Issue Position: Transportation

Issue Position

Issue Position: Transportation

Transportation
South Dakota's wide open spaces mean we need safe and reliable roads not just to connect our communities but also for the smooth flow of commerce. Increased investment in our roads and bridges also ensures that our agricultural producers are able to move their products to market. Since being elected to Congress, I have been a strong advocate for infrastructure funding to ensure that South Dakota's transportation needs are met.

On August 10, 2005, the long-overdue Transportation Reauthorization Bill was signed into law. As someone who worked closely on crafting this important legislation, I was able to secure over $150 million worth of important transportation projects for South Dakota and a total of $1.3 billion in funding through 2009. This overall funding amount is a 30 percent increase compared to the previous highway bill. Most important is the fact that I was able to protect South Dakota's overall share of transportation formula funding, which guarantees that our state's percentage of federal funding will not decrease over the next five years.

I also continue to work closely with the South Dakota Department of Transportation and local leaders to ensure that we are doing all we can to address not only our state's top transportation needs but to ensure that our economy continues to have a top quality transportation network that is so crucial to our nation's economic well being. Click here to read an op-ed that ran in a transportation publication about an innovative bipartisan transportation funding proposal that would supplement the existing funding that South Dakota and other states receive from the federal government.

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