 Senator Al Franken was recently named chairman of the Energy Subcommittee of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. He plans to use the position to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency. Together with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat from New Hampshire, Senator Franken urged his colleagues to take the scientific evidence of global climate change seriously and to develop and pass legislation which will slow and reverse it
"In a time when Americans are dealing with record droughts and devastating hurricanes, the Senate cannot afford to simply ignore climate change. We need to talk about it, just as Democratic and Republican leaders outside of Washington are talking about it. And ultimately we have to come together to start addressing climate change before its damage and cost to society get out of control."
Read Senator Franken's full speech.
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 If you’re reading this email on a smartphone, GPS technology can pinpoint your current location within 10 meters. Someone with that kind of location information doesn’t just know where you live. They know where you go to church and where you drop your kids off at school, the roads you take to work, and the doctors you visit.
So, this is pretty sensitive information. But the companies that collect it don’t protect it the way they should. Many applications that collect location information give that information to third parties without users’ knowledge.
He wants to make sure that, if a company is going to collect information about your location -- and especially if they’re going to share it with a third party -- it gets your permission first.And he definitely wants to stop companies from developing applications that are specifically designed to help abusers stalk their victims. Yes. Those exist.He's working with groups that protect victims of domestic abuse -- as well as people on both sides of the aisle -- on this important effort.Now he needs your help. If we’re going to get this done, Washington needs to hear from you. Will you join his fight to protect location privacy by clicking here?
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In December, Senator Al Franken and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) explained to their colleagues how the oil and coal industries have funded scientists who spread misinformation and doubt on climate change through conservative foundations. In fact, these scientists are often the same ones that were paid by the tobacco industry to deny that smoking causes cancer. In their engaging hour long discussion, they laid out the preponderance of evidence showing climate change is real and indicated that 97% of scientists who have published peer reviewed articles on climate change as well as the National Academy of Sciences agree that it is urgent that we take steps to reduce the amount of CO2 produced by fossil fuels.
Senator Franken talked about the effect of climate change on the forests and fields of the plains, while Senator Whitehouse spoke of the acidification that the warming of the ocean has caused. They ended their colloquy by speaking about the innovation and clean energy progress in their respective states. Senator Franken told of the progress Minnesota's utility companies have made in increasing clean energy in Minnesota, of the first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant being built in Minnesota, of St. Paul's downtown centrally heated with woody biomass, and of the Sage Electrochromics plant that manufactures windows with a photovoltaic cell that blocks out all UV during the summer and lets in all the light in winter. Senator Whitehouse spoke of the offshore wind energy under planning in Rhode Island and of the jet fuel being manufactured from algae.
Senator Franken concluded by stating, "Climate change is real, and failure to address it is bad for our standing in the global economy, bad for the Federal budget, and bad for our national security. We can do better than that for our children and our grandchildren and posterity."
Watch their informative discussion or read Executive Director of Fresh Energy Michael Noble's summary of the colloquy.
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Al Franken was one of 13 Senators who voted against the National Defense Authorization Act. 86 Senators voted for the bill. In an article explaining his vote, Senator Franken stated,
"With this defense authorization act, Congress will, for the first time in 60 years, authorize the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens without charge or trial, according to its advocates. This would be the first time that Congress has deviated from President Nixon's Non-Detention Act. And what we are talking about here is that Americans could be subjected to life imprisonment without ever being charged, tried, or convicted of a crime, without ever having an opportunity to prove their innocence to a judge or a jury of their peers. And without the government ever having to prove their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
I think that denigrates the very foundations of this country. It denigrates the Bill of Rights. It denigrates what our Founders intended when they created a civilian, non-military justice system for trying and punishing people for crimes committed on U.S. soil."
The National Defense Authorization Act was passed on the anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights. Senator Franken concludes, "This wasn't the way to mark its birthday." Read his article.
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U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) has introduced the Prescription Drug and Health Improvement Act to cut prescription drug costs for seniors in Minnesota and across the country by allowing the federal government to negotiate lower prices for Medicare beneficiaries.
Last year, Medicare spent $68 billion on the Part D drug program, and Sen. Franken’s bill could save up to $24 billion annually. The legislation would allow Medicare to adopt negotiating tactics used by other federal agencies, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, where a recent study found that the agency was able to get the 10 most prescribed drugs at costs nearly 50 percent less than Medicare. See article.
Last Updated on Monday, 29 August 2011 12:23
Senator Franken Calls for Immediate Passage of Health Care Reform
After meeting with Minnesotans in St. Paul and Minneapolis in January, Al Franken returned to Washington to advocate strongly for the passage of the Senate’s health care reform bill during a speech January 28th at the Families USA Health Action 2010 conference in Washington. "The American people recognize that 'no’ doesn’t come close to cutting it as a solution to our health care challenges,” Franken remarked.  He covered the strengths of the Senate bill in his speech and explained how it will alleviate many of the problems American people face in getting health care. Senator Franken recommended "pledge and pass" as the way to pass the bill, a pledge by the Senate to fix parts of the bill that House members find objectionable and a pass of the bill by the House. Through a process of reconciliation, the Senate can make the improvements in the bill required by the House with 51 votes."There are so many people out there that really need some help. And that's the message I want to leave you with today. You didn't come to Washington, I didn't run for the Senate to walk away from the health care debate empty-handed. We can't. And with your help, we won't."
