Al Franken's Blog, page 28
June 27, 2015
Marriage Equality is Here For Good
In its historic decision in Obergefell vs. Hodges, the Supreme Court has finally made marriage equality the law of the land. All 50 states are now required to issue marriage license to same-sex couples — and all 50 states must recognize those marriages.
It’s been a long road to get here. When I first ran for Senate back in 2007, I was one of the few candidates talking about marriage equality. After all, marrying my wife Franni was the best thing that ever happened to me. Why shouldn’t same-sex couples have that same experience?
Seemed like common sense. But back then, only one state allowed same-sex couples to marry.
The momentum for marriage equality picked up pretty fast over the last few years. More and more Americans declared their support for marriage equality. More and more states started embracing it.
Minnesota became the 12th state to allow same-sex couples to marry in 2012.
This is a historic moment. From this day forward, same-sex couples in America won’t have to worry about if they can marry the person they love. They don’t have to feel like their love — or their families — are lesser than others. As Justice Kennedy wrote in his opinion for the Supreme Court in Obergefell:
“As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”
There is still work to do to achieve full equality for our LGBT friends and family members. We have to put an end to bullying of LGBT students in schools. We have to stop discrimination of LGBT individuals in the workplace.
But this is a monumental step forward in the road to equality — and for now, we can spare a little time to celebrate.
– Al
The post Marriage Equality is Here For Good appeared first on U.S. Senator Al Franken, Minnesota -- Official Campaign Website.
June 25, 2015
CNBC: America’s Top States for Business 2015
We score all 50 states on more than 60 measures of competitiveness, developed with input from a broad and diverse array of business and policy experts, official government sources, the CNBC Global CFO Council and the states themselves. States receive points based on their rankings in each metric. Then we separate those metrics into 10 broad categories, weighted based on how frequently each is used as a selling point in state economic development marketing materials. That way, our study ranks the states based on the criteria they use to sell themselves. This year some states were tied. Learn more about our categories and methodology.
The post CNBC: America’s Top States for Business 2015 appeared first on U.S. Senator Al Franken, Minnesota -- Official Campaign Website.
June 24, 2015
WATCH: Al Franken on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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The post WATCH: Al Franken on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart appeared first on U.S. Senator Al Franken, Minnesota -- Official Campaign Website.
Post-Bulletin- Our View: Expand mental health referrals in schools
Mental health is one of those topics that doesn’t come up much in conversation, undoubtedly because it’s an awkward subject and because most of us don’t realize how pervasive it is.
Sen. Al Franken would like to change that. Minnesota’s junior senator has made improving access to mental health services a cornerstone of his political career, advocating the Wellstone-Domenici Mental Health Parity Act, which requires group insurance plans to cover mental health and substance abuse services at the same level as medical and surgical benefits. Earlier this year, he introduced a bill to improve access to mental health services for people in the criminal justice system.
Last week, Franken reintroduced The Mental Health in Schools Act, which would expand access to mental health services in schools throughout Minnesota and the rest of the nation. Franken said 1 in 5 youth suffer from mental illness during their formative years, and 70 percent of those children don’t receive counseling.
The post Post-Bulletin- Our View: Expand mental health referrals in schools appeared first on U.S. Senator Al Franken, Minnesota -- Official Campaign Website.
June 21, 2015
Winona Daily News – U.S. Sen. Al Franken: Making rail safety a top priority in Winona and Minnesota
Minnesotans have always known how important safe, reliable rail service is to our state’s economy. Farmers and businesses have come to depend upon rail as an indispensable method of moving Minnesota products across the state and to markets around the world.
But in recent years, the large railroad companies have quickly ramped up the number of rail cars carrying highly volatile and flammable Bakken crude oil from North Dakota through Minnesota to refineries in other states.
While this change has meant more profits for the railroads, it’s also taken up room on trains normally used by our agriculture shippers, and it’s forced temporary shutdowns at Minnesota coal-fired power plants when backlogged rail service left utilities unable to replenish coal stockpiles.
The post Winona Daily News – U.S. Sen. Al Franken: Making rail safety a top priority in Winona and Minnesota appeared first on U.S. Senator Al Franken, Minnesota -- Official Campaign Website.
