As the tragedy of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill deepens, Congress is finally narrowing its focus on what to do not only with this spill but to prevent future widespread-effect oil spills.

The Gulf of Mexico spill, still flowing after a month, has now eclipsed the Exxon Valdiz spill as the worst in the nation’s history.

Congress is now at work reforming laws that should have been reformed during the Bush administration.

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Washington, D.C. — U.S. Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.), Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine), and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) yesterday (Tuesday, June 8) filed a bipartisan amendment to the safety net legislation now being considered on the Senate floor.

The proposal would create an Office of the Homeowner Advocate, funded from existing sources, whose focus would be on assisting homeowners who believe their mortgage servicer is breaking the rules. Currently, these families have nowhere to turn when wrongly denied from the assistance program, or encounter difficulties in navigating the already stressful system of avoiding foreclosure.

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MINNEAPOLIS – Once school dismisses for the year, summer can be a hungry time for Minnesota kids, because during the school year, one-third of school-age children rely on free or reduced-price lunch for two-thirds of their daily food. Late last week, Senator Al Franken and Hunger Solutions Minnesota announced a one-million dollar grant to bridge the summer hunger gap for the state’s children.

The executive director of Hunger Solutions, Colleen Moriarty, says the funding is good news for food shelves that are facing a lean season.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. [06/8/10] – Today, U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) participated in a Judiciary Committee hearing regarding the liability of BP in the wake of the catastrophic spill in the Gulf. The hearing, titled “The Risky Business of Big Oil: Have Recent Court Decisions and Liability Caps Encouraged Irresponsible Corporate Behavior?” exposed how federal rules limit liability sharply and do not appear to deter risky activities. The hearing also exposed how the Supreme Court has limited the power of juries and courts to impose sanctions on oil companies above and beyond the cost of compensation to injured persons. Taken together, the current liability rules strongly favor oil companies at the expense of all of those harmed by oil spills.

“This tragedy shows us that our laws aren’t doing enough,” said Sen. Franken. “We need to improve our laws so that bad actors like BP can’t just make a business decision to ignore them. We need laws that better incentivize safety. And we need laws that strictly penalize violations, and help the people harmed by those violations.”

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If there was ever a time in our history that the United States will not drill its way out of its energy problems, it’s now.

That was the message Sen. Al Franken brought to Fergus Falls Friday where he was the keynote speaker at the Minnesota Renewable Energy Roundtable held at the Bigwood Event Center.

In addition to Franken’s address, Bemidji State University professor and Minnesota Renewable Energy Roundtable Thought Leader Jim Bensen challenged participants to think about how addressing an issue determines whether it is a problem or an opportunity.

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With public attention focused on everything from the oil disaster, the diplomatic isolation of Israel, to Al and Tipper’s separation, the final legislative push for financial reform begins this week as House and Senate conferees commence their work. This is the moment when lobbyists for the banking industry hope to kill provisions that they were unable to block in the House or Senate. This is no time for reformers to relent.

Much of the conference will be in public session — a break with recent practice — but backroom deals are likely to determine the final outcome. Efforts by progressives and friendly media are desperately needed to keep the pressure on to strengthen, rather than weaken, reform. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, more than 1,400 former legislators and Hill staff now work for the banking lobby. The industry has about 1,800 paid lobbyists in all, compared to about 60 mostly volunteer lobbyists from several dozen consumer and labor organizations working (on their own time) under the banner of Americans for Financial Reform (AFR).

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U.S. Sen. Al Franken held a field hearing at the State Capitol to explore how Minnesota citizens and taxpayers continue to struggle because of Wall Street excesses and to discuss how Congress’ legislation will protect Minnesotans and end taxpayer bailouts of Wall Street banks.

“Wall Street gambled with Minnesotans’ life savings and lost,” said Franken, D-Minn “There were human costs to Wall Street’s excesses. Today is about exposing those costs and offering real relief. I’ve been hard at work to reform Wall Street and end the dishonest schemes that took down our economy in 2008. We must hold Wall Street accountable and protect Minnesota consumers. And we must make sure that taxpayers are never again on the hook for Wall Street’s bad bets.”

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During a tour of Mayo Clinic on Thursday, the nation’s top health official said the new health-reform law allows Mayo’s successes to be emulated by other health organizations without administrative changes.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was given the tour by Mayo’s top officials — President Dr. John Noseworthy and Chief Administrative Officer Shirley Weis. They were joined by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Al Franken, Rep. Tim Walz and, from Wisconsin, Rep. Ron Kind.

As part of the new law, Mayo has begun several pilot projects to explore ways to make people healthy, including the three-year “Medical Home Project” in Austin, Sebelius said.

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U.S. Senator Al Franken was at the State Capitol on Wednesday (June 2) taking testimony on the Wall Street reform legislation currently before Congress.

Franken succeeded in amending the Senate reform bill, with some Republican support, to include a provision that would have a group of third-party, nongovernmental private investors assigning credit rating agencies to banks when banks want a financial product rated.

Franken argues that one factor that led to the financial services industry meltdown was that banks could “shop around” for credit ratings.

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In December, more than 3,500 Hmong refugees were forcibly deported from Thailand to Laos.

Seven months later, Caitlin Lee, board president of the Eau Claire Area Hmong Mutual Assistance Association, said there still are concerns for the returnees, including the immigration process, safety and living conditions. Then there is the matter of how to help them as they resettle.

“When are they (the Lao government) going to start allowing international organizations and nongovernmental organizations in to help monitor this whole process?” she asked.

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