Stephanie for South Dakota

On the Issues

Why I want to represent the people of South Dakota in Congress

Although I was only four years old at the time, I vividly remember shaking hands with people who came out to the farm during my dad's first campaign for the state House of Representatives in 1974. Growing up in a family committed to public service instilled in me at an early age a desire to follow in the same path. It is a privilege to represent South Dakota in the United States House of Representatives, and there’s so much more we can accomplish working together in the future.

As South Dakota’s only voice in the House, I am committed to one guiding principle: putting the needs of South Dakota first. In Congress, I am working to promote legislation aimed at directly helping working families meet economic challenges while maintaining and improving the quality of life we treasure here in South Dakota. As a member of the Agriculture Committee, the Resources Committee and the Veterans' Affairs Committee, I continue to focus on issues of importance to South Dakotans, including health care, agriculture, education and the economic well-being of working families.

Ensuring Quality and Affordable Health Care

We sit on the verge of a new crisis in health care. Health care should not be considered a luxury for anyone - but quality, affordable care remains out of reach for far too many South Dakotans. Medicine in America has moved dramatically toward treating and curing many illnesses through pharmacology and advances in technology, often avoiding the need for invasive surgical procedures. Public policy, however, still has not done enough to keep pace with these advances.

I am committed to improving our health care system and directly addressing the rising cost of health insurance and prescription drugs, the high number of uninsured, and the challenges associated with long-term care. And I support a patient's bill of rights because health care decisions should be made between patients and doctors. Here are the priorities I take to Congress for ensuring quality, affordable health care for all South Dakotans:

Helping Seniors with the Cost of Prescription Drugs. I am encouraged that Congress has seen the need to add a prescription drug benefit under Medicare. However, I support changes to the new law that will preserve the Medicare system and that will do more for seniors, particularly rural seniors, than for pharmaceutical and insurance companies. I have supported efforts to give seniors in South Dakota and across the country more time to initially enroll in the complicated "Part D" prescription drug plan and delay a late-enrollment penalty. I also support efforts to allow Medicare to use its bargaining power to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs under "Part D," similar to the way the Department of Veterans Affairs negotiates lower drug prices.

Lowering the Cost of Health Insurance. Skyrocketing premium costs have left tens of thousands of South Dakotans without health insurance and continue to place a heavy burden on employers who desire to offer this important benefit. Many families cannot even afford coverage for their children. Congress must act now to make health care coverage more affordable and available for all of our citizens. I have supported efforts to enable small businesses to work together to offer quality, affordable health insurance coverage. Another way to do this is by enacting targeted tax credits. I also support expanding successful public health programs, like the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), by enrolling needy children through the school lunch program and extending coverage for preventive care to low-income parents.

Making Long-Term Care Affordable and Accessible. A year in a nursing home now averages more than $40,000, while daily home care costs exceed $36,000 per year. Long-term care insurance is often the only way to meet these expenses without sacrificing one's life savings and other assets in order to qualify for Medicaid. I am leading efforts in Congress to make long-term care insurance premiums tax deductible - separate from itemized deductions - including for those who pay the premiums for their parents' policies. I am also committed to making nursing home care on our Native American reservations a priority.

Fighting for Family Farms and Ranches

Growing up on my family's fourth-generation farm and ranch near Houghton, SD, I know firsthand that agriculture remains the key driver of our economic growth. Unfortunately, too many farmers and ranchers are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain the viability of their operations. As a member of the House Agriculture Committee, I am committed to find ways to protect our family farms and ranches that complement and facilitate new economic growth in our communities; to level the playing field at home and abroad for American agriculture; and to keep feeding the world throughout this new century.

We all have a stake in creating an environment where young people can thrive on and around our farms and ranches. Here are some specific ideas to protect our family farms and strengthen South Dakota's agricultural economy:

Renewable Energy. Developing renewable fuels like ethanol, biodiesel and wind energy benefits South Dakota's economy through value-added agriculture, helps the environment and our health by keeping our air clean, and reduces our dependence on foreign oil. In Congress, I I am leading efforts to eliminate the capital gains tax on profits generated from the sale of real estate if those profits are reinvested into a renewable energy project.

Fair Trade. Free trade for South Dakota agriculture must also mean fair trade that eliminates barriers to marketing American food and fiber products abroad, providing us with access to new markets. In Congress, I am working to ensure that our trade negotiators effectively represent the interests of individual crop and livestock producers, not just corporate agricultural interests, and that currency valuations are an important factor in future trade agreements.

