Tag Archives: Klobuchar for President

Democratic Candidates for 2020: Senator Amy Klobuchar Releases ‘Housing First’ Plan

Senator Amy Klobuchar has released her “Housing First” plan. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

The vigorous contest of Democrats seeking the 2020 presidential nomination has produced excellent policy proposals to address major issues.  Senator Amy Klobuchar has released her “Housing First” plan. This is from the Klobuchar campaign:

LOS ANGELES, CA  – Ahead of a housing event with Saint Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, State Senator Susan Rubio and National Low Income Housing Coalition President and CEO Diane Yentel, Senator Amy Klobuchar released her Housing First plan.

As President, Senator Klobuchar will invest over $1 trillion in housing and poverty reduction. Right now, millions of Americans struggle to pay their rent, put food on the table for their children, or find a good paying job. Senator Klobuchar believes there is more we can do as a country to combat poverty and ensure economic justice for all Americans, and it begins with making sure every American has access to a safe, affordable place to call home. 

Research shows that a stable home can mean a better education, greater financial stability and a healthier life. Senator Klobuchar will overhaul our country’s housing policy so all Americans can have the opportunity to succeed. As part of her housing and poverty plan, Senator Klobuchar will completely eliminate the Section 8 backlog and provide rental assistance to all Americans who qualify, limit average wait times for Section 8 housing assistance to three months, and provide temporary housing for those at risk of homelessness. And to eliminate unmet housing needs, she will invest significantly in expanding the affordable housing supply and connecting people to affordable housing.

In addition, Senator Klobuchar has bold plans to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), as well as invest in nutrition and child care. These policies are designed to cut child poverty in half in 10 years and eliminate it within a generation and are based on a report from the National Academy of Sciences.

Guarantee Access to Affordable Housing

Provide Section 8 Rental Assistance to All Qualifying Americans. Today too many Americans have trouble accessing rental assistance. An estimated 4.4 million families are currently on waiting lists for Public Housing or Section 8 housing vouchers and many more can’t even get on the waiting lists because they are closed. As President, Senator Klobuchar will completely eliminate the Section 8 backlog and make sure that every American who qualifies for Section 8 rental assistance receives a voucher or unit.

Limit average wait times for Section 8 housing assistance to three months. Today wait times for Section 8 housing assistance are often 2-3 years and can be much longer and it can take up to 2-3 months for the local housing authority to review applications, confirm eligibility, and place Americans on a waiting list. As President, Senator Klobuchar will limit average wait times for Section 8 assistance to no more than three months.

Provide temporary housing for those at risk of homelessness while they are on Section 8 waitlists. To ensure that no one is forced to be homeless while waiting for Section 8 housing, Senator Klobuchar will create a new grant program for states to provide temporary support for those at risk of homelessness while on the Section 8 waitlist.

Make sure that Section 8 vouchers reflect rental prices. Senator Klobuchar will direct the Department of Housing and Urban Development to make sure it accurately collects market data about the cost of rental housing and provides flexibility to local housing agencies to adjust voucher amounts in higher-cost areas.

Guarantee that all qualifying families with children receive Section 8 rental assistance. The policy of eliminating all unmet need for housing assistance in America will more than meet the recommendation of the National Academy of Sciences report to make Housing Choice Vouchers available to all qualifying families with children, as part of putting our country on track to cut child poverty in half in the next decade and end it within a generation.

Invest in Affordable Housing Infrastructure. To eliminate the unmet need for rental assistance, we must increase affordable housing supply. Senator Klobuchar will push to expand current Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) allocations to support the construction of additional units and work with states to strengthen rules to encourage a significant portion of LIHTC construction in high opportunity neighborhoods. Her infrastructure package will also address the estimated $50 billion in capital repairs needed to public housing. 

Invest in the Housing Trust Fund. Senator Klobuchar will expand funding to build, rehabilitate, and operate homes for low-income families, including in rural areas and in Indian country by funding the Housing Trust Fund at a minimum of $40 billion per year. 

Increase the Capital Magnet Fund. The Capital Magnet Fund provides grants to finance affordable housing and related economic development activities and community service facilities. Senator Klobuchar will increase funding for the program, which enables awardees to create financing tools such as loan loss reserves, revolving loan funds, risk-sharing loans, and loan guarantees.  

Lift the bond volume cap for housing. Bonds can be an effective way to finance the construction of affordable single-family and small multifamily housing. As President, Senator Klobuchar will lift the volume cap specifically for housing projects to help provide additional funding to tackle the shortage of affordable housing in our country. 

Promote effective zoning rules. Outdated zoning rules can make it harder to build affordable housing in many areas. As President, Senator Klobuchar will prioritize areas that have updated their zoning rules when awarding federal housing and infrastructure grants.

Connect People to Available Housing Opportunities. Senator Klobuchar will work to create a new federal grant program that helps states increase outreach to low-income renters to make them aware of the resources available to them. The funding will be available for caseworkers, community development centers, and partnerships with nonprofits. 

Reduce fees and red tape for low-income renters. As President, Senator Klobuchar will push to increase operating funding for public housing authorities and in return will require them to lower fees charged to applicants and tenants. She will work to streamline the application process including background checks and credit checks to reduce red tape. 

Connect students to affordable housing. A recent study from the Hope Center for College, Community and Justice found that over 60 percent of student respondents were food or housing insecure, and for many students room and board accounts for more than half their total costs according to HUD. Senator Klobuchar will double the maximum Pell Grant — which can be used for housing and certain other non-tuition expenses — to $12,000 per year and expand eligibility to families making up to $100,000 per year. She will work with states to establish microgrant programs to help students cover rent or other necessary expenses if they face unexpected financial hardship. Senator Klobuchar will also expand resources for student renters, increase student access to existing affordable housing programs and promote the development of affordable housing around college campuses. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s policies to support students here.

Increase auto enrollment in support programs. A lack of clear information about eligibility and cumbersome enrollment procedures prevent many Americans from using support programs for which they are eligible. Senator Klobuchar will work with states and across federal agencies to increase auto enrollment across all eligible support programs, like Medicaid, CHIP, SNAP, LIHEAP, and housing assistance, when a person enrolls in any one program.

Give renters access to emergency funds for rent. The path toward eviction can start with an unexpected emergency expense. As she has previously announced, Senator Klobuchar will work to create innovative, portable personal savings accounts called UP Accounts that can be used for retirement and emergencies — including non-routine expenses like rent payments in situations like a lapse in earnings, a car accident, or family leave. Under her plan, employers will set aside at least 50 cents per hour worked, helping a worker build more than $600,000 in wealth over the course of a career.

Combat Segregation and Discrimination. As President, Senator Klobuchar will ban all landlords from discriminating against people based on the source of their income, including housing vouchers or disability benefits. She will also protect renters by preventing the blacklisting of people who have been to court over eviction and prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or veteran status. She will suspend the Trump Administration’s proposals to weaken fair housing rules including the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule and restore enforcement and oversight powers to the Office of Fair Lending and Opportunity to monitor fair lending practices and coordinate with the Department of Justice to prevent lending discrimination before it happens.

