Guest column: Continuing to fight for rural economy – Albert Lea Tribune

Visitor column by Amy Klobuchar

Minnesota depends on the power of our state’s rural communities and farmlands. As your senator and as one of many leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee, it’s necessary to me to listen to instantly in regards to the challenges you might be going through. Yearly I’m going to all 87 of Minnesota’s counties, and final month, I went on a 19-county tour to go to farms, small companies and different organizations all through rural Minnesota.

Amy Klobuchar

All over the place I went, I bought to speak to small enterprise homeowners who had been proud to contribute to their native financial system, neighbors who went the additional mile for one another and individuals who liked their group and their lifestyle.

In Freeborn County, I met the homeowners of Inexperienced Acres Milling, a farmer-owned oat processor with a plan to make our state a significant participant within the oats trade. In Isanti County, I visited the Braham Meals Shelf and bought to know among the devoted volunteers who work to get meals and necessities to households. And in Rock County, I celebrated the grand opening of the Youngsters Rock Baby Heart in Luverne, which added almost 200 little one care spots, making it simpler for individuals to work in the neighborhood and help their households.

However in each place I visited, I met individuals who had been going through challenges with their livelihoods, together with from the affect of the brand new White Home tariff coverage.

Once I spoke on the VINE Grownup Group Heart in Blue Earth County, I talked to seniors who had been involved that the administration’s determination to cut back Social Safety subject workplaces and staffing and alter insurance policies on the Social Safety Administration may make it more durable for them to get the checks that they earned. And I met with native leaders in Martin County who perceive that cuts to Medicaid threaten nursing houses within the space. There isn’t a excuse for placing older People’ livelihoods and wellbeing on the chopping block. That’s the reason again within the Senate, I’m preventing to guard and strengthen Social Safety and Medicaid.

I additionally heard quite a lot of frustration with the administration’s tariff coverage, which dangers rising costs, completely shedding export markets and driving down tourism to our nation. The administration’s across-the-board tariffs are projected to value the common American household over $3,000 per 12 months at a time when so many individuals are already struggling to remain afloat.

These issues had been entrance and middle for the farmers I heard from on the city corridor I hosted with the Minnesota Farmer Bureau and the Minnesota Farmers Union in Howard Lake. Between excessive enter prices, excessive climate and illness outbreaks like avian flu, quite a lot of farmers are already working on slim margins. In Moorhead, a Minnesota Soybean board member informed me that the administration’s tariffs may trigger different nations to buy soybeans from Brazil as a substitute of the USA. These tariffs have additionally undermined relationships with nations like Canada that our state’s vacationer points of interest and related resorts, eating places and native companies rely on.

That’s why I’ve taken motion within the Senate. In March, together with Sen. Tim Kaine, I efficiently led bipartisan laws that handed the Senate to undo President Trump’s tariffs on Canadian imports. I’ve additionally joined a bipartisan group of 14 senators — seven Republicans and 7 Democrats — to introduce a invoice to reassert Congress’ authority to set tariffs. This invoice would guarantee Congress should assessment and approve new tariffs inside 60 days. And as a pacesetter of the Senate Agriculture Committee, I’m dedicated to making sure the U.S. Division of Agriculture is an advocate to the farmers who put meals on our tables.

I’m grateful for everybody who took the time to speak to me over the course of my 19-county rural tour. I’m bringing their tales again to Washington, the place I’ll by no means cease preventing for rural Minnesota.

Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, is a U.S. senator.