Happy Monday!
Dear Fellow Republicans,
We wanted to provide you with a roundup of everything you might have missed from North Dakota’s great Republican leaders this past week. Please share with family and friends!
Perrie Schafer, NDGOP Chairman
NDGOP
SAVE THE DATE: The NDGOP Convention will take place April 1-2, 2022 in Bismarck, ND at the Bismarck Event Center. More information to come.
Photo of the Week
Ten robotics teams from Grand Forks public schools have qualified to attend the World Championship in May in Dallas, Texas.
North Dakota
Exclusive: Governor Doug Burgum on regional workforce impact program
AM 1100 The Flag
Governor Doug Burgum this past week announced the funds as part of his Regional Workforce Impact Program, which will hit nearly every county in the state.”Workforce remains the top barrier to economic growth in North Dakota,” said Burgum talking with WDAY Midday in an exclusive interview. “Strengthening our workforce through innovative, locally driven solutions supported by programs like RWIP will create a pathway to a stronger economy”.
ND Democrats fail to tap candidates for 2 statewide offices
KX News
North Dakota Democrats have finished endorsements for several statewide candidates but the party failed to recruit contenders for secretary of state and tax commissioner.
Biden’s ‘climate action’ plan is a solution in search of a problem
The Jamestown Sun
North Dakota is uniquely equipped to take this battle head on and solve the problem. I talked with Lt. Gov. Brent Sanford about the opportunity it presents us this week. Sanford told a group gathered in Dickinson that North Dakota’s next move in the Bakken will be to do enhanced oil recovery. “The long-term goal is to have that flow of CO2 put to a commercial use,” he said. “If CO2 is necessary to get the other 80% of the oil out of the rock, then there’s an economic payback for it,” Sanford continued.
Russian holdings by North Dakota investment board down more than 80% since Ukraine invasion
The Jamestown Sun
Investments in Russia by a North Dakota board have dropped more than 80% over the last month, as the state has sought to divest its holdings from the country in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine. The State Investment Board’s holdings in Russia have shrunk to $2.7 million from almost $16 million at the time of the invasion on Feb. 24, staff from the state’s Retirement and Investment Office informed board members Friday, March 25. The 12-member State Investment Board, chaired by Lt. Gov. Brent Sanford, elected at a special meeting earlier this month to begin divesting from Russia. Even then, the board’s Russian holdings accounted for a small fraction of its total investments, less than a tenth of 1%. The board manages more than $19 billion.
N.D. OFFICIALS: AVIAN INFLUENZA DEMANDS INCREASED VIGILANCE
AM 890 AgNews
With avian influenza spreading throughout the country and confirmed cases in wild birds and domestic poultry in neighboring states, residents should not attempt to assist, move, rehabilitate or dispatch wild birds and should avoid bringing wildlife home. Poultry owners should practice increased biosecurity to help protect their birds. “To date, there have been nearly 450 detections in wild birds and 51 detections in commercial and backyard flocks throughout the country,” Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring said. “In 2015, North Dakota had two cases of H5 HPAI in Dickey and LaMoure counties, affecting well over 100,000 birds combined. Producers learned firsthand the hardship this virus can cause.”
Washington, D.C.
US to increase gas exports to Europe, could be good for ND
KFYR-TV
The United States will export at least 15 billion cubic meters more of liquified natural gas to Europe this year. North Dakota energy industry experts say the move will be good U.S. energy production, but they’re hoping the president does more to incentivize production in the state. “I think the hope would be that this will be one of many steps that the administration will make to increase the production and transportation infrastructure around American energy. You know, he’s in Europe, he understands how desperate they are for energy, and why wouldn’t it come from places like North Dakota?” said Ron Ness, president of the ND Petroleum Council. The announcement comes more than a month after a group of Republican senators, including North Dakota Senators John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer, sent a letter to the president asking him to increase LNG exports to Europe.
‘You cannot feel the full power of the pain.’
