U.S. Senators Tim Johnson (D-SD) and John Thune (R-SD) and U.S. Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD) today sent a letter to President Barack Obama supporting Governor Michael Rounds’ request for a presidential disaster declaration in response to a series of severe weather events since March. As a result of these... 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, 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 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 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. 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
Today, the South Dakota Congressional delegation will address nearly 120 World War II-era veterans from the greater Sioux Falls area at the United States Marine Corps Memorial who have traveled to DC with the Honor Flight Program. Originating in 2005 in Ohio, the Honor Flight program provides veterans a trip... 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
Senator John Thune today issued the following statement after the U.S. Senate rejected an amendment to the Housing Bill (S.896) that would have allowed judges to rewrite mortgage terms for homes nearing foreclosure: “The majority of South Dakotans acted responsibly by not buying houses they could never afford, and our... Continue Reading
Senator John Thune today issued the following statement after his amendment protecting the full tax deduction for charitable giving was dropped from the Democrat budget after conference deliberations between the House of Representatives and the Senate: “Charities and nonprofits in South Dakota and across the country provide needed services to... Continue Reading