Ban the box. Finding affordable housing can be a major obstacle to people returning to the community after they have been released from incarceration. As President, Senator Klobuchar will prohibit landlords from asking rental applicants about past criminal convictions. Background checks will only be permitted after making a conditional offer of housing.  

Partner with states and localities to strengthen tenant protections. Senator Klobuchar will create an incentive program for states and localities that encourage the adoption of just cause eviction protections and a tenant bill of rights, including prior notification before evictions. States and localities that put these protections in place — including limits on security deposits to one month’s rent — can receive additional federal funds for affordable housing supply. 

Help Seniors and People with Disabilities Who Want to Stay in Their Homes. Senator Klobuchar will update regulations for reverse mortgages to make sure seniors have access to safe products that make it easier to stay in their homes, as well as expand support for affordable senior housing programs that assist people with disabilities. As part of her seniors plan, Senator Klobuchar is proposing a tax credit of up to $6,000 a year to provide financial relief to those caring for an aging relative or a relative with a disability to help offset expenses, including necessary home modifications to allow people to stay in their homes. And in the first 100 days of her Administration, Senator Klobuchar will reverse the Trump Administration’s proposed changes to federal housing subsidies that could triple rent for some households and would be particularly harmful for seniors. Senator Klobuchar is also committed to expanding transportation programs and services for older adults and people with disabilities, particularly in rural and underserved populations. She also supports expanding resources for Meals on Wheels, transit options for seniors and programs like LIHEAP and the Weatherization Assistance Program that helps households in need reduce energy spending. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s plan to support seniors here.

Increase Access to Homeownership. Homeownership is out of reach for too many Americans. As President, Senator Klobuchar will build on programs that allow certain types of rental housing assistance to be used for home ownership expenses and work to pass legislation that expands access to capital for down payments and makes it easier to build a credit history by allowing credit bureaus to use on-time payment data from cell phone bills, utilities, and rent in calculating credit scores. She will strengthen the Community Reinvestment Act, develop policies to encourage financial institutions to make loans and investment in local communities, especially communities in need, and conduct greater outreach to assess the true credit needs of certain areas. She will also strengthen federal homebuyer education programs including targeted programs for communities with low levels of homeownership. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s plans to increase access to homeownership here.

Revitalize Neglected Neighborhoods and Invest in Energy Efficiency. In some neighborhoods, neglected properties make investments to improve living conditions or build property value economically infeasible. Neighboring blighted and abandoned properties further reduce the possibility of investment, leading to a downward spiral. Senator Klobuchar will advocate for a new federal tax credit, similar to the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, to encourage investment in family-owned homes in distressed neighborhoods. In addition, Senator Klobuchar will launch a major initiative to retrofit existing homes to reduce their emissions and address environmental hazards through grants and tax credits that support insulation, weatherization improvements, upgrades to heating and cooling systems, and replacement of lead pipes and other health hazards.

Reduce Homelessness. Over half a million Americans experience homelessness every night. Senator Klobuchar will make a major investment in homeless assistance grants that provide emergency and long-term housing and build on her work in the Senate increasing access to case management services like counseling and job training. This also means addressing the unique challenges of specific homeless populations including those living in rural areas, domestic violence victims, and the formerly incarcerated.

Increase Affordable Rental Housing in Rural Communities and Improve Access to Information about Rural Housing Programs. 54 million Americans live in rural areas with a severe need for more affordable rental housing. Senator Klobuchar will strengthen rural rental assistance programs and significantly increase investments in the rural housing supply. She will also improve training for state, local and federal agencies so communities and developers can better access housing opportunities, as well as improve and expand programs that provide technical assistance to rural nonprofits to connect rural communities with resources to develop housing.

Increase Support for Workers 

Strengthen the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). The EITC has a strong record of success in encouraging work and alleviating poverty. About 26 million Americans currently benefit from EITC, and it prevents close to 6 million people, including 3 million children, from living in poverty. As President, Senator Klobuchar will work to strengthen the EITC for workers in families with children by increasing the phase-in rate so the lowest-income workers reach the maximum benefit more quickly, increasing the maximum credit by about 30 percent and expanding eligibility for the credit so more workers will receive assistance. These improvements will more than satisfy the recommendation of the National Academy of Sciences report to strengthen the EITC, as part of putting our country on track to cut child poverty in half in the next decade and end it within a generation.

Expand EITC Eligibility. Childless workers under age 25 and over age 64 are not currently eligible for the EITC. As President, Senator Klobuchar will work to expand eligibility by lowering the minimum age to 18, with an exception for full time students and dependents, and increasing the maximum age in line with already scheduled increases in the eligibility age for Social Security.  

Provide EITC Beneficiaries With the Option of Advanced Periodic Payments. Receiving a single payment when EITC beneficiaries file their taxes at the end of the year can make it difficult for EITC beneficiaries to cover expenses that come up over the course of the year. As President, Senator Klobuchar will give beneficiaries the option to receive periodic payments of the EITC in advance to give them more regular income throughout the year. 

Raise the Federal Minimum Wage to $15 an Hour. As President, Senator Klobuchar will push for legislation to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour and eliminate the tipped minimum wage.

Expand Access to Child Care

Invest in Quality, Affordable Child Care. Senator Klobuchar believes that early, quality child care and education is one of the most important public investments we can make as a country. As President, she will work to create a new federal-state partnership to make child care more affordable by capping spending on child care at seven percent of income for families making up to 150 percent of their state’s median income. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s child care policies here.

Improve the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC). Senator Klobuchar will convert the CDCTC to a fully-refundable tax credit and concentrate its benefits on families with the lowest incomes and with children under the age of five. These improvements will meet the recommendation of the National Academy of Sciences report to strengthen the CDCTC, as part of putting our country on track to cut child poverty in half in the next decade and end it within a generation.

Maintain the Increased Child Tax Credit. The 2017 tax bill doubled the Child Tax Credit from $1,000 per child to $2,000. Although Senator Klobuchar will repeal the regressive portions of this tax bill, she will maintain the increased Child Tax Credit. 

Strengthen Affordable Nutrition Programs 

Increase SNAP Benefits and Improve School Nutrition Programs. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a vital resource for meaningful relief for Americans when it is most needed. While the Trump Administration tries to impose draconian cuts on the program, Senator Klobuchar believes we must strengthen it for families in need. Senator Klobuchar will increase the maximum SNAP allocation by 30 percent and provide an additional $30 a month to families for each child between 12 and 17 years old. These improvements will meet the recommendation of the National Academy of Sciences report to strengthen SNAP, as part of putting our country on track to cut child poverty in half in the next decade and end it within a generation. Senator Klobuchar will also streamline the certification process for elderly and disabled recipients who are living on fixed incomes and make it easier for low-income college students to enroll in the program.  As a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Senator Klobuchar has been a champion for protecting and strengthening the safety net for Americans in need. She has supported programs like SNAP, the Emergency Food Assistance Program, and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program and pushed for the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, which helps introduce children to a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. She also introduced and passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act to support healthy meals for children, and the HELP Schools Act to strengthen nutrition in school lunches. As President, Senator Klobuchar will expand free breakfast programs, summer meal programs, and the availability of meals and snacks to students outside of normal school hours. She will also make it easier for schools to partner with local agricultural producers to give students access to healthy, local food. 

