The Great Minnesota Get Together ended, but I was thrilled to not only be at the fair but around the state during August recess. It’s one of my favorite times of year where I get to be in Minnesota crisscrossing the state talking with Minnesotans about what matters to them. I spent a lot of time in Greater Minnesota talking about infrastructure and the upcoming Farm Bill and was able to welcome the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and the U.S. Secretary of Energy where we advocated to them for our agricultural and clean energy sectors.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm visited Minnesota during the August recess to promote clean energy and infrastructure in the state. Secretary Granholm and I visited Lincoln Park Solar Garden in Duluth for a tour. The park provides homegrown clean energy to the community and saves constituents money. The savings are going to support the Duluth Veterans’ Place, a transitional housing project for veterans, and to establish an Emergency Energy Fund to help families struggling to pay their utility bills. These are the kinds of projects I hope to see more of thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act. Secretary Vilsack and I hosted a roundtable with young farmers and local leaders to discuss rebuilding rural communities through new infrastructure projects in Greater Minnesota. 

When I was in Rushford, we talked about how we came together 100 years ago, in a public-private partnership to allow everyone to have electricity - and that’s what we’re trying to do today with high-speed broadband today. The USDA is investing to connect over 300 households and 148 farms to high-speed internet to get us one step closer to reaching that goal. Then I traveled to nearby Featherstone Farms, where I talked with Jack Hedin about how specialty crop farmers like him don’t always fit perfectly into existing risk management policies and crop insurance policies. Without coverage, one bad storm or drought can put them out of business. That’s why I support including farm revenue protection in the upcoming Farm Bill.

One of the biggest challenges facing rural communities is the exodus of health care providers for more urban areas. Greater Minnesota is no stranger to this issue as families have to travel further and further to get basic health care, including maternity care. It’s unacceptable that a woman giving birth in 1987 has a greater likelihood of surviving childbirth than her daughter does today, which is why I worked so hard to get the Rural MOMS Act signed into law. The bill supported programs like the one I visited in Bemidji to increase maternity training and resources for rural providers and expand telehealth to include prenatal, labor, birthing and postpartum services.

I’m hopeful we can get Washington to pass transformative legislation for rural areas.

I’m always finding new ways to meet Minnesotans where they’re at and let them know how I’m fighting for working families in Washington, DC. Feel free to stay up to date with me by following my ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) @SenTinaSmith, Instagram @SenatorTinaSmith, or Facebook.