United States Senator John Hoeven for North Dakota

WASHINGTON – Senator John Hoeven spoke last week on the Senate floor in support of a bipartisan measure that would allow highly skilled foreign students who graduate from U.S. universities with advanced degrees to stay in the United States to help create jobs and new businesses. The students would fill positions for which there aren’t a sufficient number of workers.

The bill recognize that nearly half of U.S. Master’s and Ph.D. degree recipients in science, technology, engineering and math fields are foreign nationals. Current U.S. Immigration policy, however, makes no provision to retain these entrepreneurs and job creators, who could be filling positions the U.S. needs in high-demand areas. Instead, the United States loses these graduates to competitors abroad. The bill is also family friendly, and would allow the spouses and minor children of permanent residents to join them after an initial waiting period.

“What we are talking about is mak...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator John Hoeven (R-N.D.) today said the U.S. Department of Agriculture has agreed to modify the new National School Lunch and Breakfast Program requirements in response to a bipartisan letter that Hoeven and Arkansas Senator Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) spearheaded in November requesting changes.

Hoeven and Pryor said the request was prompted by numerous correspondences from parents, school board members, superintendents, and other concerned community members expressing their frustration as the new rule is rolled out. The rule became effective in March and implementation began this fall with the new school year.

In response to the senators’ request, the USDA informed Hoeven in a letter late Friday that it has lifted its strict limitations on caloric intake of grains and starches, as well as protein, which will lend significantly more flexibility to schools and students, especially athletes. These changes are in place only for the 2012-2013 s...

WASHINGTON – Senators John Hoeven and Kent Conrad, Congressman Rick Berg and Governor Jack Dalrymple today announced that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has agreed to their request that the agency not increase releases from the Missouri River to meet the commercial needs of Mississippi River interests.

In a joint letter sent last week to President Barack Obama, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate and Assistant Secretary of the Army Jo-Ellen Darcy, the leaders of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Kansas made the case that “…unlawful releases of additional water from Missouri River reservoirs will only exacerbate the drought-related losses already experienced by the communities, tribes, and industries that rely on water from the Missouri River.”

The North Dakota leaders sent the letter in response to downstream interests who have requested that the President and Corps increase releases from, among oth...

WASHINGTON – Senator John Hoeven today spoke on the Senate floor to call for greater bipartisan consensus to address the fiscal cliff now facing the nation.

“We must – and in fact we can – find consensus and agreement. We’ve done it before. We did it in building a good, solid Farm Bill, which actually found $23 billion in savings toward the deficit. We did it in passing a strong highway bill that will strengthen the nation’s infrastructure. It will take more of this kind of cooperation and consensus-building to address the very real and substantial challenges facing our nation today.”

The senator said doing three essential things are necessary to address the fiscal cliff: reforming our tax code; reforming entitlement programs; and better controlling our spending.

Reforming the tax code means closing loopholes and limiting deductions, which combined with economic growth will produce revenues without raising tax rates t...