Amy Klobuchar
Historical Details
Position on Issues
For| Read My Position
"As President, Senator Klobuchar will not fold. She will stand up for a safer world by:
- Instituting universal background checks by closing the gun show loophole.
- Banning bump stocks that can increase a semiautomatic rifle's rate of fire to 700 rounds per minute.
- Banning high capacity magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition.
- Quickly raising the age to buy military-style assault weapons from 18 to 21 and fighting to ban the sale of assault weapons.
- Providing grants to states to implement extreme risk provisions to empower families and law enforcement to keep guns away from people who show signs of threatening behavior.
- Closing the 'Charleston loophole' by giving law enforcement additional time to complete background checks.
- Closing the 'boyfriend loophole' by preventing people who have abused dating partners from buying or owning firearms.
- Establishing a waiting period for sales of handguns and assault rifles, which law enforcement can waive in the case of an emergency.
- Prohibiting the online publication of code for 3D printing firearms.
- Holding manufacturers and distributors of gun kits to the same standards as those of completed firearms.
- Providing funding for the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention to conduct research on firearm safety and gun violence prevention."
Against| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2017
"eliminating the Medicaid expansion and the Affordable Care Act's hope for millions of people means that they would lose coverage and it would increase their out-of-pocket costs. People in my state are concerned about this bill's impact on rural hospitals especially, as are the rural hospitals, because it makes deep cuts to Medicaid and the new block grant in the bill for states would end completely by 2027."
Against| Read My Position
"'I think we need to look at that law, but I do not support getting rid of that entire law,' Klobuchar said at an event at The Post. 'I think this all comes down to enforcement and you may have cases involving security where you would want to be able to have the tool of that law.'"
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"I supported immigration reform in 2007 and, as a member of the Judiciary Committee, helped pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill in the Senate in 2013 that included an accountable pathway to earned citizenship, enforcement of existing laws, border security, and reforms to our visa system. It also included the DREAM Act, a bill that I have cosponsored and continue to support, which allows immigrants brought to the United States as children, through no choice of their own, to stay in the only country they consider home. Unfortunately, the House of Representatives did not pass this legislation. DREAMers must be given clear legal status through legislation. I will not stop working to find a bipartisan solution to help our DREAMers, fight for the continuation of temporary protected status programs, and ultimately reform our immigration system."
Against| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2017
Klobuchar opposed the Better Care Reconciliation Act, in part because "Under the Senate version, insurance companies will have to accept all applicants with pre-existing conditions but the bill lets states ask permission to reduce essential health benefits."
For| Read My Position
"As President, Senator Klobuchar will not fold. She will stand up for a safer world by:
- Instituting universal background checks by closing the gun show loophole.
- Banning bump stocks that can increase a semiautomatic rifle's rate of fire to 700 rounds per minute.
- Banning high capacity magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition.
- Quickly raising the age to buy military-style assault weapons from 18 to 21 and fighting to ban the sale of assault weapons.
- Providing grants to states to implement extreme risk provisions to empower families and law enforcement to keep guns away from people who show signs of threatening behavior.
- Closing the 'Charleston loophole' by giving law enforcement additional time to complete background checks.
- Closing the 'boyfriend loophole' by preventing people who have abused dating partners from buying or owning firearms.
- Establishing a waiting period for sales of handguns and assault rifles, which law enforcement can waive in the case of an emergency.
- Prohibiting the online publication of code for 3D printing firearms.
- Holding manufacturers and distributors of gun kits to the same standards as those of completed firearms.
- Providing funding for the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention to conduct research on firearm safety and gun violence prevention."
Against| Read My Position
Voting Record, 2015
Voted against moving forward a bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks gestation (HR 36)
For| Read My Position
"I would codify Roe v. Wade and make it the law of the land. But what I want to do right now is just say, what if Donald Trump was standing up here on the debate stage with me? You know what I would say to him? I said, you knew -- you said you wanted to do this in your race for president. You actually said that you wanted to put women in jail. Then you tried to dial it back, and you said you wanted to put doctors in jail.
