[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 146 (Thursday, September 12, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5453-S5454]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              South Dakota

  Mr. THUNE. Madam President, it was a good August. While I head back 
to South Dakota almost every weekend, August gives me the chance to 
spend multiple uninterrupted weeks back home visiting with South 
Dakotans and traveling to the far corners of the State.
  August is also fair season in South Dakota, and there is nothing 
better than a South Dakota fair. This year I got to attend the South 
Dakota State Fair, the Brown County Fair, the Sioux Empire Fair, the 
Turner County Fair, and the McCook County Fair, to name a few on the 
list. As usual, I had a great time at all of them. Of course, the 
people are the best part of the fair, although I have to say that the 
fair food is not far behind. I am still enjoying at this late date the 
Tubby Burger

[[Page S5454]]

that I had at the Brown County Fair, and I will tell you that they 
don't have burgers like that here in Washington, DC.
  Agriculture is the lifeblood of South Dakota, and, as always, a lot 
of my conversations over August were centered on agriculture. Farmers 
and ranchers have had a very rough few years, and addressing the needs 
of our agriculture community is one of my top priorities in Congress.
  One big concern for our producers is ethanol and biodiesel. While we 
received some good news this year with the approval of year-round E15 
sales, the ethanol industry is still facing significant challenges 
owing to the excess of small refinery waivers that have been issued--an 
issue we continue to try to address.
  Perhaps the biggest concern for our farmers right now is trade. 
Multiple protracted trade disputes have exacerbated an already 
struggling ag economy and have left farmers and ranchers unsure how 
markets are going to be going forward.
  While ranchers received some good news in August with the 
announcement that the administration has reached a deal to increase 
U.S. beef sales to Europe, that is just a tiny fraction of what we need 
to be doing trade-wise. Each time I speak with the President and his 
administration, I tell them what South Dakota farmers have told me: We 
need to conclude negotiations on the various trade deals we are working 
on as soon as possible to open new markets and to expand existing ones 
and to give agricultural producers certainty about what the playing 
field is going to look like going forward.
  One of my priorities right now is pushing for passage of the United 
States-Mexico-Canada free-trade agreement. The United States-Mexico-
Canada Agreement will preserve farmers' access to two of our Nation's 
most significant agricultural export markets--Canada and Mexico--and 
substantially expand market access for U.S. dairy products in Canada. 
Negotiations on this agreement have already been concluded. We need 
Democrats in the House to indicate their willingness to take it up and 
pass it.
  August is always a great time to share with South Dakotans what I am 
working on in Washington and to get their feedback, which is why I am 
glad I had the opportunity to host several townhall meetings across the 
State, toured numerous local businesses, and visited nearly every 
corner of South Dakota.
  As South Dakotans know, I am a longtime member of the Senate 
Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. I served as chairman 
of the committee in the last Congress, and I currently chair the 
Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and 
the Internet. This has given me the chance to address a number of 
issues facing Americans and South Dakotans, from the frustration of 
illegal robocalls to the data privacy concerns we all face in the 
internet age. It has also given me the chance to focus on digital 
issues that affect rural States like South Dakota, particularly the 
lack of high-speed internet access in rural areas.
  To residents of large cities, being without access to high-speed 
internet is unthinkable, but for families in rural areas, which lack 
the telecommunications infrastructure of cities and suburbs, even basic 
internet access can sometimes be a struggle. Broadband access is 
frequently just a dream, and that has real consequences for these 
Americans.
  It is not just a matter of being able to stream Netflix without 
interruption. In our digital economy, a lack of reliable, high-speed 
internet access means losing out on opportunities to grow your 
business, it means fewer educational opportunities, and it means fewer 
healthcare resources in areas that already lack easy access to 
specialty care services. Telehealth promises to reduce some of the 
geographic barriers to care for individuals in rural areas, but it 
depends largely on high-speed internet access. Then there is the 
rapidly developing field of precision agriculture. Precision 
agriculture, which uses tools like robotics and remote monitoring to 
help farmers manage their fields, promises to help farmers 
substantially increase their yields while reducing their costs. But, 
once again, it depends on reliable access to high-speed internet.
  That is why I have made this issue such a priority. Nationwide, the 
digital divide is shrinking, as more and more Americans gain access to 
broadband. In South Dakota, we are ahead of the curb, thanks to people 
like Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken, who has worked aggressively to 
remove barriers to telecommunications investment in cities like Sioux 
Falls. I was very encouraged by the Federal Communications Commission's 
recent announcement that it will invest $705 million over the next 
decade to bring broadband to rural areas in South Dakota that currently 
go without.
  There is more work to be done, and I am committed to pushing this 
issue until reliable broadband access is standard in rural America. 
During the last week of the August break, I brought the Commerce 
Committee to Sioux Falls to conduct a field hearing on rural broadband. 
We brought an FCC Commissioner with us so that he could hear directly 
from South Dakotans who are on the frontlines of rural broadband 
expansion and leading the innovations that come along with it. It was a 
great hearing, and I am very encouraged by the progress we are making 
on this issue. I look forward to doing more work on this issue in the 
coming months.
  I am energized by the time that I spent with South Dakotans during 
the August break, and I am looking forward to continuing to fight for 
South Dakota's priorities here in Washington this fall.