Strengthen the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Research has consistently shown that participating in WIC improves nutrition and health outcomes for low-income families. As President, Senator Klobuchar supports efforts to promote outreach, especially harder to reach populations like students with children, grandparents caring for children, and foster parents, simplify and streamline WIC enrollment, including through auto enrollment when possible, and expand benefits and eligibility.

Secure Equal Access to Justice 

Provide Access to Counsel. Senator Klobuchar will create a new federal grant program with the goal of eliminating the unmet need when it comes to providing access to counsel in civil cases involving basic human needs, which means providing counsel for people who are dealing with evictions, being denied access to health care, and having wages unfairly taken.

Ensure Federal Investments Are Reaching the Communities Suffering the Most From Decades of Neglect. Unequal patterns of federal investment, often the result of systemic racism and discrimination, have led to decades of neglect in some communities. Senator Klobuchar is committed to adopting Congressman Jim Clyburn’s 10-20-30 plan, in which 10 percent of federal resources are committed to communities where at least 20 percent of the population has been living below the poverty line for 30 years or more. She supported the original 10-20-30 formula in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, and as President, she will work to ensure that at least 10 percent of every agency’s funding for discretionary programs goes to areas dealing with persistent poverty under the 10-20-30 formula. 

To pay for her trillion dollar Housing First proposal, the Senator will use revenue from ending the war in Afghanistan, repealing regressive portions of the 2017 Republican tax bill, strengthening tools to crack down on international tax havens and creating a new minimum tax on large corporations.

Amy Klobuchar Releases Plan for the Future of Work and a Changing Economy

Senator Amy Klobuchar, running for president, has released a comprehensive plan to address the future of work in a changing economy © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

The vigorous contest of Democrats seeking the 2020 presidential nomination has produced excellent policy proposals to address major issues. One of the major issues is how to restructure the economy for sustainability and protect jobs. Senator Amy Klobuchar just released a comprehensive plan to address the future of work in a changing economy  This is from the Klobuchar campaign:

DES MOINES – Today, ahead of a panel discussion at Machinists Lodge 254 in Des Moines, Senator Amy Klobuchar released her plan for the future of work and a changing economy. Senator Klobuchar’s proposal is a comprehensive plan to address digital disruption and renew the social contract in the gig economy, respect the dignity of work, invest in America’s future and focus on economic justice and shared prosperity. 

Senator Klobuchar’s plan includes updating consumer and worker protections, strengthening collective bargaining and labor rights, establishing national paid family leave, creating portable personal retirement accounts, boosting entrepreneurship and investing in cybersecurity. 
 

Senator Klobuchar’s Plan for the Future of Work and a Changing Economy


In America, no matter where you come from, who you know, or where you live, if you work hard, you should be able to make it in this country. But that’s not the case for too many people in today’s economy. Senator Klobuchar is committed to championing economic policies that give all Ameicans an opportunity to succeed. That means connecting our students and affordable education to the jobs of today and tomorrow, increasing wages and respecting the dignity of work, making health care more affordable, ensuring a secure retirement, investing in our infrastructure and creating jobs, focusing on economic justice and shared prosperity, and budgeting responsibly for our future. And it means a Competitive Agenda for America to ensure that America continues to be a country that thinks, that invents, that makes stuff, and that exports to the world. 

Address Digital Disruption 

Senator Klobuchar believes we need to start tackling the challenges presented by digital disruption and a changing economy. The future of work is changing, which is putting stress on the social contract we’ve had in this country when it comes to job training, employment, and retirement. Senator Klobuchar’s plan is a plan for the future: offering stronger worker protections, reasserting protections for consumers in a digital world, investing in cybersecurity across the economy to prevent crippling attacks on infrastructure and commerce, and taking on consolidation which is threatening to take us into a new Gilded Age.  

Renew the Social Contract for the Gig Economy. Senator Klobuchar believes we must update our laws to reflect the evolving nature of work.

Invest in education and job training, including for workers at risk of losing their jobs to automation. Senator Klobuchar is committed to creating new opportunities and ensuring a just transition for workers who have been displaced by the changing economy. She believes the federal government has an important role to play during economic transitions. As President she will take action to ensure that workers can pursue additional education and can do so without a financial burden at any age. She will also create a new tax credit for employers that invest in training for workers at risk of being laid off through on-site training programs or provide paid time off for off-site retraining. 

Make it easier to save for retirement. The retirement system we have today wasn’t designed for today’s economy where workers stay in a job for an average of four years and more than 57 million Americans are working in the gig economy. As President, Senator Klobuchar will work to create innovative, portable personal retirement accounts called UP-Savings Accounts. Under her plan, employers will set aside at least 50 cents per hour worked, helping a worker build more than $600,000 in wealth over the course of a career. 

Invest in quality, affordable child care and create a national paid family and medical leave program. As President, Senator Klobuchar will create a national paid family leave program to provide workers with 12 weeks of paid leave per year to care for a new child, a family member with a serious health condition, or their own serious health condition. She will also create a new federal-state partnership to make child care more affordable by capping spending on child care at seven percent of income for families making up to 150 percent of their state’s median income, invest in expanding the availability of child care, and work to raise wages for caregivers and early childhood teachers. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s child care and paid family leave policies here. 

Give workers access to a non-profit public option for health insurance. As President, Senator Klobuchar will work to pass legislation to create a non-profit public option that expands Medicare or Medicaid. She will also build on the Affordable Care Act to help bring down costs to consumers, including expanding premium subsidies, providing cost-sharing reductions, making it easier for states to put reinsurance in place, and continuing to implement delivery system reform. And she will take on the other health care challenges we face including the price of prescription drugs, mental health care, addiction and long-term care. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s health care policies here. 

Allow gig workers to organize and prevent employees from being misclassified as independent contractors. As President, Senator Klobuchar will work to pass Senator Patty Murray’s Protecting the Right to Organize Act — a bill Senator Klobuchar co-sponsors in the Senate — that protects gig workers by preventing employers from misclassifying their employees as independent contractors.   

Update the tax code to work for gig workers. Gig workers face additional challenges in properly tracking earnings and expenses and calculating and paying taxes. As President, Senator Klobuchar will simplify withholding for self-employed workers. Giving workers the option of having their self-employment taxes withheld directly from their 1099s would reduce the burden of quarterly tax filing and help smooth irregular incomes. She will also lower the 1099-K threshold for gig economy platforms, so workers have more information about their earnings, and consider creating a gig worker standard business deduction to simplify the calculation of business expenses for gig workers. 

