The Republican earmark ban may threaten to turn off the taps for the Lewis and Clark Rural Water Project, but Al Franken is earning praise from the Worthington Globe for hauling water for the project.
In Water project hailed as priority, the editors note:
Franken said the answers he got didn’t make much sense, but added that’s not — and never has been — his primary concern. He told the Daily Globe on Thursday that U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salalzar commented during a U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing that Lewis & Clark was a primary project of his, and that it should be fully funded.
Franken noted that he is seeking a meeting with the Department of the Interior and the White House’s Office of Management and Budget “to press the administration to make sure this is fully funded.” The state and local share has been covered, he stressed — “the federal government should live up to its side of the bargain.”
As we’ve indicated before, Lewis & Clark is critical to future economic development in northwest Iowa and southwest Minnesota. Franken, along with fellow senators Amy Klobuchar, Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin — as well as area U.S. representatives — must continue to “press” to get the money this project needs and deserves.
Heck yes.
I like my junior senator. He fills Paul Wellstone's seat quite well.
Posted by: Phoenix Woman | May 30, 2011 at 09:05 PM