UND, DSU receive grants
North Dakota Sens. Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad and Rep. Earl Pomeroy, all Democrats, said Thursday that UND and Dickinson State University have each been awarded a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce to help create economic development programs.
UND's Center for Innovation will receive $100,000 and DSU's Strom Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship will get $64,060 in EDA grants. The schools will use the federal dollars as venture capital to fund the first year of their University Center programs.
Peterson introduces legislation on pesticides
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin C. Peterson, D-Minn., this week introduced a resolution that amends the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Clean Water Act (CWA) to prohibit additional permits for pesticide application when pesticides are applied consistent with FIFRA.
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"This legislation provides farmers and ranchers with the safe harbor they deserve in the application of pesticides. The bill relieves producers from a potentially costly regulatory burden that does little if anything to protect the environment," Peterson said in a statement.
In the decades since Congress enacted the CWA, the Environmental Protection Agency has never issued a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit for the application of a pesticide. Instead, EPA has regulated these types of applications through FIFRA, enacted by Congress to control all aspects of pesticide registration, sales and use. The FIFRA registration process includes stringent requirements for a wide range of environmental, health and safety studies to establish the circumstances under which pesticides can be legally used in the United States.
Peterson's bill would make clear that producers who are in compliance with the requirements of FIFRA are not subject to Clean Water Act permits, his office said.
Veterans group endorses Pomeroy
Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., has earned the endorsement of the Veterans of Foreign Wars PAC, one of the nation's largest veterans groups, in his re-election campaign for the U.S. House, his office said Thursday.
"This endorsement is based on your strong support for veterans, national security & defense, and military personnel issues," said Salvatore J. Capirchio, director of the VFW PAC, in a letter to Pomeroy.
According to the letter to Pomeroy, the VFW PAC "provides the 2.1 million members of the VFW, its auxiliaries and their families with an opportunity to collectively support candidates for federal office who support our nations' veterans and America's security."
Pomeroy is being challenged Republican Fargo legislator Rick Berg.