Update Consumer Protections for the 21st Century Economy. Advances in technology have opened new opportunities for consumers, entrepreneurs and businesses, but they have also created new threats to privacy. Consumer protection laws have not kept pace with these technological advances. As President, Senator Klobuchar will update consumer protections so they work in the 21st century economy. 

Strengthen consumer privacy protections. As President, Senator Klobuchar will work to pass legislation similar to the Consumer Online Privacy Rights Act, which she leads with Senator Maria Cantwell. The bill would establish strong privacy rights for consumers including the right to access their data and greater transparency, the right to prevent data from being distributed to unknown third parties, the right to delete or correct their data and the right to take their data to a competitor. It would also establish a “duty of loyalty,” which would prohibit companies from engaging in deceptive and harmful data practices. In addition, the legislation would require companies to implement strong data security policies, receive affirmative consent from consumers for collecting sensitive information, and give consumers, states, and the Federal Trade Commission new enforcement authorities. Senator Klobuchar will also work to pass legislation based on her bipartisan Protecting Personal Health Data Act to create protections for new health technologies not covered by existing privacy laws.  

Increase rights for consumers after data breaches. As more personal information is collected and stored online, consumers are increasingly vulnerable to having their data exposed in a data breach. As President, Senator Klobuchar will push for legislation similar to her bipartisan Social Media Privacy and Consumer Rights Act to require companies to notify users within 72 hours when their data has been breached and offer meaningful remedies for people whose data has been compromised. 

Empower consumer protection agencies. Without effective enforcement, fraud and scams — like robocalls, senior fraud, identity theft, and predatory student loans — have become problems for too many Americans. As President, Senator Klobuchar will make sure that the federal agencies charged with protecting consumers have the tools they need to be effective cops on the beat, including personnel, technological expertise, and strong enforcement authorities.

Tackle new forms of discrimination. As President, Senator Klobuchar will update our laws to counter new forms of discrimination, like digital redlining and racial bias built into algorithms that are playing a larger role in everything from hiring decisions to medical care. 

Provide access to a free and open internet. Consumers and businesses deserve a level playing field on the internet. As President, Senator Klobuchar will work to codify strong net neutrality principles and make immediate progress in her first 100 days by using federal contracting requirements to encourage broadband providers to honor net neutrality principles and promote a free and open internet.

Invest in Cybersecurity That Protects Our Economy and Our Democracy. Our economy increasingly relies on internet-connected devices and infrastructure and this trend will only accelerate in the coming years. This creates opportunities for terrorists, foreign governments, and competing firms that could severely damage our economy. And we already know that our election infrastructure is vulnerable to cyber attack and foreign governments are working to interfere in our elections. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s plans to protect our democracy here.

Build the cybersecurity workforce our economy needs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts the United States will add over 550,000 new information technology jobs to our economy over the next 10 years, including in big data and information security. As President, Senator Klobuchar will expand STEM programs, including for women and traditionally underrepresented minorities, and invest in apprenticeships so students and workers can get on-the-job training in the technology jobs of the future, and she will expand access to credentials through tution-free one- and two-year degrees, technical certifications, and tuition-free community college.

Protect critical infrastructure against cyberattacks. Cyberattacks on our electric grid, transportation infrastructure, or water management systems could be devastating to our economy. As President, Senator Klobuchar will work to build federal partnerships with the private sector to implement NIST’s cybersecurity framework. She will make sure the federal government is assisting companies in addressing global supply chain risks and increasing the security of emerging technologies. Senator Klobuchar will also improve federal preparedness for responding to cyber incidents.

Increase cybersecurity expertise in the federal government. As President, Senator Klobuchar will make cybersecurity an immediate priority. She will issue an Executive Order launching government-wide cybersecurity initiatives, fast-tracking and streamlining procurement of modern information technology across agencies. She will also work to pass legislation similar to her bipartisan Cyber Security Exchange Act to provide a path for cyber experts at private firms or academia to work for federal agencies for up to two years. Federal workers will also be given the opportunity to work in the private sector to develop their skills in the latest cybersecurity practices. 

Strengthen Antitrust Enforcement. U.S. firms have engaged in $10 trillion worth of acquisitions during the past decade. Senator Klobuchar believes we need to do more when it comes to taking on monopoly power and promoting competition not just for our consumers but for our businesses. Competition does more than just lower prices. It improves quality, spurs innovation, makes it easier for entrepreneurs to start new businesses, and creates better jobs. As the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee, Senator Klobuchar has been a leader in taking on this new Gilded Age. She leads the Consolidation Prevention and Competition Promotion Act to make sure our antitrust laws adequately promote competition and protect consumers, the Merger Enforcement Improvement Act to give antitrust enforcement agencies the tools they need to be effective, and the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act to update merger filing fees. 

Investigate monopolization claims and review mergers that have already taken place. As President, Senator Klobuchar will harness the power of investigations to look at acquisitions that have already occured and investigate monopolization claims, including whether the integration of services insulate tech companies from competition. 

Strengthen merger enforcement. As President, Senator Klobuchar will make sure that our antitrust agencies have the resources they need to be aggressive and effective, updating the outdated merger filing fees so that the merging parties of the largest deals start paying their fair share. She will also give the agencies tools to analyze the effectiveness of merger conditions so they can make better and stronger enforcement decisions.

Give antitrust agencies and courts the legal tools necessary to promote competition. As President, Senator Klobuchar will work to pass legislation creating a more stringent legal standard to protect competition, shifting the burden of proof for mega-mergers from the government to the parties to demonstrate that their mergers do not reduce competition, and clarifying that existing antitrust laws should take into account more than price and that they should also consider vertical integration, harm to innovation, as well as monopsony — a market condition where there is only one buyer.

Create a new competition advocate. As President, Senator Klobuchar will create a new position to oversee the effectiveness of merger enforcement. The Office of the Competition Advocate would help consumers raise complaints about anti-competitive activity, encourage antitrust investigations, and analyze and publish reports on merger activity. 


Respect the Dignity of Work

Senator Klobuchar believes that everyone who works hard should be able earn enough to care for and support their family. Respecting the dignity of work means raising the minimum wage, providing paid family leave and child care and making sure people have a secure retirement. 

Raise the Minimum Wage to $15 an Hour and Enforce It. As President, Senator Klobuchar will push for legislation to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour and eliminate the tipped minimum wage. To make immediate progress toward this goal, she will increase the minimum wage for federal contractors to that threshold. She will also immediately strengthen enforcement and expand investigations to make sure that our wage laws are properly enforced and that workers are able to recover back pay when the government rules in their favor.

Create a National Paid Family and Medical Leave Program. The United States is the only industrialized nation without a national paid leave program, and only 19 percent of American workers have access to paid family leave through their employer. As President, Senator Klobuchar will create a national paid family leave program to provide workers with 12 weeks of paid leave per year to care for a new child, a family member with a serious health condition, or their own serious health condition. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s plan for paid family and medical leave here. 

