Washington, DC —  Senator John Thune today sent a bipartisan letter to U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta requesting assistance concerning BioBased Transportation Research. Section 5201 of the Transportation Reauthorization bill that Congress passed last year provides funding to five land-grant universities for the Sun Grant Initiative, which organizes and coordinates research across the country concerning alternative energy. The five Sun Grant Centers are located at South Dakota State University, Cornell University, the University of Tennessee, Oklahoma State University, and Oregon State University.

Last year's Transportation bill included $50 million for BioBased Transportation Research between 2006 and 2009. However, after the bill was signed into law the U.S. Department of Transportation notified Sun Grant Centers that they would be required to provide a dollar-for-dollar match before the research can get underway. Traditionally, education and research programs are subject to a 20 percent matching requirement.

"The Sun Grant Initiative is important to the advancement of ethanol and other bio-based research," said Thune. "The research that these universities have done has moved the U.S. forward in the use of biomass and bioenergy. Their work is very important to our nation's energy future. This important type of research should not be held to such a high matching requirement and I am hopeful that Secretary Mineta will use his authorities to lower the matching requirement to 20 percent."

Senator Thune secured $8.3 million for Sun Grant Research at South Dakota State University as part of last year's Transportation bill. The text of today's letter is below and was also signed by Senators Clinton, Inhofe, Frist, Smith, Wyden, Johnson, and Schumer, and Representatives Herseth, Lucas, and Hooley.

Secretary Mineta
U. S. Department of Transportation
400 7th Street, S.W.,
Washington D.C. 20590
Dear Secretary Mineta:

We write to request your assistance regarding the BioBased Transportation Research that
was included in Section 5201 of SAFETEA-LU. This particular initiative provides regionally
coordinated funding to land-grant universities to conduct research and education programs
concerning the development of bioenergy and biomass products.

In his recent State of the Union address, President Bush stressed the importance of
developing bioenergy as a part of our nation's energy future. The Sun Grant Initiative was
developed years ago to harness the research and education Infastructure of the land-grant
university system, which has research field stations and extension agents distributed through
every state and territory. The Sun Grant Initiative organizes these local and state-based
capacities into regions, which are in turn coordinated with the national goals and programs of the
federal agencies.

The Sun Grant Initiative divides all of the land-grant universities across the country into
five regions, with a regional Center of excellence that are tasked to provide leadership within
their region. The five regional centers are respectively located at South Dakota State University,
Cornell University, the University of Tennessee, Oklahoma State University, and Oregon State
University. Presently, the Sun Grant Initiative is conducting on-going bioenergy research with
the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Energy.

While SAFETEA-LU included $50 million for BioBased Transportation Research
between FY 2006-2009, members of the Sun Grant Initiative have approached us with their
concern about the dollar-for-dollar match requirements that they are subject to. While this match
requirement may be an appropriate amount for traditional transportation research programs, it is
a high matching requirement for research and education programs -- which commonly are
subject to a twenty percent matching requirement. Above all, the dollar-for-dollar match
requirement in the Transportation bill is extremely difficult for university programs that do not
have the flexibility to redirect large amounts of non-federal funding to new purposes.
To avoid inhibiting the implantation of important bioenergy research across the country,
we respectfully ask that you exercise your discretion under Title 23 to reduce the matching
requirement to twenty percent for BioBased Transportation Research.

We thank you for your leadership and assistance in resolving this matter. Please don't hesitate
to contact us if you have any questions.

Sincerely,
Senators Thune, Clinton, Inhofe, Frist, Smith, Wyden, Johnson, and Schumer, and Representatives Herseth, Lucas, and Hooley