By Senator Amy Klobuchar
As 2025 draws to a close and Minnesotans enjoy a holiday season filled with family, friends, and, yes, snow, I wanted to take stock of what we’ve accomplished this year, reflect on some of the challenges we’ve faced, and look forward to the work ahead.
This year started with the transition of power from one President to another. I chaired the bipartisan inauguration committee and spoke about the need to recommit to my North Star: finding common ground where I can and standing my ground where I must. Last Congress, during a highly partisan time, I was again ranked as one of the Senators with the most bipartisan bills. Washington is a polarized place right now, but I figure you’ve sent me there to do my job.
I’ve worked hard to continue bringing investments to our state. Thanks in part to major infrastructure investments we made in recent years, there are nearly 180 road and bridge projects underway in Minnesota this year alone, like renovating I-94, one of our state’s busiest highways. And we officially rerouted the Red River after lots of bipartisan work to mitigate flooding for hundreds of thousands of people along the Minnesota-North Dakota border.
And after years of organizing by advocates across our state, we passed a number of bipartisan bills to help Minnesotans. Recently, my bipartisan bill with Republican Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, the Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act – supported by the Minnesota Professional Fire Fighters Association and championed by Julie Paidar, who lost her husband, St. Paul firefighter Mike Paidar, to a service-related cancer in 2020 – was added to this year’s defense bill and is on track to become law. It expands support for families of firefighters and other first responders who pass away from service-related cancers. The FASD Respect Act, which I introduced with Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and passed thanks to the advocacy of former First Lady Susan Shepard Carlson, helps children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders and their families access care. These laws will make a real impact for thousands of Minnesotans.
Our state was also struck by tragedies this year: the assassination of Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, and the shooting of Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette, in June; and just a few months later, the shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and School, where 30 people were injured and two children, 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski, were murdered in a senseless act of violence. We will never be able to fill the hole in their families’ hearts, but we must continue to honor their lives. I brought their stories with me to Rome, where, on a visit to help Ukrainian kids abducted by Russia, I presented the Pope with a Senate resolution honoring the entire Annunciation community.
We can truly commemorate those we lost by focusing on what unites us, not what divides us. I heard a lot of common concerns this year during my annual visits to all 87 counties. From Lac qui Parle to Lake of the Woods, I heard the same thing: this administration’s across-the-board tariffs mean household costs are too high. I remain committed to bringing them down.
Whether you’re planning to buy a home, purchase a car, get your crops to market, or simply pay your monthly bills, the tariffs are driving up costs and making it hard for families to make financial decisions big and small. Our farmers have been hit particularly hard, losing access to markets they spent decades building and seeing input costs soar. My bipartisan legislation to end the tariffs on Canada passed the Senate, as well as other bills I supported involving other countries, and I’ll continue working to bring certainty back to our economy.
We also need to lower health care costs. That’s why I’m working to build on the law I passed to lower prescription drug costs for tens of millions of seniors on Medicare. And I’m fighting to prevent premiums from soaring and rural hospitals and nursing homes from closing their doors.
Leave a Reply