Invest in Quality, Affordable Child Care. Senator Klobuchar believes that early, quality child care and education is one of the most important public investments we can make as a country. As President, Senator Klobuchar will work to create a new federal-state partnership to make child care more affordable by capping spending on child care at seven percent of income for families making up to 150 percent of their state’s median income and invest in expanding the availability of child care and raising wages for caregivers and early childhood teachers. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s plan for child care here. 

Make It Easier to Retire. As President, Senator Klobuchar will work to create innovative, portable personal retirement accounts called UP-Savings Accounts. Under her plan, employers will set aside at least 50 cents per hour worked, helping a worker build more than $600,000 in wealth over the course of a career. She will continue to push for legislation to protect retiree pensions. Senator Klobuchar will also work to strengthen Social Security, and she believes that this program must remain solvent for generations to come and she will fight against risky schemes to privatize it. As President, Senator Klobuchar will work to lift the Social Security payroll cap. Currently the payroll tax only applies to wages up to $133,000. Senator Klobuchar supports subjecting income above $250,000 to the payroll tax and extending the long-term solvency of Social Security. And Senator Klobuchar will make sure people are treated fairly by the current Social Security system. As President, she will work to strengthen and improve Social Security benefits for widows and people who took significant time out of the paid workforce to care for their children, aging parents, or sick family members. Senator Klobuchar also opposes cuts and risky schemes to privatize Medicare and will take action to strengthen Medicare and find solutions so it remains solvent. She will improve Medicare for current beneficiaries by reforming payment policies through measures like site neutral payments and providing incentives for getting the best quality health care at the best price, including bundled payments and telehealth. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s policies for seniors here. 

Stand up for Our Unions. As the granddaughter of an iron ore miner and the daughter of a union teacher and a union newspaperman, Senator Klobuchar knows firsthand how unions give Americans and their families the opportunities they need to succeed. As President, she will support real labor law reform, ensure free and fair union elections, protect collective bargaining rights, roll back Right to Work laws, and make it easier — and not harder — for workers to join unions. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s labor policies here.


Invest in America’s Future

Right now, our economy is stable thanks to the efforts of our workers and our businesses. Senator Klobuchar believes that real leaders use times of stability to take on the challenges before them and invest for the future. As President, Senator Klobuchar will strengthen our economy by empowering small businesses and entrepreneurs and expanding exports, get our fiscal house in order and tackle the big challenges we face as a country.    

Empower Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs and Expand Exports. Senator Klobuchar knows that small businesses and entrepreneurs help power our economy and create jobs. Supporting small businesses is one of the best ways to maintain a dynamic economy. And in an increasingly global economy, she is committed to giving more businesses the opportunity to export and reach customers across the world.   

Expand access to capital for small businesses. Lack of access to capital is one of the biggest obstacles to starting a small business. As President, Senator Klobuchar will expand Small Business Administration (SBA) lending programs and make it easier for small businesses to get the loans and technical assistance they need to grow. She will also work to increase small dollar lending by the SBA, which can be particularly important for women and people of color seeking to start a small business. 

Promote entrepreneurship and reverse the “startup slump.” New businesses drive economic growth, but fewer startups are launched every year. Startup rates have fallen to near 30-year lows. Senator Klobuchar recently launched the bipartisan Senate Entrepreneurship Caucus with Senator Tim Scott to address the most pressing issues facing entrepreneurs. As President, she will build on her work through the America COMPETES Act to close the gap between innovation and commercialization, help colleges and universities partner with entrepreneurs, accelerate the commercialization of federally funded research and update regional innovation programs at the Economic Development Administration. To reverse the startup slump she will also tackle unprecedented corporate consolidation, make it easier to export, simplify small business rules, expand access to capital, as well as promote incubators, mentoring and training.

Make it easier to export, especially for small businesses. Ninety-five percent of the world’s potential customers live outside of the U.S., but less than one percent of American businesses export. As President, Senator Klobuchar will restart the President’s Export Council, which brings together business, labor, and agricultural leaders with Members of Congress and key Administration officials to help promote a comprehensive export and trade strategy. She will also work to pass legislation based on her bipartisan Promoting Rural Exports Act to establish a Rural Export Center to help rural businesses export their products to new international markets. And since international tourism is one of our top exports, she will work to reauthorize Brand USA so the United States can compete to attract foreign visitors. 

Support small manufacturers. As President, Senator Klobuchar will support and expand the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program, which the Trump Administration has tried to eliminate. The program helps small manufacturers innovate, upgrade their technology and improve production. She will work to create a manufacturing tax incentive to encourage investment in rural communities or communities that have faced or are about to face manufacturing job losses. She will also support our small manufacturers by expanding guaranteed loan programs that make it easier for rural manufacturers to access capital, pushing for a new tax credit for manufacturers to hire registered apprentices, providing financing and grants for equipment and technology upgrades, and working with states, localities, research universities and community colleges to promote workforce development, apprenticeships, and innovation in manufacturing.

Govern with Fiscal Responsibility. In less than three years, President Trump has added $4 trillion to the national debt. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that by 2029, the national debt will be higher than it has been at any time since 1946, right after World War II. And each year over the next decade the federal government will spend an average of about $1.2 trillion more than it collects in revenue. As President, Senator Klobuchar will reverse this trend with the goal of lowering the debt to GDP ratio by the end of her first term and putting our country on a sustainable fiscal path. 

Move to a biennial budget process. Senator Klobuchar will push to overhaul the way Congress budgets federal dollars to strengthen oversight of government spending and move the country forward when it comes to tackling the nation’s debt. She is a co-sponsor of Senators Johnny Isakson and Jeanne Shaheen’s Biennial Budgeting and Appropriations Act, which would create a two-year budget and appropriations cycle with the first year dedicated to appropriating federal dollars and the next year dedicated to conducting oversight of how those federal dollars are being used. Senator Klobuchar also supports moving from a 10-year forecasting window to a 25-year forecasting window for Congressional Budget Office and Joint Tax Committee scores, as the expanded window will better capture the long-term fiscal impact of federal policies.  

Establish a dedicated fund to tackle the U.S. debt and support our economy. Senator Klobuchar will establish a dedicated fund to make a down payment to tackle the U.S. debt and protect our economy. She will initially seed the fund with $300 billion by raising the corporate tax rate and dedicating savings from the government-wide budget review. When the economy is doing well, the fund will finance deficit reduction. When specific economic indicators show our economy is in a recession, the funding will automatically be diverted to increase spending on programs that are effective at stimulating the economy like infrastructure spending, increased unemployment and nutrition assistance, and an increased federal share of Medicaid and CHIP spending. As tax changes are implemented and as departments complete Senator Klobuchar’s government-wide review, she will invest additional government-wide savings towards expanding the fund to decrease the deficit and support our economy.

