Senator John Thune, Vice Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, today issued the following statement on President Obama’s announcement of his nominee to the Supreme Court: “Now that President Obama has announced Sonia Sotomayor as his nominee for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, I expect a thorough and... Continue Reading
Senator John Thune today commented on the announcement by the Veterans Health Administration that the Office of Rural Health will allocate over $1.5 million for mental health services for veterans living in rural areas surrounding Sioux Falls, South Dakota and St. Cloud, Minnesota. Overall, the Office of Rural Health is... Continue Reading
Senator John Thune last night joined his Senate colleagues in passing legislation (S. 614) honoring the more than 1,000 women who served as Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) during World War II with the Congressional Gold Medal. The Congressional Gold Medal, given in honor of outstanding service to the United... Continue Reading
Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD), Senator John Thune (R-SD), and Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD) today sent a letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack calling for the Department to quickly release the rules for the agriculture disaster programs authorized in the 2008 Farm Bill, specifically the Livestock... Continue Reading
Senator John Thune today questioned Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Michael Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about the Obama administration’s plan to terminate the Next Generation Bomber program at a full Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. Secretary Gates had previously expressed support for the Next... Continue Reading
Senator John Thune today commented on a memo compiled by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) which warns of the negative economic consequences of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recently released “endangerment finding,” which would pave the way for the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions under the... Continue Reading
Senator John Thune was today joined by representatives from the South Dakota Corn Growers Association, the South Dakota Soybean Association, the South Dakota Corn Utilization Council, POET, and the American Coalition for Ethanol to voice their opposition to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision to include carbon outputs resulting from... Continue Reading
Senator John Thune, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today criticized the Obama Administration’s proposal to terminate the Next Generation Bomber. “President Obama’s decision to put our nation’s long-term security at risk to pay for his out of control budget is irresponsible,” said Thune. “The Next Generation Bomber... Continue Reading
Senator John Thune issued the following statement in response to the detailed budget proposal President Obama submitted to Congress today: “The President again failed to follow the example of South Dakotans who are making prudent financial decisions by not spending beyond their means. The President and the Democrats in Congress... Continue Reading
U.S. Senators John Thune (R-SD) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) introduced a resolution in the Senate today to designate the week of May 1 through May 7 as “National Physical Education and Sports Week.” Seeking to raise awareness of the benefits of physical activity for the nation’s youth, Klobuchar and Thune... Continue Reading
U.S. Senator John Thune released the following statement after today’s announcement by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that it will institute new models to measure ethanol’s lifecycle carbon emissions, including measurements of carbon resulting from “indirect land use” in other countries: “While I am pleased the EPA issued a range... Continue Reading
Senator John Thune today introduced an amendment to the Housing Bill (S.896) that would prohibit the Treasury Department from re-spending funds returned by financial institutions under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Several financial institutions that received TARP funding have either returned or expressed an interest in returning billions in... Continue Reading
