Alexandria Echo Press

By Travis Gulbrandson

ALEXANDRIA — Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, visited the campus of Alexandria Technical and Community College Tuesday, and heard presentations about the school's veterans' center and the Global Military Learning Network.

Following the presentations, Klobuchar spoke with the Echo Press about tariffs and program funding, along with other issues.

"I think you saw a bit of a break when some people voted for my bill with Sen. (Tim) Kaine, which was to say that the Canadian tariffs were wrong," Klobuchar said. "There wasn't really an emergency at that border. There were problems, but not an emergency. And we actually passed that with Sen. (Mitch) McConnell's support. We got four Republicans supporting it."

Further legislation is now being put forth by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to restore Congress’ constitutionally authorized role in setting and approving U.S. trade policy.

Klobuchar said the bill involves "asserting ourselves — not taking away the president's rights, but saying, 'We have a right, too,' when you start talking about tariffs."

This issue "is really where Congress can do something and stand up and take back what was our authority before," Klobuchar said.

Other budget issues are currently being litigated, she said.

"Why? Because that money was already set aside by a Democratic and Republican Congress," Klobuchar said. "When we made that budget, Republicans ran the House, Democrats ran the Senate. We came up with a compromise, put it into law. So that's why there (are) lawsuits, because that was already designated."

Some of those suits have been successful in seeing the entities' funding restored, she said.

"At the same time I'm working positively, particularly with the USDA on unfreezing some of the grants that have been frozen," Klobuchar said.

Immigration issues will likely end up being decided by the courts, she said.

"The administration's going to have to decide if they follow the court decision," Klobuchar said. "They're supposed to under the Constitution, and hopefully they will do that.

"They have been following a number of them, just not some of the more prominent ones right now," she said.

Klobuchar also reiterated some of the points she made during the recent presidential inauguration, which she chaired.

"The day went well, but I had my four minutes and one of the points I wanted to make in anticipation of what I thought was going to happen is that there are three co-equal branches of government," Klobuchar said.

In her speech on Inauguration Day, Klobuchar said the balance of power between those three branches is imperative.

"That is how, for nearly 250 years, our great American experiment, grounded in the rule of law, has endured," she said.