In the News

Rep. Dusty Johnson is co-sponsoring a bill in the U.S. House to help agricultural students at public schools.

The bill would provide federal grants for risk management training, teaching students about volatility in the livestock market.

"Producers already face an uphill battle of unpredictable weather, understanding cattle prices doesn't need to be an added challenge," Johnson said in a release. "I'm proud to partner with my colleagues from cattle country to help best prepare our Ag economy and producers for the future."

A partial breakthrough in the on-going trade dispute with China.

That country has now agreed to once again allow U-S poultry products to be sold in the country ending a five year ban following an outbreak of Avian Flu in 2014.

U-S trade representatives say this development could lead to $1 billion in U-S poultry exports to China over the next year.

The news of the poultry market breakthrough is a good sign for the nation and South Dakota.

A South Dakota woman has spent months raising funds to support a trip to the nation's capital, hoping to speak to lawmakers about CMT, a nervous system disorder. When she wasn't able to raise enough to make the trip Congressman Dusty Johnson came to her instead.

"It won't break me. I tell people all the time I have CMT, but CMT does not have me," said Clarkson.

Place a politician into a roomful of curious news reporters and there's a chance that mayhem will ensue, with questions being shouted and the elected office holder trying his or her best to come up with a politically correct answer.

It's a process that doesn't always work well, judging from recent television news coverage of political press conferences.

U.S. Sen. John Thune and U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson applauded a new U.S. trade deal with Japan as a positive for the agriculture industry.

"Amid what seems like a tidal wave of obstacles this year, this is exactly the kind of news farm country has been waiting for, and I expect this deal, once approved by Japan, will have a direct and positive effect on the U.S. agriculture industry," Thune said in a statement.

PIERRE, S.D. — South Dakota's Republican U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson says it's time for Congress to pass a trade deal with Mexico and Canada.

On Wednesday, Sept. 18, Johnson took to the House floor in Washington, D.C. to declare that the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement, negotiated by the Trump administration, is "clearly a better agreement" than its predecessor NAFTA, and that Congress "needs to do its job for the good of this country" in passing it.

Sen. John Thune's thoughts were with his hometown of Sioux Falls as it faced the aftermath of three tornadoes.

"I'm grateful to all the emergency responders, electric crews and all those who worked through the night to keep residents safe," Thune said on the floor of the U.S. Senate on Wednesday.

PIERRE, S.D. — Looking to ease the burden of child care for parents in college, U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., is planning to introduce a bill to open federal college and university grant dollars to fund more accessible child care to student-parents.

According to Johnson's Friday, Aug. 30, newspaper column, 24% of American college students are parents. As a member of the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor, Johnson said he has heard testimony from student-parents struggling to juggle their studies, jobs and child care.