Congressman Dusty Johnson’s Weekly Column: A Year in Review

A Year in Review
By Rep. Dusty Johnson

Rep. Johnson speaks at an Agriculture Committee hearing.

It’s been nearly a year since I packed a suitcase and flew to our nation’s capital to be sworn in as South Dakota’s lone representative. It was a proud moment for my family and me. I stood on the U.S. House floor, raised my right hand, and swore my oath to the U.S. Constitution alongside my three boys and better half. A few weeks later, I was appointed to a leadership position as a Subcommittee Ranking Member on the Agriculture Committee – it’s been an honor helping to lead a committee that does such important work for South Dakota.

Since January 3, 2019, Congress has been nothing short of eventful. When I was sworn into office, the government was in a partial shutdown. For weeks, Speaker Pelosi and President Trump went back and forth on funding for border security. I stood with the president and supported a bill that reopened the government and provided funding for a border wall.

Every day, my main priority is South Dakota. I’ve taken three-hundred and fifty-eight meetings with South Dakotans while in Washington. In the last year, I’ve toured two-hundred and ninety-seven local businesses, hosted twenty-one in person townhalls, and met with dozens of community leaders throughout our great state. I’ve always had more energy to burn than most. I promised I would work hard to fight for South Dakota’s priorities, and I believe I’ve kept that promise. An average day in Washington begins at seven in the morning and lasts well into the ten o’clock evening hour. I’m also proud of our legislative successes – I introduced thirteen bills this year, two of which were signed into law by President Trump.

Rep. Johnson gives a constituent group a tour of the U.S. Capitol building.

I did take the opportunity to venture out on a few fact-finding missions outside of Washington. I toured areas along the southern border and Mexico because border security continues to be a primary concern of mine. Our immigration courts are dealing with more than 436,000 open cases and this unprecedented caseload is why I supported legislation to send humanitarian aid to the border and increase the number of immigration case judges. The president signed this bill into law in June.

South Dakota has had a tough year weather-wise. Crops were wiped out and thousands of acres flooded – multiple times. I came to Washington to tackle the life-altering problems. I am proud of the work our team put in to get the prevent plant harvest date moved from November to September this year. The FEEDD Act would formalize that important decision, and I am grateful the U.S. Department of Agriculture moved the harvest date in part because of my bipartisan legislation.

Few issues have been more important to me than trade. I never imagined it would take more than a year to pass the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA), but it did. I gave floor speech after floor speech, attended meeting after meeting, urging Speaker Pelosi to let the U.S. House vote on a deal that, according to the Office of the U. S. Trade Representative, will add 176,000 jobs and $68 billion to our economy. I delivered my last USMCA floor speech on December 19, 2019, moments before casting my vote in favor of the USMCA.

I’m tremendously proud of the work South Dakota’s congressional office has accomplished this year, and I hope you are too.

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