Eliminate duplicative government spending. Senator Klobuchar will immediately order all cabinet secretaries to undertake a comprehensive review of their department’s budget and identify a list of duplicative and unnecessary programs as well as potential gaps in spending. When it comes to our nation’s defense, Senator Klobuchar is committed to maintaining and extending our military superiority over any adversary that would challenge us. She will ensure that our troops are the best-trained and best-equipped in the world, while also providing for their families at home. Yet virtually every analysis of the Pentagon’s budget has found duplicative and unnecessary programs – so she will ask her Secretary of Defense and other cabinet secretaries to take a close look at how money is being spent with an eye towards eliminating duplicative and unnecessary spending.

Tackle Today’s Challenges for a Stronger Future. Senator Klobuchar believes we need to govern from opportunity, not chaos. And governing from opportunity means meeting the challenges we face head on. 

Build a 21st century workforce. Senator Klobuchar believes we should align our education system with the needs of our economy. As President, she will champion tuition-free one- and two-year community college degrees and technical certifications, expand apprenticeships, and make it easier for Americans who need help to afford four-year degrees. She will work to reduce the burden of student loans, support our Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and expand Pell Grants. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s post-secondary education policies here. 

Pass comprehensive immigration reform. Senator Klobuchar believes that comprehensive immigration reform is crucial to moving our economy and our country forward. As President, she will push for a comprehensive immigration reform bill that includes the DREAM Act, targeted border security and an accountable pathway to earned citizenship.

Invest in our infrastructure. Senator Klobuchar has proposed a bold plan to rebuild America’s infrastructure, invest in our future, and create millions of good-paying American jobs. Her plan includes repairing and replacing our roads, highways and bridges as well as building smart climate infrastructure, ensuring clean water, modernizing our airports, seaports and inland waterways, expanding reliable public transit options, rebuilding our schools, overhauling our country’s housing policy, and connecting every household to the internet by 2022. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s policies to build America’s infrastructure here. 

Make housing more affordable. Senator Klobuchar believes everyone deserves a safe and affordable home. As President, Senator Klobuchar will expand the Housing Choice Voucher program to make vouchers available to all qualifying households with children, increase access to homeownership while investing in neglected neighborhoods, tackle homelessness, and increase affordable rental housing in rural communities. She will also fight housing discrimination and invest in providing access to counsel in civil cases involving basic human needs. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s housing policies here.

Focus on Economic Justice and Shared Prosperity

Senator Klobuchar believes that right now the Trump economy works for President Trump and his wealthy friends, not for everyone else. As President, she will take on structural racism and remove barriers to success and support communities at risk from being left behind in the new economy.

Address Structural Racism and Barriers to Success. Senator Klobuchar is committed to addressing the structural racism in our society and making sure that everyone has the opportunity to succeed. She believes that no matter where you live, who you know, where you come from, or what you look like, you should be able to make it in this country.

Work to end child poverty. As President, within her first 100 days, Senator Klobuchar will put forward a plan to cut childhood poverty in half in ten years and end child poverty in a generation. The plan will be based on a National Academies of Science report and include expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Care Tax Credit, SNAP benefits and overhauling our country’s housing policy.

Eliminate the wage gap. Today, women working full-time earn 80 cents for every dollar paid to a man, and the gaps are even larger for women of color. As President, Senator Klobuchar will work to pass Senator Patty Murray’s Paycheck Fairness Act to ensure that employers pay employees equally for equal work — including by prohibiting employers from asking about the salary history of prospective employees. 

Eliminate the wealth gap. Today, Black and Latino households have only about a tenth of the median net worth of white households. Senator Klobuchar’s proposal to establish portable, employer-funded UP-Savings Accounts for retirement savings will help address this disparity. She is also co-chair of the Diversifying Technology Caucus and the Entrepreneurship Caucus with Senator Tim Scott. As President she will work to get more women and people of color in STEM jobs and she will fully empower agencies to aggressively fight modern-day redlining that prevents businesses owned by people of color from getting loans and take on predatory lending that results in higher interest rates in low-income communities of color. 

Make education the great equalizer. Senator Klobuchar believes a good education is one of the very best investments we can make in our country’s future. As President, Senator Klobuchar will help make education the great equalizer by increasing teacher salaries, investing in math and science to prepare our students for the jobs of tomorrow, and rebuilding our school infrastructure. She has proposed “Progress Partnerships” to help states take bold action to fund our public schools — including making sure infrastructure funding goes to high need areas and reviewing state funding formulas to improve equity. She will also put back in place guidance from President Obama directing schools to reduce racial disparities in how they discipline students. 

Support Communities at Risk From Being Left Behind in the Changing Economy. As President, Senator Klobuchar is committed to providing additional support to at-risk communities so that no one is left behind. 

Expand loans for and investments in local communities in need. For the past 40 years, the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) has encouraged financial institutions to make loans and investment in local communities, especially low-income and minority communities. Senator Klobuchar will protect the CRA and instruct financial regulators to conduct greater outreach to assess the true credit needs of their communities.

Support and strengthen the Economic Development Administration. The Economic Development Administration (EDA) works directly with communities and regions to promote competitiveness and innovation. It has a proven track record of success and on average every $1 of EDA infrastructure funding generates $15 in private investment. Still, the Trump Administration has repeatedly proposed eliminating the agency. Senator Klobuchar will ensure the agency has the resources to carry out its mission.

Bridge the rural-urban divide. Senator Klobuchar has proposed a plan for America’s Heartland that will strengthen our agricultural and rural communities, bridge the rural-urban divide, and make sure that kids who grow up in rural America can stay in rural America. This includes connecting every household to high speed internet by 2022. She knows that America’s prosperity depends on the success of our farmers and rural businesses and as a senior member of the Agriculture Committee, she’s been a champion for farmers and rural communities in the Senate. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s agriculture and rural policies here. 

Fulfill our responsibility to our communities and workers who have helped power this country. As the granddaughter of a miner who worked 1,500 feet underground, Senator Klobuchar understands the hard work and sacrifice of those who built and powered our country. She is committed to supporting and creating new opportunities for workers and communities that have depended on the fossil fuel industry as our country transitions away from fossil fuels. Senator Klobuchar will work with the public and private sectors to attract new employers and maintain public services, while investing in infrastructure and educational opportunities in areas that experience job loss. As part of any carbon pricing system, she will create a significant manufacturing tax incentive to encourage investment in communities that have faced or are about to face job losses. To make it easier for workers to find new jobs, Senator Klobuchar will also create a new tax credit for companies that hire workers who have previously depended on the fossil fuel industry for employment. 

Senator Klobuchar describes how she will pay for these plans and more hereherehereherehere and here. To pay for her deficit reduction fund, Senator Klobuchar will increase the corporate rate by two additional points to 27 percent and initiate a government-wide budget review.  To pay for her child poverty plan, Senator Klobuchar will repeal the regressive portions of the 2017 Republican tax bill.