Fair Prices. Fair prices depend on stricter enforcement of existing antitrust laws and other tools to avoid unfair concentration and monopolistic practices by large corporations. I support a ban on packer ownership of livestock. I also support enhancing producers' flexibility and expanding their marketing opportunities through producer-owned processing facilities and extending the loan term for farm-stored grain to 15 months under commodity loan programs.

Bio-Security. With the recent discovery of Mad Cow disease within our borders, this is an area of our agriculture policy that demands renewed attention. In addition to increasing our vigilance around water supplies, animal and crop processing facilities, the time is now to implement country-of-origin labeling. I support improving resources for agencies responsible for inspecting products that enter our borders and for ag extension offices and local law enforcement officials who are our first line of defense against any act of bioterrorism.

Securing Resources for Quality Education

We all have a stake in ensuring the quality education of each new generation of South Dakotans. Dedicating necessary resources to improving our education system is an investment in the very future of our country - and is a fundamental form of economic development. States and local communities should lead this effort and define the specific needs of their individual students. The federal government can be an important partner to local efforts by providing resources to help teachers, students, and parents meet the education goals of our communities.

In Congress, I support legislation that provides adequate resources for communities to modernize facilities, foster early childhood development programs, hire and retain qualified teachers, and reduce their class sizes. I also am working to ensure that new national testing standards are fair and equitable and used to target the individual growth and progress of our students. My priorities in Congress include:

Recruiting and Retaining Quality Teachers. The No Child Left Behind Act calls for teachers in every public school to be fully certified and "highly qualified." Unfortunately, Congress has not provided the necessary funds to meet these goals. To enact meaningful change and to help those schools most in need, I am working to ensure that our schools are not left empty-handed when trying to recruit and retain the best and the brightest to teach our children. In addition, I support measures to expand, encourage and fund professional training, development, and mentoring programs for teachers.

Measuring and Promoting Success in the Classroom. Implementing standards-based assessments is crucial in evaluating students' learning levels, identifying problems, and guiding curriculum development. If adequately funded and appropriately designed, the assessments proposed under the No Child Left Behind Act will help to target scarce educational resources where they can do the most good for students. I am working to ensure that this process keeps the focus on the individual student instead of leading to unhealthy competition among teachers and schools.

Ensuring Access to Education for All Ages. Education is a lifelong endeavor. We must do more to ensure access to educational opportunities like early childhood learning and development programs such as Head Start, and provide broad assistance for higher education, including an increase in funding for Pell Grants to keep pace with the rising costs of tuition. I am working to fully fund special education, reduce classroom size - especially for elementary education - and find the resources necessary to expand after-school programs.

Providing Safe and Modern Schools. All students deserve to learn in a safe and modern classroom. Unfortunately, local school districts and taxpayers have been strapped with paying all the costs associated with repairing and building schools. I am working in Congress to take this financial burden off local school districts and taxpayers by providing tax credits or otherwise helping guarantee interest-free bonds for new construction and modernization of schools.

South Dakota's Working Families

In Congress, I am working to strengthen the economic security of South Dakota's working men and women through smart, targeted legislation aimed at fair treatment for workers and their families across the state. I support policies and initiatives that guarantee real job opportunities with living wages, employment and retirement security, educational and training opportunities, and access to affordable child care to allow people to live, work and raise families in our great state.

Nobody works harder than the people of South Dakota, but we remain almost last among the states in annual income, resulting in a higher percentage of working poor. We also have the nation's highest number per capita of women working outside the home, and South Dakota's low unemployment rate is deceptive in light of the number of individuals who work one or more part-time jobs to make ends meet. All of these facts are evidence that South Dakota needs a leader committed to representing the interests of our working people, preserving our quality of life, and raising our standard of living for current and future generations. Here are reasons why I am that leader:

Making Health Care Affordable. I strongly believe that access to quality and affordable health care should not be considered a luxury for hardworking families. I have dedicated myself to improving our health care system and searching for innovative ways to make health insurance more affordable and to reduce the number of uninsured people in South Dakota. I have supported efforts to enable small businesses to work together to offer quality, affordable health insurance coverage.

Fair Tax Policies. I support tax credits for working families to help address the need for quality, flexible, and affordable child care, and the lowering of working families' marginal tax rates.

Fair Trade Policies. Undeniably, NAFTA has had devastating effects on our state's manufacturing and agriculture industries. I believe that free trade must also be fair trade - and I am working hard to ensure that our federal trade negotiators effectively represent the interests of individual South Dakota workers, farmers and ranchers, not just large corporate interests.

Education and Training. I believe that education and training opportunities such as tuition reimbursement, work stipends, and grant funding for apprenticeship programs allow people to work smarter, not just harder - and should have a central place in our policies.

