It might sound like the song that never ends at this point, but once again a South Dakota congressional delegate has come through for the Lewis & Clark Regional Water Project.
Sen. Tim Johnson, from his seat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, pushed $30 million for the pipeline through to a vote of the full Senate. The House already has approved $25 million, and it's not clear yet what the final appropriation will be.
Next year didn't always look so bright for Lewis & Clark. Only a few months ago, President Bush zeroed out the allocation for the critical water pipeline, despite the federal government's commitment to pay for 85 percent of the project.
Even by the up-and-down historical standards of this project, $0 was a new low.
Lewis & Clark has been under fire since its inception. Some say it's wasteful pork - evidence of the broken process known as earmarking. Hardly. It's a massive multistate undertaking which, as a practical matter, only could be paid for at the federal level. It guarantees a vital resource - water - for a broad swath of the country.
It's always gratifying to see our congressional representatives working together, but facing that kind of critical budget decision, it was particularly needed this year.
Bush might not have a chance to cut the funding again. Whatever figure congress agrees on probably will need approval from the next president. We hope both Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama take a more generous view of Lewis & Clark.
But even if the best Congress can do as it reconciles the House and Senate figures is a continuation of last year's money - $26.5 million - that's a $26.5 million improvement.
Recent News Articles
- October 31, 2008 | from Aberdeen American News Tim Johnson Right Choice for U.S. Senate The American News endorses Tim Johnson for South Dakota's U.S. Senate seat in Tuesday's election.
- October 29, 2008 | from Mitchell Daily Republic Endorsement: Congressional Incumbents Deserve Re-election U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson and Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin are farm-state lawmakers. They’ve proven it during their terms in office, and because of their work in the past for farmers and this state’s agrarian concerns, we feel they both deserve election on Tuesday.
- October 24, 2008 | from Pierre Capital Journal Johnson the Right Choice for South Dakotans For the past 29 years, Tim Johnson has served South Dakotans to the best of his ability, achieving more for the state than those who first elected him to the state House of Representatives in 1979 would have ever imagined. And we believe the incumbent senator will continue to push above and beyond the expectations of the citizens of South Dakota, despite many people's concerns about his health.
- September 11, 2008 | from Black Hills Pioneer Sen. Tim Johnson celebrates second year back at work by trumpeting achievements In the midst of his promising re-election bid, South Dakota's senior senator celebrated his second year back on the job after a life-threatening brain injury with a party and a 151-page report on his work. A bit more than a year ago, Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., returned to the U.S. Senate after nine months recovering from an AVM, arteriovenous malformation. The bipartisan fanfare that greeted Johnson seemed as much a reflection of the Senate's well known collegial tradition as of Johnson's recovery from his initial grave condition.
- September 05, 2008 | from Pierre Capital Journal Meeting With Senator Johnson Provides Answers About Condition In the past few weeks, it seems that every newspaper, Web logger and voter in general has formed an opinion about Sen. Tim Johnson's decision not to debate this election year.
