Still without a permanent Minnesota office, staff of U.S. Sen. Al Franken traveled through southeast Minnesota Wednesday, and a stop in Austin led to a discussion on health care.

Two field representatives from Franken’s team made the Austin Public Library a mobile office from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. while the senator was in Washington, D.C., for Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing.

Franken’s team is currently on a 65-city tour throughout Minnesota that will last about a month, field representative Charlie Poster said.

“We want to bring our offices around the state,” he said Wednesday. “Today, Sen. Franken’s office is in Austin.”

Poster said health care has been a big topic for many Minnesotans, with Austin residents being no different.

Susan Stevenson, a 62-year-old Austin High School teacher, came to connect with Franken’s staff and air her thoughts on the issue.

Stevenson, who regularly discusses health care with her students in a life skills class, said some sort of government intervention is almost certainly needed to fix the current system.

“It has to start with government,” she said.

Sandy Forstner, executive director of the Austin Area Chamber of Commerce, attended Wednesday’s meeting and questioned Stevenson, claiming that the federal government is as inefficient as any private provider and would not guarantee a better system.

The discussion in Austin is a microcosm of a national issue — on Wednesday, a U.S. Senate committee approved a bill that would revamp the health care system, following a similar bill unveiled in the House Tuesday.

The Senate bill had been in the works since mid-June, when the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee began drafting the legislation, and discussion on the issue could dominate Congress through the fall.

For those back in Austin looking to have some impact on those larger talks, Franken’s representatives gathered written comments from people like Stevenson and Forstner who wanted to have their voices heard on health care and other issues.

Poster said it was important for Franken to reach out to constituents, especially because the junior senator had to wait so long to be sworn in as a recount trial dragged on in Minnesota.

“I think (Minnesotans) are happy to have their voice heard by a second senator,” he said.