{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://noem.house.gov/index.cfm/in-the-news?ContentRecord_id=4D1E06DC-7EFF-41CA-8FF6-EEDA3223A11C", "Spending bill in Congress would boost S.D.", "2014-12-10", "2014", "2014-12", "Republican", "House", "SD", "Kristi Noem", "N000184", "noem.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "South Dakota would be a big winner if Congress passes a $1.01 trillion spending package this week, with the Lewis & Clark project and hunters and fisherman benefiting from the sweeping legislation.\r\nCongress is expected to approve the 1,603-page annual spending package that includes $512 billion in defense spending and $492 billion in non-defense spending as early as Thursday. The legislation covers the entire discretionary budget of the federal government for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30.\r\nWhile the bill increased the amount of money a person can contribute to a national political party and allocated billions to treating and fighting Ebola in the U.S. and abroad, among other issues, several items embedded in the measure would have a direct impact on South Dakota residents.\r\n\u201cThe best news about the omnibus appropriations agreement is that there will be no government shutdown,\u201d said retiring Sen. Tim Johnson, a Democrat. \u201cTucked into the bill is good news for South Dakota.\u201d\r\nThe entire Lewis & Clark system, which is 65 percent completed more than a decade after construction began in 2003, stretches from well fields and a water treatment plant south of Vermillion to Sioux Falls and has reached the Minnesota border just northwest of Rock Rapids, Iowa. Several communities are still awaiting service.\r\nCongress initially doled out $2.42 million in funding targeted for Lewis & Clark, while the spending bill provided an extra $31 million that would need to be distributed among five rural water projects. Last year, Lewis and Clark got a total of about $8 million to help build the long-delayed project.\r\n\u201cLewis & Clark should come out in even better hands in this negotiation and keep competing for those dollars because so many of the other projects are nearing completing or have been completed,\u201d Noem told reporters. \u201cThis is an amazing opportunity for Lewis & Clark to get access to that $31 million, which would be huge in making sure we get closer to completion.\u201d\r\nSen. John Thune, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate leadership, noted the spending bill would ban the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating lead in ammunition and fishing tackle gear.\r\n\u201cThis is a win for sportsmen and women in our state,\u201d Thune said. \u201cIf the EPA bans lead in hunting ammunition and fishing tackle, it would dramatically increase the cost, pricing many hunting and fishing enthusiasts out of the market.\u201d\r\nNoem and Thune also noted the legislation would prevent the Fish and Wildlife Service from placing the sage grouse, a Western bird whose population has declined the past three decades, on the Endangered Species List next year. Keeping the bird off has been a goal of some residents and businesses in the West River who use land shared by the sage grouse for ranching, energy development and other purposes.\r\nEnvironmental groups criticized lawmakers for ignoring efforts to protect the iconic bird.\r\n\u201cThis latest blow could delay conservation efforts for years, rendering sage-grouse recovery more expensive and more disruptive in the future, and putting the smaller populations of \u201cbi-state\u201d and Columbia Basin sage grouse at an even higher risk of extinction,\u201d said Jamie Rappaport Clark, president of the Defenders of Wildlife.\r\nThe spending bill maintains the country-of-origin labeling program, a law that requires steaks, pork chops and other meat to carry labels that identify where animals were born, raised and slaughtered. It also includes funding for agricultural research programs at South Dakota State University.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://noem.house.gov/index.cfm/in-the-news?ContentRecord_id=4D1E06DC-7EFF-41CA-8FF6-EEDA3223A11C"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7566481363028288, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}