As we approach the end of the fiscal year on September 30, there are many pressing issues in Congress that directly affect North Dakota, like the Farm Bill, flood protection and water infrastructure, rural air service, and preventing a government shutdown. On top of these issues facing immediate deadlines, we must also take action to protect access to affordable health care for all North Dakotans – especially those with pre-existing conditions – and push for smart trade policies that open markets for North Dakota’s agriculture, manufacturing, and energy industries being hurt by the trade war. Now is no time to take a vacation, so I’m rolling up my sleeves and am continuing to work as hard as I can throughout August and going forward to fight for North Dakotans.

Passing a new Farm Bill before the current bill expires on September 30 would give our farmers and rural communities much-needed certainty, especially as the administration’s trade war continues to hurt commodity prices and puts the value of the fall harvest at risk. As a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, I helped write a strong, bipartisan bill that passed by a historic margin in the U.S. Senate, and I’m proud to be on the conference committee tasked with getting a compromise bill to the president’s desk. The conference committee has no time to waste, so I stand ready to sit around the negotiating table and get to work on behalf of our farmers and ranchers.

The Senate also needs to pass a water infrastructure bill that includes critical provisions I helped secure for the Fargo-Moorhead diversion and flood protection for Devils Lake, as well as funding to help rural communities improve aging wastewater treatment facilities. Water infrastructure is essential to maintaining quality of life in our rural communities, but repairs are often too expensive for local communities to cover on their own. Investments in our infrastructure are long overdue, and we need to pass this bill as soon as possible.

Authorization for the FAA to operate expires at the end of September, putting air travel and our state’s airports at risk. After a series of short term extensions, we must pass a bill to fund the FAA long-term to give airports the certainty they need to make investments, grow their service, and continue to give rural areas access to affordable air travel that’s essential to the movement of goods and people around our state.

We also have the urgent need to protect millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions – about 300,000 of them in North Dakota alone – from efforts to roll back protections giving them better access to affordable health care. I’ve worked with Republicans and Democrats on common-sense reforms to improve the health reform law and cut costs for North Dakota families and small businesses, without taking away protections for those with pre-existing conditions, like cancer or diabetes, as the administration is trying to do. Congress should come together immediately to pass these bipartisan reforms, instead of letting the administration undermine North Dakotans' access to affordable and lifesaving care.

On top of all of these urgent priorities, Congress must also govern responsibly and prevent a government shutdown at the end of September, which would be hugely damaging to our economy. North Dakotans sent me to Washington to work tirelessly on their behalf. Our farmers don’t take a break mid-harvest because of a heatwave, and I’m not taking a break just because Washington’s a bit muggy in August. There’s too much at stake for North Dakota.

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