Democratic Candidates for 2020: Senator Klobuchar Pledges ‘For the People’ Act to Protect the Right to Vote

Senator Amy Klobuchar has pledged that the For the People Act — legislation that contains 13 of Senator Klobuchar’s legislative provisions to improve access to the ballot box — will be the first bill she sends to Congress as President. (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

The vigorous contest of Democrats seeking the 2020 presidential nomination has produced excellent policy proposals to address major issues. Senator Amy Klobuchar has pledged that the For the People Act — legislation that contains 13 of Senator Klobuchar’s legislative provisions to improve access to the ballot box — will be the first bill she sends to Congress as President. This is from the Klobuchar campaign:

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – The right to vote has been hard-fought and hard-won. Right now, insidious forces are working to take that right away. There are those who suppress the vote with intimidation, repress our voices with dark money, and refuse to address foreign attacks on our elections.

Not Senator Klobuchar.

Senator Klobuchar believes it’s time to take back our democracy. She’s leading the effort in Congress to automatically register every American to vote when they turn 18, and she has fought for the passage of legislation that would restore the Voting Rights Act to take on discrimination at the polls. She’s also worked to get dark money out of politics and in her first month as a Senator, she helped lead the successful push for meaningful ethics reform in Congress.

At the same time, Senator Klobuchar is working to make it harder for foreign adversaries to interfere in our elections. In 2018, she secured $380 million in election security funds so states could improve their election infrastructure and protect their elections from attacks by foreign adversaries. And she’s leading legislation in the Senate to protect our elections with backup paper ballots, election audits, and accountability for political ads on the internet.

Senator Klobuchar has pledged that the For the People Act — legislation that has thirteen of Senator Klobuchar’s legislative provisions — will be the first bill she sends to Congress as President.

She will also champion a voting rights and democracy reform package that:

Eliminates obstacles to voting and makes it easier to vote by

Spearheading automatic voter registration for all eligible citizens on their eighteenth birthday by passing and signing into law Senator Klobuchar’s Register America to Vote Act 

Restoring the Voting Rights Act protections for voters in states with a recent history of discrimination

Breaking down institutional barriers to voting, promoting early voting, and prohibiting states from purging voters from rolls for not voting in recent elections by passing and signing into law Senator Klobuchar’s SAVE VOTERS Act

Establishing minimum notification requirements for voters affected by polling place changes

Designating election day as a federal holiday 

Working with states to assist voters with disabilities

Passing Same Day Registration to require states to allow people to register to vote on the same day as the election by passing and signing into law Senator Klobuchar’s Same Day Registration Act 

Ensures elections are free and fair by

Restoring citizens’ right to vote after being released from incarceration.

Ending partisan gerrymandering

Requiring backup paper ballots and providing election security grants to states for cyber improvements and audits as part of the Election Security Act — an effort Senator Klobuchar has led and continues to lead in the Senate 

Ensuring accountability for political ads on the internet by passing and signing into law Senator Klobuchar’s bipartisan Honest Ads Act

Ensuring ballots are counted from Americans serving in the military and their family members

Combating foreign interference campaigns by improving media literacy education that teaches students skills to identify misinformation online

Overhauls our campaign finance system by

Supporting a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United 

Establishing a campaign finance system to increase the power of small donors through a multiple matching system for small donations

In addition, Senator Klobuchar has laid out a plan for her first 100 days that includes executive action she can take to strengthen our democracy immediately: 

Revive the aggressive protection of voting rights. Senator Klobuchar will restore the federal government’s longstanding position of challenging intentionally racially discriminatory voting laws. And while Congress works to restore the Voting Rights Act (VRA), Senator Klobuchar will direct the Department of Justice to use Section 3 of the VRA to “bail-in” jurisdictions to its preclearance requirements, allowing federal courts to place jurisdictions under the oversight requirement of the VRA.

Prioritize cybersecurity and protect our elections and other American infrastructure from cyber attack. As President, Senator Klobuchar will make cybersecurity an immediate priority. She will issue an Executive Order launching government-wide cybersecurity initiatives, fast-tracking and streamlining procurement of modern information technology across agencies. She will also launch a cabinet-level taskforce on election cybersecurity to coordinate across agencies, including the intelligence community, on how the federal government can work with state and local governments to address cyber threats to our democracy and infrastructure. She will also introduce legislation that provides election security funding, requires backup paper ballots, and requires campaigns to report contacts from foreign nationals seeking to interfere in an election to federal authorities.

Impose full sanctions on Russia for hostile act against the United States and its allies. In 2017, Congress passed legislation providing additional authorities for the President to impose sanctions on Russia in response to its election interference and other aggressive actions. The Trump Administration has resisted full implementation of these sanctions. Senator Klobuchar will use these authorities to the fullest extent possible to impose serious costs on the Putin regime and its enablers for hostile acts against the United States and our allies.

Shine a light on the corporate dark money spending. Senator Klobuchar will shine a light on the dark money by requiring publicly traded companies to disclose all political spending over $10,000 to their shareholders.

Bring transparency to dark money issue advocacy. Senator Klobuchar will direct the IRS to institute the requirement that tax-exempt organizations that engage in issue advocacy disclose to the IRS the names of individual donors who contribute more than $5,000 per year.

Restore protections for journalists and protect the First Amendment. Senator Klobuchar will restore former Attorney General Eric Holder’s guidance on protections for journalists so that they are not jailed for doing their jobs.

Overhaul ethics rules for White House employees and other senior officials. Senator Klobuchar will make clear that the President and Vice President must follow our conflict of interest laws, do more to investigate foreign agents who lobby in the United States, give the Office of Government Ethics more enforcement power, and provide additional protections for all Special Counsels.

Ensure that the President is not above the law. Senator Klobuchar will instruct the Justice Department to withdraw the Office of Legal Counsel’s opinions prohibiting the indictment of a sitting president.

Fill judicial vacancies by nominating well-qualified judges on day one. Senator Klobuchar will waste no time in working with the Senate and the American Bar Association to nominate a full slate of well-qualified judges who will follow the law to fill judicial vacancies on federal courts on day one of her presidency.

Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota Announces Run for President

Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, spoke for 23 minutes in frigid 14 degree temperature (feeling like 4 degrees), in a thick snowfall, without hat or gloves, in front of hundreds of supporters on Boom Island who had stood for hours to hear her declare her candidacy for President. Already, with an unprecedented number of women running for Election 2020, the tone is different, as Klobuchar raised issues of child care, universal health care, lower prescription drug prices, gun violence prevention, climate action, criminal justice reform, fair wages and taxes, the need for diplomacy and international alliances as key.

