DORGAN, CONRAD ANNOUNCE SENATE APPROVAL OF BILL THAT INVESTS IN NORTH DAKOTA ECONOMY
Legislation includes investments that will support university projects, first responders
Friday, November 6, 2009
CONTACT: Justin Kitsch
or Brenden Timpe
PHONE: 202-224-2551
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) --- The U.S. Senate voted late Thursday to approve an appropriations bill that includes funding secured by U.S. Senators Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad that will support North Dakota’s high-tech research industry and efforts to ensure first responders in the state have the training and resources they need.
“These projects will provide a boost to North Dakota’s first responders by ensuring they have the training and resources they need to do their jobs while staying safe,” Senators Dorgan and Conrad said. “It will also help UND continue its high-tech work with NASA to help our family farmers and others use satellite information. These are important projects that will give a boost to our state’s economy.”
The Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations bill will now go to a conference committee that will work out the differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. The North Dakota projects in the bill include:
NDSU Advanced Nanomaterials Research Facility
$5 million
Funding would be used for a major expansion of a research facility at North Dakota State University to provide much needed laboratory space for its ongoing nanomaterials research, including coatings, polymers, photovoltaics and advanced catalytic materials.
UND Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium
$3 million
This funding will be used by UND’s Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium, which makes NASA data and research publicly available for use in practical applications such as precision agriculture, land and soil management, carbon sequestration and drought and flood mitigation. More than 80,000 satellite and aircraft images of the Great Plains are available for farmers, educators, land managers and others to use for everyday management decisions.
United Tribes Technical College Indian Police Training
$400,000
This funding will be used by United Tribes Technical College to purchase law enforcement training equipment and to hire instructors to expand the school’s specialized Indian law enforcement training. The funding is part of Senator Dorgan’s goal of establishing United Tribes Technical College as the second Bureau of Indian Affairs site in the nation where Indian police cadets can go to receive training. This funding is on top of the $250,000 in BIA law enforcement training funds UTTC received through a bill signed into law last week.
MSU Rural Methamphetamine Education Project
$500,000
This funding will be used by Minot State University to combat methamphetamine use and production in rural areas through education, outreach and research. MSU will make its research and community strategies available online and further develop law enforcement analysis tools, including a testing kit that will help in analyzing clandestine methamphetamine labs. The project has reached more than 100,000 North Dakotans through its education and community outreach.
Native Americans into Law
$300,000
Funding will be used to continue the Native Americans into Law program at the University of North Dakota to recruit and retain American Indian law students. The program has assisted 23 students from 13 tribes across the country, many of whom are practicing in Indian communities.
City of Bismarck and Burleigh County First Responder Upgrade
$250,000
This funding will be used to purchase and implement a standard, high-speed mobile data system that will allow fire, medical and law enforcement personnel in Bismarck and Burleigh County to communicate, share and access data, and see in real-time who is responding to an emergency situation. Currently, regional public safety departments operate separate communications systems that lack interoperability and can hamper coordinated responses.
Williston Radar Station
This provision will ensure the continued operation of the Williston Radar Station, a vital information link providing needed weather warnings that can save the lives of both people and livestock in northwestern North Dakota and northeastern Montana. Area residents are concerned about the National Weather Service’s proposal to shut down the station and to rely solely on radars 40 and 126 miles away. Dorgan has worked to retain the radar site until he receives assurances that the FAA radar can provide coverage for all light to heavy “under the radar” weather activity.
—END—