Senate Report Card: Tim Johnson D-SD

Senator Tim Johnson is the senior Democratic United States Senator from the state of South Dakota. He assumed his office in 1997.

Senator Johnson serves on the Appropriations, Budget, Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Energy and Natural Resources and the Indian Affairs Committees. He also serves on the Select Committee on Ethics.

Senator Johnson suffered both prostate cancer and later a bleeding of the brain which effectively forced him into speech and physical therapy and took him out of the senate for months. Many feared that an unfortunate relapse or death of Johnson would hand the senate majority back to the Republicans.

Johnson is strongly opposed to President Bush's attempts to create private accounts within Social Security. He believes that this plan would do nothing to address the long-term reliability of the program, and that it will also entail borrowing trillions of dollars, largely from foreign nations, increasing the national debt.

As a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, he has worked to strengthen markets for South Dakota's ten ethanol facilities and increase production of soy-based biodiesel by promoting a renewable fuels standard which will effectively double the nation's use of ethanol. He sponsored the Emergency Farm Relief Act.

He is a strong supporter of initiatives to reduce classroom size, fully fund the federal obligation to special education, repair our crumbling schools, and give our teachers the tools they need to help children succeed. He has sought to alter the No Child Left Behind Act that is not meeting its obligations to rural schools. He joined Senator Conrad in requesting a Government Accountability Office study to examine the unique challenges facing rural school districts. The Government Accountability Office released that study, entitled "No Child Left Behind-Additional Assistance and Research on Effective Strategies Would Help Small Rural Districts." That report cited several specific challenges facing rural school districts. Thusly the senator has supported the No Child Left Behind Reform Act.

He has been a staunch supporter of both President Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS. Ensuring these programs receive adequate funding
Johnson cosponsored legislation declaring that genocide had occurred in Darfur. In addition, he cosponsored the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act that would impose sanctions against individuals who have committed crimes against humanity in Darfur. He also sponsored a resolution aimed at improving the security situation in Darfur.

Senator Tim Johnson is up for reelection in 2008.