Here are highlights from her speech declaring her run for President:

Prosperity shared leads to better lives for all. [America is] a beacon for democracy, one in which every one matters. We start in this place…

[Recalling when the deteriorating I 35W Bridge over the Mississippi collapsed, killing 13 and injuring 145, and the first responders dove in to try to save them, a wake-up call to the nation’s deteriorating infrastructure.] A bridge shouldn’t fall down in America..Suddenly the eyes of a nation are on our state. The nation saw in visceral way that everyone matters. Later, I worked across the aisle and rebuilt that I 35 bridge- that’s community shared, a story or ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

That sense of community is fracturing across the nation, worn down by the petty and vicious nature of our politics. We are tired of shutdowns, showdowns, gridlock and grandstanding. Today, in this snowy day, on this island, we say enough is enough

Our nation must be governed not from chaos, but opportunity, not by wallowing over what’s wrong, but marching inexorably to what’s right.

It starts with all of us.

My family story – both on my Mom and Dad’s side, arrived in this country with nothing but a suitcase. They made a home here.

Like so many immigrants they wanted a better life for their family. My grandfather worked 1500 ft below ground mining. My Dad – now age 90 – got a two-year degree, then finished at University of Minnesota and became a journalist. As a young AP reporter, he called the 1960 race for JFK, interviewed everyone from Reagan to Ginger Rogers. Freedom of the press wasn’t some abstract idea to my dad; he embraced it, lived it.

My Mom, a proud union member, taught 2nd grade in the suburbs until she was 70 years old, her students still come up and say she was their favorite.

On this island in the middle of mighty Mississippi, in nation’s heartland, at a time when we must heal the heart of democracy and renew our commitment to common good, I stand before you, as granddaughter of iron ore miner, a daughter of newspaper man, the first woman elected to US Senate from the state of Minnesota, to announce my candidacy for president of the United States.

I am running for this job for everyone who wants their work recognized and rewarded, for every parent who wants a better world for their kids, for every student who wants a good education, for every senior who wants affordable prescription drug, for every worker, farmer, dreamer, builder, for every American, I am running for you.

And I promise you this, as your president, I will look you in the eye, tell  you what I think, focus on getting things done, that’s what I have done my whole life. And no matter what, I will lead from the heart.

Let me blunt.

For too long leaders in Washington have sat on sidelines while others tried to figure out about changing economy, impact on our lives, disruptive nature of new technology, income inequality, political and geographic divides, changing climate, tumult in the world.

Stop seeing these as obstacles on our path – let’s see obstacles as our path.

This is what I mean.

There are insidious forces every day trying to make it hard to vote, drown out voices with big money – time to organize, galvanize, take back our democracy. It’s time America.

It’s time to pass a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and get dark money out of our politics.

It’s time to stop discriminatory action by restoring the Voting Rights Act. Time to pass my bill to automatically every young person to vote when they turn 18.

The obstacle they are throwing at us with big money, obstacles to voting, are obstacles but also our path – as Paul Wellstone would tell us, it’s how we organize.

Here’s another: Climate change. The people are on our side – because like you and I, they believe in science.

That’s why in the first 100 days of my administration I will reinstate the Clean Power rules and the gas mileage standards and put forth sweeping legislation to invest in green jobs and infrastructure.

And on Day 1 we will rejoin the International Climate Agreement.

The obstacles, they are our path.

Another challenge: Way too many politicians have their head stuck in the sand when it comes to the digital revolution. It’s not coming, it’s here. If you don’t know the difference between a hack and slack, it’s time to pull off the digital highway.

What would I do? Put some digital rules of the road into law when it comes to people’s privacy.

For too long big tech companies have been telling you, ‘Don’t worry, we have your back’ while your identities are being stolen, your data being mined. Our laws have to be as sophisticated as those who are breaking them.

I would guarantee net neutrality for all; connect the digital divide by 2022 – that means you, Rural America. If they can do it in Iceland we can do it here.

Train our workers today for the jobs of tomorrow, strengthen economy for what’s ahead– strengthening certifications, 2 year degrees, make it easier to get them.

And comprehensive immigration reform. It is time America.

Close those tax loopholes designed by and for the wealthy and bring down our debt and make it easier for workers to afford child care, housing and education – that is what I mean by shared prosperity.

But we can’t get there if people can’t afford their health care – that means getting to universal health care, and bringing down the cost of prescription drugs.

Last week, my guest at the State of the Union, here with us today, Nicole Smith Colt. Her 26 year old son Alec, aged off his parents’ insurance just 3 days short of payday. A diabetic, he couldn’t afford insulin, a simple drug that’s been around for nearly a century. He tried rationing but it didn’t work, and he died. This disgrace should never happen in the United States of America today.  

The obstacle to change? Big Pharma. Well, they don’t own me and they don’t own Nicole.

We are teaming up to pass meaningful legislation, to bring in cheaper drugs from other countries, stop keeping generics off market – harness the negotiating power of 43 million seniors, lift the ban on negotiating cheaper prices under Medicare.

I’ve always believed in doing my job without fear or favor – that’s what I do as a senator, what I did as a prosecutor – convicting the guilty, protecting the innocent.

It’s why I have and always will advocate for criminal justice reform.

And, in a state where we all value hunting and fishing and the great outdoors, I am not afraid to join the vast majority of Americans, including many gun owners to stand up to gun lobby and put universal background checks and commonsense gun legislation into law. It is time America.

Even if we isolate from the rest of world, the rest of world won’t let you – international problems come banging at the door just as opportunities come knocking.

We must stand consistently with our allies, be clear in our purpose, respect our front line troops, diplomats and intelligence officers, who are there every day risking their lives for us. They deserve better than foreign policy by tweet/

(cheers)

And one last obstacle we must overcome: To move forward together, stop the fear-mongering and stop the hate. We may come from different places, pray in different ways, look different, love differently but we all live in the same country of shared dreams.

In Minnesota, we have the biggest Somali population in the country and we are proud of that community. A few years ago, at the height of angry rhetoric, a Somali family of 4 went to dinner. A guy passing by said, ‘You four go home where you came from.’ The little girl said, ‘Mom, I don’t want to go home. You said we could eat out for dinner out tonight.’ You think of the innocent words of that little girl – she only knows one home, our state, one home, the United States.

Walt Whitman, the great American poet, said: I hear America singing the very carols I hear.” For Whitman, those were the songs of the mechanics, carpenters, masons, shoemakers, and those carols are still being sung today – that is also the song of our sisters and brothers, a chorus of different races, creeds, way of life.

E plurbus unum – out of many is one.

It is more than a motto, America – it is the North Star of our democracy. It is the North Star of our effort.

I am asking you to join this campaign – it is a homegrown one.

I don’t have a political machine, I don’t come from money, but what I do have is this: I have grit.

I have family, I have friends, I have neighbors and have all of you who are willing to come out in the middle of winter, who took the time to watch today from home, willing to stand up and say people matter.

I am asking you not to look down, not to look away. I am asking you to look up, at each other, the future before us, let us rise to the occasion and meet the challenges of our day – cross the river of our divides and walk across a sturdy bridge to higher ground.

As one faith leader reminded me: to pursue the good we must believe that good will prevail.

I do believe it, and so do you.

Let’s join together as one nation, one nation, indivisible, under God and pursue the good.

Thank you and God bless America.