"That is exactly what the Alabama law is. It put doctors in jail for 99 years. You, Donald Trump, are not on the side of women. You are not on the side of people of this country, when over 75 percent of people want to keep Roe v. Wade on the book, when over 90 percent of people want to make sure we have available contraception. You defunded Planned Parenthood. I would fund it again."
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"If we are going to build a stronger middle class, we need to make sure that Americans can work their way into it. I support increasing the minimum wage."
For| Read My Position
"I would codify Roe v. Wade and make it the law of the land. But what I want to do right now is just say, what if Donald Trump was standing up here on the debate stage with me? You know what I would say to him? I said, you knew -- you said you wanted to do this in your race for president. You actually said that you wanted to put women in jail. Then you tried to dial it back, and you said you wanted to put doctors in jail.
"That is exactly what the Alabama law is. It put doctors in jail for 99 years. You, Donald Trump, are not on the side of women. You are not on the side of people of this country, when over 75 percent of people want to keep Roe v. Wade on the book, when over 90 percent of people want to make sure we have available contraception. You defunded Planned Parenthood. I would fund it again."
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"Promoting energy efficiency is good for business, good for consumers, and good for our economy. One example is my Nonprofit Energy Efficiency Act that I've worked on with Senator Hoeven from North Dakota. The bill empowers the nonprofit community to make energy-efficiency improvements and help both our environment and our local communities by promoting greater energy savings and efficiency."
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"I authored the bipartisan American Renewable Energy Act that called for long-term extensions of renewable energy production tax credits and a national renewable electricity standard of 25 percent by 2025."
For| Read My Position
"As President, Senator Klobuchar will create a new federal-state partnership to provide tuition-free community college one- and two-year degrees, technical certifications and industry-recognized credentials. The federal government will match $3 for every $1 invested by the state for students who qualify for in-state tuition, are enrolled at least half-time, and maintain satisfactory academic progress. When certain economic indicators show a state has increased financial need, the federal share of the match will increase. To qualify for the federal funding, states will also be required to maintain their spending on higher education, limit the rate of tuition increases and ensure that students can easily transfer their credits to four-year programs."
Other| Read My Position
"So what I would do is go back to the negotiating table with our allies examine these tariffs some of them can come off. Some of them could stay on and then make sure that we're using trade enforcement."
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"The collapse of the I-35 bridge was a tragic reminder that we have failed to maintain the roads, bridges, and other public infrastructure that keeps our citizens safe and our economy strong. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave America's infrastructure a grade of 'D+' for 2017. According to the Federal Highway Administration, more than 130,000 of the nation's 600,000 bridges are either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. Traffic congestion alone costs our country billions in wasted time and fuel. If our deteriorating infrastructure goes unaddressed, it will cost our economy nearly $4 trillion by 2025, leading to the loss of 2.5 million jobs. But if we address it, we can create millions of jobs. We need a 21st-century infrastructure network that meets the demands of our 21st-century economy, including safe bridges, modern highways, forward-looking public transportation, increased broadband access, and integrated planning decisions. I was one of the first Democratic senators to support the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, which is a long-term transportation reauthorization bill that became law in December 2015. Minnesota will receive over $4 billion in funding for transportation over the five years of the bill. The FAST Act will provide $36 million in additional highway, bridge, and transit funding for Minnesota in fiscal year 2016 growing to a $107 million increase in fiscal year 2020."
Against| Read My Position
"Stand up to efforts to privatize the VA. Senator Klobuchar opposes efforts to privatize the VA. She believes that expanding access to private care cannot come at the expense of fully funding and expanding the current Veterans Health Administration (VHA) infrastructure. Senator Klobuchar will direct the VHA to use data on private care usage only as a means to help guide investments in its own growth, not as a way to further privatize its core functions."
