James Oberstar

Rep. Betty McCollum is spearheading an effort to get nonprofit employees included in the health reform benefits being planned for small businesses. She has penned a letter to congressional leaders urging them to consider nonprofits on a level playing field with small businesses.

Third-quarter campaign finance reports seem to show a trend: The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Rep. Michele Bachmann, whose cable-TV and townhall tour has had her rattling off now-infamous claims about “anti-American views” and wrist-slitting to oppose health care reform, is raking in the dough today, thanks to a new fundraising appeal that calls supporters [...]

Of 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, only ten have missed more votes this session than Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, according to the Washington Post’s tally. Bachmann has missed 105 votes, or 13.6 percent of all votes. Fellow Republican Rep. Erik Paulsen had the state’s best record, missing only six votes in the [...]

The U.S. House voted to suspend all federal funding for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) on Thursday afternoon by a vote of 345 to 75. Now the measure heads to the Senate, which passed a bill banning federal housing monies from going to the embattled nonprofit.

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s talk of stopping health care reform by fasting, praying and wrist-slitting has prompted not only lefty pundits but a top Democratic colleague to question what’s going on between her ears. Jim Oberstar, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, remarked Tuesday: “I don’t think God’s talking to her anymore. I think she’s hearing other [...]

Minnesota’s members of the House of Representatives are back in their home districts gauging how constituents feel about federal issues. That feedback will also include town hall meetings for a number of Congress members including Reps. Tim Walz, Collin Peterson and Michele Bachmann. Will Minnesota’s town halls get as rowdy as ones around the nation? Time will tell. Here’s what Minnesota Congressional delegation was up to this week.

In a Farmfest speech that was as much national as state-focused, Gov. Pawlenty urged ailing dairy farmers to increase demand by selling to China and India and promised to create a Minnesota Farmer Assistance Network (MFAN) for one-stop advice. State Rep. Al Juhnke, a DFLer from Willmar, said the guv’s “words ring true but his actions [...]

The plight of Minnesota’s dairy farmers occupied the time of Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Reps. Tim Walz, Collin Peterson and James Oberstar, who worked this week to find relief for farmers hard hit by economic and natural disaster. That and other highlights from Minnesota’s congressional delegation inside.

Minnesota’s congressional delegation spent a lot of time discussing health care this week, but there were other issues to deal with. Railroads, grasslands, student loans and peace in the Middle East all garnered attention from Minnesota’s members of Congress.

Rep. Betty McCollum says she won’t vote for a health care reform bill unless it fixes Medicare formulas that penalize Minnesota’s above-average health care system by imposing higher premiums. And she’s created a coalition of unlikely allies on the issue — Minnesota’s congressional delegates. The group has wildly divergent views on health care reform, but [...]