Prosperity for Individuals and Small Businesses. I am committed to economic policies that promote growth and prosperity for all Americans. I believe trade legislation, wage and benefit laws, monetary policy, farm policy, and all our economic decisions must be judged by their effect on individual Americans and small businesses, not just by their effect on the profits of our country's large corporations.

Honoring Our Veterans

It is not surprising that our state has one of the largest per capita number of veterans, because South Dakotans have always answered their country’s call to serve. We have a rich tradition of service men and women who accepted low pay and risked their lives in many cases at home and overseas. In return, the government promised to provide for the health care needs of these heroes – a small price to pay for the defense of our collective freedom.

As a member of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, and as ranking member on its subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, I believe a promise made should be a promise kept. One of the reasons I ran for Congress was because I have seen our veterans pushed to the back of the line when it comes time to write the budget in Washington, D.C. For years, Congress passed flat-lined veterans’ health care budgets at a time when overall health care costs skyrocketed and the veteran population was in need of more advanced care.

While this year’s veterans’ health care budget is an improvement over recent years, it unfortunately does not appear to be the start of a long term effort on behalf of the Administration to provide adequate resources for the VA health care system. According to the Administration’s FY 2007 budget, over the next five years, veterans’ medical care will be funded $10.1 billion below the level estimated to maintain purchasing power at the 2006 level.

I am continuing to fight for a veteran’s health care budget that provides timely services at our VA hospitals, provides affordable prescription drug coverage, covers the long-term care needs of our older veterans, and meets the growing mental and physical health care needs of recently returned veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I am working to open in new Community Based Outreach Clinics in South Dakota, like those in Eagle Butte, Aberdeen, Winner and Pierre, which can be important ways for veterans to get help without traveling hundreds of miles to VA medical centers in Fort Meade, Hot Springs or Sioux Falls. Finally, as the Economic Opportunity Subcommittee Ranking Member, I also am working to ensure the Montgomery G.I. bill is modernized to meet the needs of the 21st century total force.

The sacrifices we ask of our men and women in uniform are great. They give up some of their freedom to protect freedom for the rest of us. Those of us who seek to represent them owe them more than just words in return for their sacrifices. We owe them specific answers as to how we would vote in Congress on the Administration’s failure to fully fund the VA health care system and health cost increases that will affect their lives forever. In order to ensure the VA health care is adequately funded, I have cosponsored legislation to require mandatory funding of veterans health care.

Failing to take care of our veterans’ basic health care needs disrespects their service and turns our commitment to them into little more than hollow words. In Congress I will continue to cast South Dakota’s vote in favor of reestablishing our commitment to our nation’s veterans, prioritizing their needs, and honoring their service.

Commitment to Native Americans

I am deeply grateful for the overwhelming support I received from Native Americans in all three of my Congressional campaigns. While serving in the Congress, and in my 2006 campaign, I promise to continue demonstrating to my friends in Indian Country that their support for me is not mistaken.

My basic belief is that Indian Nations are sovereign governments, recognized in the Constitution and in hundreds of treaties with the U.S. executive branch. The federal government should facilitate and complement tribal governments' efforts to improve the quality of life for Native Americans and encourage economic development in Indian Country.

But general statements of principles are not nearly enough. Like all Americans, what Native Americans really need are specific actions by their representatives to help them solve the difficult problems they face. My work on the Resources Committee has allowed me to work on these solutions on behalf of South Dakota’s tribes. Here are just a few of the issues I am working on in Congress in coordination with tribal leaders.

Sovereignty. I am committed to supporting Native Americans in their desire to be self-governing, to retain their culture and language, to build thriving communities and to continue their extraordinary contributions to a diverse American society.

Education. There are thousands of Native American children in South Dakota who are students at schools which are under the auspices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Despite dedicated teaching and support staff, administrators, and parental involvement, many Native students are still not receiving the highest quality education due to crumbling facilities, lack of access to the latest technology and educational resources, and inadequate funding of federal mandates. I believe that education and economic development go hand-in-hand in Indian Country. With this in mind, and the fact that over 50 percent of the American Indian population in South Dakota is under the age of eighteen, every child deserves the best education. I am working to ensure that this treaty right is funded adequately and that next year’s reauthorization of No Child Left Behind addresses the unique needs of Native students.

Making Quality Health Care Available. The Indian Health Service is the backbone of health care across Indian Country. The Administration’s budget gives the IHS half as much money to care for each Native American as it gives to care for each Federal prison inmate. I will vote to triple funding for IHS services to Native Americans so that the amount the IHS receives is the amount independent observers know is required to provide the quality health care Indians were solemnly promised by the American government generations ago. Fulfilling this promise will also require modernizing the IHS system itself and I will continue to support legislation to do so.