June 14, 2015
The Hill: Lawmakers press Supreme Court for live audio of upcoming decisions
More than a dozen members of Congress are pressing the Supreme Court to provide live audio of its upcoming decisions on gay marriage and ObamaCare.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), along with 15 Democrats, lamented that the Supreme Court “remains almost completely closed from the public eye.”
“We look forward to a debate about the merits of permitting cameras in the court. In the meantime, the court should immediately permit live audio broadcasts of its proceedings,” the group wrote in a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts sent Wednesday.
They said the court has proven it has the capability and pressed the justices to let the public “hear in real time the arguments and opinions that will shape our society for years to come.”
The post The Hill: Lawmakers press Supreme Court for live audio of upcoming decisions appeared first on U.S. Senator Al Franken, Minnesota -- Official Campaign Website.
June 13, 2015
WCCO: Sen. Franken Speaks Out Against Payday Loans In St. Paul
Efforts are under way to crack down on the types of loans that offer quick cash, but exorbitant interest rates.
Sen. Al Franken, D-Minnesota, spoke out against “payday” loans and other high-interest loans Saturday. The senator was in St. Paul to meet with financial advocates.
Read the full article and watch the video>>
The post WCCO: Sen. Franken Speaks Out Against Payday Loans In St. Paul appeared first on U.S. Senator Al Franken, Minnesota -- Official Campaign Website.
Star Tribune: Minnesota military families honored, soldiers welcomed home in two ceremonies
Jesse Pope’s first day back in Blaine last month after a year deployed with the Minnesota National Guard in Kuwait was certainly emotional. But each day since he’s been home has also presented its share of charged moments.
Sitting in his old spot on the couch. Opening a beer. Driving up his driveway again.
“Watching ‘Game of Thrones,’?” adds his wife, Shannon, laughing.
“When you first experience [those things] again, they’re very powerful,” Jesse Pope said Saturday before a homecoming ceremony in Anoka for nearly 200 Minnesota National Guard soldiers and their families.
Military personnel and their families filled an auditorium to welcome back the 34th Combat Aviation Brigade’s Headquarters Company and the 2nd Battalion, 147th Assault Helicopter Battalion from respective yearlong missions in Iraq and Kuwait that changed in scope as the United States’ conflict with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant escalated.
The post Star Tribune: Minnesota military families honored, soldiers welcomed home in two ceremonies appeared first on U.S. Senator Al Franken, Minnesota -- Official Campaign Website.
June 7, 2015
Think Progress: How Five Decades Of Legal Birth Control Have Changed Americans’ Lives
In 1961, Estelle Griswold opened a Planned Parenthood clinic in Connecticut with the explicit intention of getting arrested. Griswold was handing out prescriptions for birth control in the hopes of challenging a state law dating back to 1879 that criminalized the use of contraception.
It worked: Griswold was convicted for disseminating information about birth control to married couples. She appealed her case all the way up to the Supreme Court — which ultimately decided, exactly five decades ago, that state-level bans on birth control violate married couple’s right to privacy. (The Court has since expanded the right to use contraception to unmarried couples, too.)
For women’s health advocates, Griswold v. Connecticut represents a landmark case that helped establish lasting legal precedent about privacy and reproductive health. And the decision’s 50th anniversary on Sunday serves as a reminder of all the ways in which legal contraception has changed Americans’ lives.
The post Think Progress: How Five Decades Of Legal Birth Control Have Changed Americans’ Lives appeared first on U.S. Senator Al Franken, Minnesota -- Official Campaign Website.
June 5, 2015
The Hill: Senate Dems fight to keep affordable housing fund alive
More than 30 Senate Democrats are calling on appropriators to preserve a trust fund that provides affordable housing to extremely low-income households.
Next week, the House is expected to hold a final vote on a fiscal 2016 bill funding transportation and housing programs that would essentially eliminate funding for the Housing Trust Fund.
“We are writing to express our strong support for both the National Housing Trust Fund and the HOME Investments Partnerships Program and urge you to reject any effort to reduce, divert, or eliminate funding from either program,” the Democrats wrote in a letter to the leaders of the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Senate’s version of the spending bill, which has not yet been released.
The post The Hill: Senate Dems fight to keep affordable housing fund alive appeared first on U.S. Senator Al Franken, Minnesota -- Official Campaign Website.
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