As of March 1, 30 Senators signed on to support the Public Option using Reconciliation in the Senate including both Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar.
Franken Takes Bold Stance Against Merger of Comcast and NBC
Friday, 5 February 2010 13:45
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and NBC President Jeff Zucker testified in front of House and Senate subcommittees Thursday as regulators decide whether to allow the proposed merger of Comcast, the nation's largest cable TV and residential high-speed Internet company, and NBC, one of the largest content providers. Sen. Al Franken aggressively interrogated Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and NBC Universal President Jeff Zucker. "When the same company produces the programs and runs the pipes that bring us those programs, we have a reason to be nervous."
Read Free Press Executive Producer Josh Silverman's article on the merger of Comcast and NBC and listen to Senator Franken's opening statement and interrogation:
You can sign a letter to Congress opposing the merger.
Al Franken Proposes Wage Subsidy to Promote New Jobs
Senator Al Franken explained his jobs bill at the Workforce Development Inc. center in Rochester in February. "It's a wage subsidy instead of a tax credit and we did it in Minnesota in the 80's..." noted Senator Franken.
The bill would reimburse companies that hire new employees half of their salary - up to $12 an hour for one year. That would increase to 60 percent for veterans who served in either Iraq or Afghanistan. Because the money would come from the bailout money banks are repaying the government, it wouldn't increase the national deficit. Listen to the TV report and get the details.
Last Updated on Monday, 29 August 2011 13:52
Just read this article, "Al Franken Reads the the 4th Amendment to Justice Department Officials" and felt it should be shared. Al Franken read the 4th Amendment to David Kris, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, who was testifying to the Senate Judiciary Committee to urge reauthorization of expiring provisions of the USA Patriot Act. Nice to see Al is working to protect our civil rights.
Last Updated on Monday, 29 August 2011 12:43
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Senator Al Franken and FCC Commisioners Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn are leading the charge to save the Internet from being handed over to a few media giants. The issue is Net Neutrality and its defeat would have profound effects on free speech, small business, non profits,  and the economy. Right now every website, e-mail, tweet, and YouTube video travels the Internet at the same speed. This free and open system has spawned an amazingly vibrant Internet where the flow of ideas and business has entered a new and exciting era in human endeavors.
However, companies like Comcast and AT&T, who built the lines the data travels on (with plenty of help from taxpayers), are looking for more ways to charge for their services so they've come up with a new idea - they want to have content providers - the websites, Twitter, the YouTubes, etc. pay for how fast their content will be delivered. They also want to decide what data gets sent and what does not.
On August 19, Free Press, Main Street Project and the Center for Media Justice co-hosted a public hearing in Minneapolis on the Future of the Internet featuring champions of Net Neutrality FCC Commissioners Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn. They listened to the concerns of librarians, IT specialists, local journalists, and others in the crowd of over 750. An additional 1000 listeners were online. See their Minneapolis Star-Tribune editorial and listen to Commissioner Copps' 15 minute talk at the hearing.
Senator Al Franken warned the packed auditorium that the corporate takeover of our media, and the government's failure to stop it, is one of the most important First Amendment issues of our time. "We can't let companies write the rules that they're supposed to follow," he stated. "If that happens those rules are going to be written only to protect corporations." The Huffington Post called Franken's talk a humdinger of a speech and gave him its Impressive Democrat of the Week award. Listen to Al Franken's talk at the hearing.
Free Press President Josh Silver commented that the future of the internet is about nothing less than the future of all communications and democracy itself. "As Internet speeds increase, television, radio, phone service, and technologies we never dreamed of will be delivered by a high speed Internet connection. As goes the Internet goes journalism, education, entertainment, community engagement, innovation and our economy." A video of the Net Neutrality Hearing is available at the UpTake. How the Minerals Management Service’s partnership with industry led to failure . . . eerily foreshadows where the Federal Communications Commission could be headed if Chairman Julius Genachowski doesn’t stand up to the industry he is in charge of overseeing. See "Is the FCC Reading from the MMS Playbook?"
Last Updated on Monday, 29 August 2011 13:35
I could not be prouder that Al Franken is my Senator. Paul Wellstone spoke his mind and voted his conscience. Al, has done both admirably since taking office. He's unafraid to speak the truth. Watch below as Al puts a KBR executive in his place for even thinking of defending KBRs arbitration rules that protect KBR employees from prosecution for gang rape (or any other crime they choose). It is a poignant bit of video. Al grills the KBR exec with the rape victim (also testifying) a few feet away. This is real. This is compassion for another human being. This is what we stand for.
Senator Franken Questions an Arbitration Lawyer about Binding Arbitration and KBR Rape Case
Senator Franken Defending the Constitutionality of his Amendment
Al's Anti-Rape Amendment Coverage on the Daily Show
Last Updated on Monday, 29 August 2011 13:56
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