For| Read My Position
"I support the legalization of marijuana and believe that states should have the right to determine the best approach to marijuana within their borders."
For| Read My Position
"Also, when it comes to Social Security, we have done with means testing. We can do some more. We just want to make sure that whatever we do isn't on the backs of people that we've made a promise to, to support, who've worked their whole lives, and who deserve to retire with dignity."
Other| Read My Position
Sen. Klobuchar has not clearly indicated if she supports or opposes automatic enrollment. She does support giving citizens a choice between Medicare and private insurance. In response to a New York Times survey on health care she wrote, "The Senator wants to see universal health care and there are many ways to get there. She believes the smartest transition right now would be to do a public option - which could be done by expanding Medicaid or Medicare - and that this will get us there more quickly."
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"As President, Senator Klobuchar will reduce health care costs and expand coverage by ... Bringing down the cost of health care for everyone by putting a non-profit public option in place that allows people to buy into affordable health insurance coverage through Medicare or Medicaid."
Against| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"We need to reopen the government and get these workers back on the jobs providing vital services for the American people. Once it is open, as my colleagues have made clear and as leadership has made clear, we can continue negotiations with the President about border security. I am someone, as is my colleague from Pennsylvania, who voted for a bill that had over $40 billion in border security that was part of comprehensive immigration reform.
"We did this, but was it a wall through the entire border? No, it was not. It allowed the experts to decide where there should be technology, where there should be fencing, where there should be barriers, where there should be personnel. That is the way to do this."
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"Along with three other senators, I introduced the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA). The bill became law in July 2016. This bipartisan legislation encourages states and local communities to pursue a full array of proven strategies in the fight against addiction, including expanding access to naloxone among law enforcement and other first responders. I have also introduced another bill, the Prescription Drug Monitoring Act, to require states that receive certain federal funding to have prescription drug monitoring programs that use best practices to stop the kind of 'doctor shopping' that facilitates addiction. We know that opioid addiction too often begins with the abuse of legal prescription painkillers, and with this bill, we can do something about that. In addition, we must continue working to help those suffering from addiction to access the treatment that they need. I have introduced the LifeBOAT Act with Senator Joe Manchin that simply places a one-cent fee on each milligram of active opioid ingredient in a prescription pain pill to create a permanent stream of funding for substance abuse treatment."
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2016
"We must take strong action to curb North Korea's nuclear program and to address the other threats that it poses to us and our allies. Weak sanctions against North Korea have proven unsuccessful. The legislation before us today represents the tough response that is necessary to send this message directly to North Korean leaders: Disarm or face severe economic sanctions."
Against| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"I will continue to fight against risky schemes that would privatize Social Security and turn it from a guarantee of a secure retirement into a gamble where only the big financial companies on Wall Street would be the sure winners. If these schemes had been in place during previous years, millions of Americans would have lost their Social Security in the stock market."
For| Read My Position
"As President, Senator Klobuchar will work to lift the Social Security payroll cap. Currently the payroll tax only applies to wages up to $133,000. Senator Klobuchar supports subjecting income above $250,000 to the payroll tax and extending the solvency of Social Security. And Senator Klobuchar will make sure people are treated fairly by the current Social Security system."
Against| Read My Position
When asked about raising the retirement age for Social Security during a debate on Meet the Press, Klobuchar answered, "I don't believe that is the solution."
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2017
"I joined a bipartisan group of my colleagues to introduce the Countering Russian Hostilities Act, legislation that would impose strong sanctions against Russia. These sanctions would address Russia's cyberattacks, its human rights violations, and its illegal annexation of land in Ukraine and Georgia. I'm also the cosponsor of the Russia Sanctions Review Act, bipartisan legislation that would require congressional review if sanctions against Russia are rolled back."
For| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"I worked to pass the College Cost Reduction Act, which created the income-based repayment plan and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, and I supported the American Opportunity Tax Credit, which now saves middle-class families up to $2,500 a year on college tuition. I also worked to pass a law removing private lenders from the federal student loan system, which saved taxpayers nearly $68 billion and expanded Pell grants. We also successfully increased the maximum Pell grant award in March of 2018."
For| Read My Position
"As President, Senator Klobuchar will work with Congress to put a carbon pricing system in place that does not have a regressive impact on Americans."
Against| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2018
"Yesterday the president announced that the United States will unilaterally withdraw from the JCPOA, commonly referred to as the Iran agreement. In 2015, I supported the Iran agreement, although I may have negotiated differently, but we had the agreement before us, and I supported it because I believed it was the best available option for putting the breaks on a nuclear weapon for Iran. I still believe that today. We cannot allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon, and as we had this critical into negotiations of North Korea's nuclear weapons, we cannot be backing away from international agreements and nuclear inspections."
Against| Read My Position
Candidate's Website, 2019
"I strongly support the Paris Climate Agreement and have pushed the Administration to rejoin the Agreement."
Voting Record
S Amdt 5 (2019)
Republican bill to end the government shutdown and fund the government through September 2019. The bill includes $5.7 billion for a border wall.
H J Res 31 (2019)
Final 2019 federal budget bill, including $1.4 billion for 55 miles of physical barrier on the border with Mexico, $415 million for humanitarian relief at the border, $12 billion for disaster relief, and $3.3 billion for highway and bridge infrastructure.S 1 (2019)
Reauthorizes a cooperation agreement with Jordan, authorizes sanctions against Syria, extends a loan gaurantee program with Israel, and increases protections for state and local governments that refuse to invest in or contract with companies which boycott Israel.H J Res 46 (2019)
Ends the national emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border declared by President Trump.
S Amdt 6 (2019)
Democratic bill to end the government shutdown and fund the government through September 2019. The bill does not include $5.7 billion for a border wall.S J Res 7 (2019)
Prevents the U.S. from fighting in or assisting in Yemen's civil war.S 2155 (2018)
Eases some of the financial regulations of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
S 756 (2018)
Makes various reforms to the criminal justice system, such as mandating de-escalation training for correctional officers, improving feminine hygiene for prisoners, and adding more leniency to sentences for non-violent offenders.
HR 2 (2018)
"Farm bill" that authorizes a variety of agriculutral programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The final version of this bill did not include stricter work requirements for SNAP, as originally proposed. The bill also legalizes industrial hemp.
HR 195 (2018)
Stopped a federal government shutdown by funding the government through February 8, 2018. This bill also extends the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for six years. This bill does not include an extension of the immigration program Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) or any other immigration-related policy.
S 139 (2018)
Extends so-called "section 702" surveillance by the NSA under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
HR 1628 (2017)
"American Health Care Act" that repeals parts of the Affordable Care Act (also known as "Obamacare") and revises many health care laws. For example, this bill would cap Medicaid funding, repeal various insurance coverage requirements, and replace the requirement to buy health insurance with a penalty the next time you get insurance if you allow your coverage to lapse.
HR 1 (2017)
Reduces the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, reduces the individual income tax rate for high earners from 39.6% to 37%, increases the income threshold to qualify for the alternative minimum tax, and repeals the mandate to purchase health insurance.HR 1370 (2017)
Stopped a federal government shutdown by funding the government through January 19, 2018.S Con Res 3 (2017)
Sets the federal budget. This bill also establishes rules that pave the way for a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare."
H J Res 43 (2017)
Allows states to withhold federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
H J Res 42 (2017)
Effectively allows states to drug test anybody claiming unemployment benefits or food stamps.
S J Res 34 (2017)
Overtuns a rule from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that requires all internet browsing and app usage data be subject to the same privacy requirements as private personal information. The FCC rule is stricter than previous regulations, which had various privacy requirements depending on the sensitivity of the online information.
