Ernst Week in Review
Pressing USDA on Efforts to Increase Access to Biofuels
Senator Ernst, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Subcommittee on Energy and Rural Development and a champion for the biofuels industry, pressed the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on their efforts to expand infrastructure which will lead to increased access to higher biofuel blends, like E15, in Iowa and across the country.
In a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing this week, Senator Ernst asked Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Stephen Censky for details on the agency’s plans to “seek opportunities to consider infrastructure projects to facilitate higher biofuels blends,” as promised by the October 4th announcement by the Trump Administration regarding the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).
Click here or the image above to watch Senator Ernst’s questioning.
Calling for a Clear Strategy for the Enduring Defeat of ISIS
In response to Turkey’s reckless intervention in northern Syria, Senator Ernst, a combat veteran and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, called on the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of State to provide a clear plan to Congress outlining the United States’ strategy to defeat ISIS.
Senator Ernst spoke on the Senate floor on her resolution, which asks the DoD for a strategy—within 30 days—to address the ongoing threat ISIS poses regionally and globally, the plan to prevent an ISIS resurgence and to mitigate the threat the terrorist organization poses to the United States and our allies, and to describe how our gains against them since 2014 will be protected.
Click here or the image above to watch Senator Ernst’s speech.
Kicking ‘Creeps’ Out of the Federal Workforce
Senator Ernst, a survivor and outspoken leader on the issues of combatting sexual violence and holding Washington bureaucrats accountable, this week introduced legislation to ensure federal employees and contractors who are convicted of sexual assault face serious consequences for their actions, including termination.
The senator’s bill, the Compulsory Requirement to Eliminate Employees who are Perpetrators of Sexual assault (CREEPS) Act, gives federal agencies and other entities employing personnel for the federal government the authority to remove an employee convicted of sexual assault or found to have committed such an offense by an administrative body while employed by the federal government.
Ernst has long fought to address sexual violence, including working on legislation to improve reporting and data collection methods on incidents occurring in the military and the federal government.
Social Media Highlights
###