Wahpeton Daily News
Earlier in week, 73 U.S. legislators including Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, DFL-Minn., Rep. Michelle Fischbach, R-Minn., and Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., urged the administration of President Joe Biden to immediately act on behalf of Ukrainian children. “The lawmakers specifically called on the Biden administration to identify the approximately 300 Ukrainian children waiting to join American adoptive or host families and work with the Ukrainian government to find a way forward to allow children with in-process adoptions to travel to stay with host families in the United States instead of requiring these children to remain in other locations for displaced persons in Europe or in Ukraine,” Klobuchar’s office stated Tuesday, March 22.
Sen. Cramer: ‘It’s a Pretty Serious Problem’ That Judge Jackson Cannot Define the Word ‘Woman’
CNSNews.com
When asked whether a Supreme Court nominee who claims she cannot define what a woman is should be able to serve on the high court, Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N. D.) said, “It’s a problem. It was a dodge, and it was, I think it exposed sort of the political nature and the fact that she’s super-coached.”
Stimulus Check Update: Republicans Call Dems’ Gas Rebate Idea a ‘Disaster’
Newsweek
“Democrats’ energy policy is handing out more money we don’t have,” Representative Kelly Armstrong, a North Dakota Republican and a member of the House Energy and Commerce Energy Subcommittee, told the Daily Caller. “It’s a recipe for disaster,” the congressman said. “Allow us to get infrastructure in the ground, and we’ll supply energy not just for the United States, but for some of our allies who could really use it right now,” Armstrong added.
For North Dakotans living next to nuclear missiles, the specter of a world-altering war is an afterthought
The Jamestown Sun
U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-ND, said his years of visits with airmen at the Minot base have given him the utmost confidence in the safety of their operations, and he objected to the arguments of nuclear skeptics that the United States should further shrink its arsenal….The last month’s developments in Europe have already shifted the parameters of that debate, Cramer told The Forum. While Putin’s order to put Russian nukes on “high alert” might be dismissed as political posturing, Cramer said the country’s behavior in Ukraine serves as a clear argument against nuclear disarmament.
GOP Sen. Cramer: Biden’s Statement on Chemical Weapons Sounded Like ‘Minor Incursion’ Line
Breitbart
Cramer said he was struck by Biden’s statement, adding, “But remember, this is the same president who said, well, it depends on whether it’s a minor incursion or not, that’ll determine how we respond. Remember, he was the vice president when Barack Obama drew a red line about chemical weapons in Syria, and then, when they crossed the red line, did nothing about it. He was the vice president when — the last time Ukraine had a problem and it had a skirmish that resulted in yielding some land, they sent blankets. This is the problem with him, is that he talks tough, but his policies are always late. Even when he’s done the right thing in this situation, it’s been late. Now, I thought, by and large, it was a pretty good news conference, up until the end, when I’m sure his entire communications team was going please don’t, please don’t, please don’t take one more question.”
GOP Senators ‘Very Concerned’ With SCOTUS Nominee’s Leniency in Child-Porn Sentencing
CNSNews.com
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N. Dak.) said, “Well, I have not looked into all of it nor have I looked into the context of it all. I will say, though, this line of inquiry is completely appropriate. I mean, she is a judge, she wants to be on the highest court in the land, she needs to explain it, if there is a context where it makes some sense. “I will say the one answer I heard that I sort of cringed at was when she tried to differentiate between mail—you know, hard mail coming through the you know, into your mailbox — versus digital,” the senator added. “That’s really not, that’s really not the threshold for how bad a crime it is,” said Cramer. “So, I don’t know if she’s got a better answer or if [unintelligible] there’s a context that makes sense. I’m not, by the way, I’m not so sure that we shouldn’t look at some sentencing reforms. But this—Josh was right to bring it up, he was right to challenge it, he was obviously thorough and specific in choosing his examples. It raises more concern about her than there was a week ago.”
SEC’s new rule would add climate change risks, emissions to corporate disclosures
The Washington Times
Sen. Kevin Cramer, North Dakota Republican, accused the Biden administration of being “hell-bent on regulating fossil fuels out of existence.” “Congress never passed a new law granting them new authority in this space,” Mr. Cramer, a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said in a statement. “Secondly, the new climate reporting requirements are arbitrary and confusing. It only serves to further discourage investment in domestic energy development and prevent American energy independence.”
