to do with their own bodies.

When Roe is overturned by the Supreme Court and let’s be clear Roe is going to be overturned because of the result of a multi-decade strategy by Republicans and their dark money donors.

This decision by the United States Supreme Court is going to -- it is creating a crisis of health care for women.

I think that the filibuster is an archaic remnant of an old Senate that it is needs to be abolished and I think that we should get rid of the filibuster for voting rights, for abortion rights, for that the health of our democracy.

this is the first time that I can remember that we have seen the Supreme Court of the United States in my lifetime take away women`s rights, take away people`s rights and this is a sign I think of the great dysfunction in our democracy.

The accountability for that is going to rest with the Republican Party and those Republicans that have refused to stand up for women’s fundamental freedoms.

I ask unanimous consent that Melody Tan and Sarah Alexander--fellows in my office--be granted floor privileges for the remainder of the 117th Congress. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

I thank Senator Baldwin for her thoughtful remarks. Mr. President, I rise today in support of the Women's Health Protection Act, and I urge my colleagues to join us in standing up for fundamental rights to freedom, autonomy, and…

I understand that there is a bill at the desk, and I ask for its first reading. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will read the bill by title for the first time. The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows: A bill (S. 4164) to…

I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without…