Stephanie Herseth has gotten into a pinch over highway funding legislation. From Bob Mercer out of the Capitol Bureau in Pierre:
After two years of deadlock, Congress appears close to agreement on a new national highway and transit funding plan, a state Department of Transportation official said Thursday.
South Dakota would receive millions of dollars more in federal highway aid under either of the two competing approaches, but the Senate version treats South Dakota better over the long run, according to Leon Schochenmaier, DOT's director of planning and engineering. ...
The next step in the process calls for House and Senate negotiators to meet in conference. The House worked on appointing its conference members Thursday, but the Senate hasn't announced its team yet. ...
South Dakota currently gets about $200 million annually in federal highway funding.
The Senate version would increase that by an average of about $61 million per year, according to Republican U.S. Sen. John Thune of South Dakota. [emphasis by the author]
The House plan calls for $35 million in one-time funding for various special projects and an annual increase averaging about $35 million per year, according to Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth, the state's lone member of the House. [emphasis by the author]
Thune said South Dakota would come out $134 million better under the Senate bill.
In another article by Mercer:
With 15 to 30 percent more federal funding at stake for the state's roads and bridges, South Dakota's two U.S. senators will be among the negotiators shaping the new national highway and transit program. ...
Johnson and Thune were among the sweeping majority when the Senate voted 89-11 for a $295 billion package two weeks ago that was $11 billion higher than the Bush administration said it was willing to accept. The House passed a $284 billion six-year package that the White House supports. ...
The leading Democrat in the House on the issue, Rep. Jim Oberstar of Minnesota, asked the House to instruct its negotiators to guarantee that each state receive funding equal to at least 92 percent of the taxes paid into the federal highway fund from that state, while no state would get less than what was already set in the House bill.
On a nearly perfect party-line vote the House Republican majority defeated the Oberstar motion, 223-189. South Dakota's one member of the House, Democratic Rep. Stephanie Herseth, joined other Democrats and supported Oberstar.
In addition to potentially ruining the highway bill, Herseth also has voted against a law prohibiting taking minors across state lines for abortions, she couldn't get the BRAC bill through the House, she voted for the killing of frozen embryos for their scientific value (with your tax dollars, mind you), and suddenly she's beginning to look a lot weaker. Also keep in mind that NSF letter debacle that even Kranz wrote about.
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