Capitol Catchall: Walz urges action on milk crisis, Madia says he won’t run in 2010

(WDCpix)

Sheesh: Another Democrat with tax problems — and one of our own? It’s true, only Sen. Amy Klobuchar‘s mistake was in overpaying taxes.

Al Franken is in Washington, D.C., today and tomorrow readying himself to begin as Minnesota’s junior senator, should the ongoing senate contest trial ultimately go his way. He’ll be brushing up on both policy and senate procedures, Chris Cillizza reports, and will have meetings with a range of advisors, including representatives of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and  the late Sen. Paul Wellstone‘s senior policy advisor.

Ashwin Madia, the Democrat who lost to Rep. Erik Paulsen for Minnesota’s 3rd congressional district seat, talked to Gavin Sullivan recently about his future political prospects. While running for Congress was “one of the best experiences of [his] life,” he won’t seek the post anytime soon. “I want to run again for office, and I want to win next time,” he said. “However, for a number of reasons, I don’t think that I’ll be running for Congress in 2010.“  [via]

In an op-ed piece for the Duluth News Tribune, Rep. Jim Oberstar urges speedy passage of the economic stimulus bill, citing a Moody’s study that says the recovery bill could put nearly 91,000 Minnesotans to work. Oberstar says he pushed for “use-it-or-lose-it” measures in the package: “If states don’t start using that money on road-and-bridge projects in 90 days, funds will go back to the treasury to be redistributed to states ready to start creating jobs,” he writes. “Every 30 days, states will have to report to Congress on how the money is being spent and how many jobs are being created.” Past estimates for job creation, including Oberstar’s guesstimate about construction jobs, have proven high, which he says is the impetus behind the use-it-or-lose-it condition.

Rep. John Kline has been appointed to the House Intelligence Committee.

On Monday, Rep. Tim Walz wrote a letter [pdf] to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack urging him to use Section 32 funds — those set aside for purchasing surplus commodities — to help struggling milk producers. Milk futures, trading at $20 per hundredweight just last summer, are now down to $9.30 per hundredweight; plus, the U.S. federal milk marketing order reports a 32 percent drop in milk prices from January to February. “It’s a short term fix,” Walz acknowledges, “but it kind of takes on two challenges…It gets the nutrition out there to nutrition programs and makes sure we don’t lose all these jobs in dairy.”