I also believe that the availability of nursing home care on our Native American reservations must be addressed at the federal level. It is a travesty that individuals who have lived their entire lives on the reservation must leave their families, friends, and communities during their final years in order to receive adequate medical treatment and long-term care.

Finding Solutions to the Trust Fund Issue. Congress must take immediate responsibility for addressing the mismanagement of the Trust Fund. Generations have come and gone as Presidents of both parties have tried to address this problem. By law, the federal government is responsible for the management of certain funds for the benefit of Native American people, and it is past time for the government to get this fiscal house in order. While there are no easy remedies to this complex issue, there can be no excuse for inaction on the part of Congress. I have dedicated myself to working with all parties involved in finding a better way to manage the Trust Fund.

Native American Soldiers. Native Americans have fought for the United States whenever she has been threatened, and they are fighting in large numbers today in Iraq and Afghanistan. Indian soldiers and veterans deserve quality health care and a fair salary. That is why I continue to oppose the Administration’s plan to charge enrollment fees for access to VA care, against raising veterans prescription drug co-pay, and for full funding of the VA health care system.

I am working hard on many other matters important to Indian Country, such as reforming the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines to alleviate their disparate impact on tribal members, ensuring resources for road construction and improvements as well as safe water supplies, meaningful oversight over the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and more actively encouraging economic development opportunities on our reservations through increased access to small business loans.

Conservation and South Dakota’s Sportsmen and Women

Growing up on my family’s farm near Houghton and the Sand Lake Wildlife Refuge in the northeast part of the state, I appreciate that outdoors activities are a great South Dakota tradition and vital to our state’s economy. To preserve that tradition, and to grow our tourism industry, we need to enact sensible legislation regarding conservation.

The beauty of South Dakota as seen by Lewis & Clark 200 years ago is still intact. We have a quality of life that is the envy of the nation, including clean air and water, as well as rich and productive soil. Our wonderful culture of recreation and outdoors activities contributes greatly to our high quality of life, and in Congress, I continue to work on behalf of our sportsmen and women. We are all lucky to live here, and have an obligation and opportunity to preserve the nation’s best quality of life for future generations.

Gun ownership. I received an “A” rating from the NRA because I oppose further restrictions on gun ownership at the federal level, and I believe that we should focus our attention on enforcing the laws already on the books. As a defender of our Second Amendment rights, I support allowing law-abiding citizens to exercise their right to carry firearms for personal protection. I oppose federal firearm registration and licensing and attempts to limit gun owners’ rights through bans on types of firearms or ammunition.

Wetlands. I support initiatives like the Farmable Wetlands Pilot Program, which was created to protect small and sensitive farmed wetlands and to compensate producers for taking these acres out of production. I recognize the need to maintain all wetlands including seasonal and temporary wetlands that hold water for only brief periods of time. They are very important to nesting waterfowl, and also important to water quality and flood control.

Grassland Reserve Program. One of the most popular conservation programs in South Dakota is the Grassland Reserve Program (GRP), however, funding has been continually low preventing significant numbers of acres from being enrolled. In Congress, I am working to ensure that this conservation measure is adequately funded to help landowners protect, restore, and enhance grasslands, rangeland, pastureland, shrubland and other lands on their property. Through conservation of our grasslands we can help maintain South Dakota’s viable ranching operations and help ensure we not only have safe drinking water but abundant fishing.

Conservation Reserve Program. The Conservation Reserve Program has done much to help us expand South Dakota’s wildlife habitat while improving our water quality and restoring soil quality. Not only does the program bring us many conservation benefits but it also compensates South Dakota’s landowners for entering into multi-year contracts to convert highly erodible cropland or other sensitive acreage to vegetative cover, such as tame or native grasses, wildlife plantings, trees, filterstrips or riparian buffers. I am working with members from both sides of the aisle to expand this critical conservation program to bring additional benefits to South Dakota’s landowners and to protect our valuable wetlands.

Managing Prairie Dogs. In 2000, the Black-tailed prairie dog was erroneously placed on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) listing as a candidate for protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). While I support the ESA, which has done much to protect many species from extinction, we must recognize that the Act has limitations and in this case regulation triumphed over common sense. Data collected by the FWS, the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks (GFP) and the multi-state Prairie Dog Conservation Team found that prairie dogs were “biologically viable” and should be precluded from protections under the ESA. It is my hope that FWS will develop a more practical approach to the management of prairie dogs, one that protects the prairie eco-system but does not infringe upon the rights of South Dakota’s ranchers and landowners to manage prairie dog populations on their own lands.

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Paid for by Stephanie Herseth Sandlin for South Dakota