WASHINGTON, D.C. — As Senate leadership prepares to introduce its health care legislation this week, Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., again denounced the Democrats’ reform plan, calling it a “maze of new bureaucracies, mandates, and tax hikes.”

In an op-ed article headlined “Perils of big-government power grab,” the ranking member of the House Education and Labor Committee took the Democrats to task for proposing to expand Medicaid and CHIP programs while at the same time distributing hundreds of billions of dollars in insurance coverage subsidies.

“Growing the federal government’s power and influence over America’s healthcare system will ensure greater confusion for families and businesses,” Kline wrote.

Those that favor the Democrats’ plan and the creation of a so-called public option argue, however, that government involvement will help level the playing field and ultimately reduce costs.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sen. Amy Klobuchar introduced a bill this week intended to increase job training and apprenticeship opportunities for post-9/11 veterans.

According to Klobuchar’s office, 18 percent of veterans who have left service in the past three years are unemployed. This is almost double the national unemployment rate.

“When our soldiers sign up for service, there isn’t a waiting line and there shouldn’t be a waiting line when they come home and need a job,” Klobuchar said in a statement.  

Current regulations specify that veterans cannot use their educational benefits to pay for an apprenticeship or on-the-job training. Instead, benefits can basically only go towards paying for school.

“Not every returning soldier chooses to go to college but they still want a job,” said Klobuchar.  “Job training, from pipe-fitting to law enforcement, should be covered by the G.I. Bill.” 

The proposed bill would classify job training and apprenticeships as eligible programs for educational benefits.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Did Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., misuse federal funds when she used her U.S. House webpage last week to encourage health-care reform protesters to come to the Capitol?

POLITICO says perhaps.

House rules specify that member sites “may not include grass-roots lobbying or solicit support for a member’s position,” according to POLITICO.

Go here to read the full story.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Following a memorial service Thursday at Fort Hood where 13 people were killed in a shooting rampage, including a soldier from St. Paul, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., released the following statement:

“Today, along with Senator Franken and Congresswoman McCollum, I was honored to attend the memorial service at Fort Hood for Kham Xiong of St. Paul and the twelve other soldiers so senselessly killed in last week’s rampage. It was heartbreaking to see Kham’s family and to witness how courageous they were as they stood by his framed picture propped next to his boots.  Kham and his wife, Shoua, dated since they were in eighth grade, and she and their three beautiful children will soon be moving back to St. Paul.  Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.  We know his devotion and spirit will live on in his three young children.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Minnesota’s 4th District Rep. Betty McCollum expressed “great concern” today in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the last-minute abortion restrictions that were inserted Saturday night in the House-passed health care bill. The Democrat from St. Paul, however, stopped short of issuing an ultimatum on the issue.

“As a member who strongly supports a woman’s right to comprehensive reproductive health care, the inclusion of the Stupak-Pitts amendment to H.R. 3962 is of great concern to me,” she wrote. “This unique opportunity to expand health care insurance to 36 million Americans should not be used to restrict women’s health care choices.

The Stupak-Pitts amendment bars the government-run insurance option and any private insurance plan on the proposed exchange that accepts people using government subsidies from offering abortion coverage.

Opponents have argued, however, that it would likely affect people using their own money because insurance companies would have incentives to remove coverage of the procedure from their plans.

Following passage of the measure, Democratic Reps. Diana DeGette of Colorado and Louise Slaughter of New York began circulating a letter denouncing the amendment and promising not to vote for a final bill “that contains language that restricts women’s right to choose any further than current law.”

According to DeGette’s office, the letter currently has more than 40 signatures, which have not yet been made public.

Unlike the DeGette/Slaughter letter, McCollum — who holds a leadership position in the House as senior Democratic whip — did not say that her vote would hinge on abortion coverage issues.

Instead, McCollum reaffirmed her willingness to work with Pelosi and pointed to the conference committee as a possible time to change the Stupak language.

“It is my intention to work to expand health care access to all American and work with you and other members of the Democratic caucus to maintain current law with regard to federal funding of abortions,” McCollum wrote to Pelosi. “I look forward to working with you, Madam Speaker, to ensure a strong health care reform conference report emerges and that access to reproductive health care is not limited for women.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. House narrowly passed historic health-care reform legislation late Saturday, clearing the way for a possible vote in the Senate before the end of the year. The vote was 220 to 215.

Minnesota Democratic Reps. Tim Walz, Betty McCollum, Keith Ellison and Jim Oberstar voted in favor of the bill.

Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., and Minnesota Republican Reps. John Kline, Erik Paulsen and Michele Bachmann voted against it. 

MinnPost will have additional coverage and analysis of the vote on Monday.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., extended her sympathies Friday to the family of U.S. Army Private First Class Kham Xiong, a resident of St. Paul who was killed during the Thursday shooting at the Fort Hood Army Base in Texas, which left at least 13 dead and 30 wounded.

“I wish to extend my deepest sympathies to the family of Private First Class Kham Xiong,” McCollum, who represents St. Paul, said in a statement.  “This senseless act of violence has resulted in a tremendous loss for the Xiong family, but also for residents of St. Paul, and indeed our entire nation. Private First Class Xiong was among the brave men and women in uniform who volunteer to serve and sacrifice in order to protect our nation’s freedom.  Congress and the entire country join the Xiong family in mourning this loss and we hold the memory of PFC Kham Xiong in our hearts.”

Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., who represents Minneapolis, also extended his “sincere condolences to the families of those killed or wounded in the horrific attack...

“My thoughts and prayers are with each and every one of them during this trying time. I join my fellow Members of Congress in saluting all the brave men and women who serve our country in uniform, and I am deeply saddened by this profound loss,” Ellison said in a statement. “I further want to recognize the heroic efforts on the part of those men and women who rose to the occasion in subduing the assailant.  Without their brave heroism, more lives might have been lost.  I would also like to thank the leadership of Fort Hood for their response to the tragedy and for maintaining calm and order. Right now, our top priority should be to support the victims and families and ensure the safety of all our military personnel.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., announced today that he will support the health care reform legislation in the House, which may come up for a vote on Saturday.

Up until Friday evening, Walz would not say definitively whether he would vote for the legislation or not. In recent weeks, however, he did indicate that he was leaning toward voting “yes” on the bill.

Key to his support were two studies that were recently added to the legislation, which will seek to update the Medicare formula that accounts for geographic differences in cost and implement a fee for quality system as opposed to the fee for service model that Medicare uses now.

“I’m voting for this bill because it solves two long-standing problems with how Medicare pays Minnesota doctors and hospitals,” Walz said in a statement. “The first change ends the fee-for-service payment model in Medicare that Mayo and other experts have said perversely encourages hospitals to perform unnecessary procedures and tests... The second change corrects the bone-headed fact that Medicare historically under-pays Minnesota doctors and hospitals simply because of geography -- simply because of where we live.”

But some have criticized the House plan for not being strong enough.

The changes would result from two studies, one of which would be subject to congressional disapproval.

Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., also formally came out in support of the legislation this week.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As unemployment numbers continued to climb this week, Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., accused the Democrats of focusing on a “government takeover of health care” at the expense of the economy.

“In their haste to put Washington bureaucrats in charge of vital medical decisions, Democrats have failed to deliver on their economic promises,” Kline said in a statement. “The American people were promised jobs and economic recovery. Instead, they’re getting bigger government and less freedom.”

The unemployment rate in the U.S. hit 10.2 percent in October, which marks a 26-year high.

The administration has said, however, that the economic picture would have been worse without the $787 billion stimulus package that it has claimed saved or created about 640,000 jobs.

Go here to read more.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. House voted this week to expedite credit-card consumer protections, which President Obama signed into law earlier this year, after credit card companies began raising interest rates in advance of the legislation’s start date.

 “Unfortunately, some credit card companies have abused the time that was given them to convert their computer software to meet the requirements of the law, to make last-minute rate hikes to bilk consumers of as much as they can before the law we passed kicks into gear,” Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., said in a statement.

The original legislation was slated to take effect in Feb. 2010. The expedited act that passed this week would have those reforms take effect upon signing of the new bill.

Minnesota Democratic Reps. Tim Walz, Collin Peterson, and Jim Oberstar and Minnesota Republican Rep. Erik Paulsen joined Ellison in voting for the measure.

Minnesota Republican Reps. Michele Bachmann and John Kline voted against it.

Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., was “unavoidably detained when the final vote was taken” but submitted a statement for the record expressing her strong support of the legislation, which she co-sponsored.

“Had I been present, I would have voted in favor of passage,” McCollum said in the statement.

Go here to read more about the bill.