Latest news with #JulieFedorchak
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
North Dakota congressional delegation touts GOP megabill as win for oil, coal
North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven, left, speaks during a press conference next to Sen. Kevin Cramer and U.S. Rep. Julie Fedorchak at the North Dakota Petroleum Council in Bismarck on July 7, 2025. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor) North Dakota's congressional delegation emphasized the elimination of tax credits for solar and wind projects as part of the federal reconciliation package will be a huge win for coal, gas and oil producers. The bill was signed into law by President Donald Trump during a White House ceremony on July 4. During a Monday press conference touting the 'big, beautiful' bill at North Dakota Petroleum Council offices in Bismarck, North Dakota Sens. John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer, and U.S. Rep. Julie Fedorchak, all Republicans, took turns at the microphone praising the Republican tax bill and how it will help North Dakotans, the energy grid and the country. 'It's baseload for the good of the grid, for the stability of the grid. We need 24/7 and that means big, beautiful coal,' Hoeven said. 'Here in North Dakota, we're a big, big part of it. We're an energy powerhouse for this country and we intend to do more.' Cramer said the U.S. needed to change its energy policy otherwise artificial intelligence data centers, crypto mining and other quantum computing industries would find homes in other countries. He also said the country has been subsidizing wind and solar energy sources for about 35 years and those sources are still not able to 'stand on its own merit.' On the Fourth of July, Trump signs his 'big, beautiful bill' into law 'We've actually diminished the reliability of our grid by putting intermittent … electricity on that grid,' Cramer said. 'You have to have generation and generation that is available 15% of the time isn't going to build you many server farms.' Fedorchak, a former utility regulator, said about 95% of the new power generation hooked into the energy grid recently was from wind and solar projects. 'I wonder why? It's because we're telling them that's what we want with our production tax credits,' she said. 'They have to go away. It's absolutely essential for the reliability of our grid.' The reconciliation package also expands an existing 45Q tax credit used for carbon sequestration to include enhanced oil recovery. 'Now the incentive is not to put CO2 down a hole just for storage. Now the incentive is to produce oil and gas with it,' Hoeven said. 'We can lengthen the lives of our coal plants and work with oil and gas to maybe double what we've produced in the Bakken.' US House passes massive tax break and spending cut bill, sending it to Trump The bill is also expected to cut $186 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Hoeven said the program will now incentivize states to keep their SNAP error-payment rates below 6% to avoid paying for a portion of the program themselves. 'If you are a state that is 6% or less, you don't pick up any of the cost share,' Hoeven said. 'But the federal government is still saving money because you reduce that error rate. People who should be working and who are not, and are getting food stamps when they should not be getting them, they no longer get them. So the taxpayer still saves.' In 2022 and 2023, North Dakota's SNAP payment error rate was 9.5%, according to Legislative Council. The state has averaged a 5.4% error rate over the last 10 years. The analysis from the Legislative Council also projects that North Dakota will see increased costs to administer SNAP. Hoeven said North Dakota would need to pick up about $6 million per year in new administrative costs under the new cost share formula. In a statement released Sunday, state Rep. Lisa Finley-DeVille, D-Mandaree, said programs like Medicaid and SNAP helped her family as she raised five children on the Fort Berthold Reservation. She said Fedorchak, Hoeven and Cramer chose party loyalty and donor priorities over the health and dignity of North Dakotans. 'This bill is a betrayal of our values,' she said. 'It gives away trillions in tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy while gutting the basic lifelines that keep our elders, caregivers, and working families afloat — especially in tribal and rural communities.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Rep. Fedorchak plans another online forum
U.S. Rep. Julie Fedorchak, R-N.D., talks to voters through a virtual town hall meeting on March 25, 2025. (Amy Dalrymple/North Dakota Monitor) U.S. Rep. Julie Fedorchak, R-N.D., will host another online public forum, with topics including the 'one, big beautiful' budget bill being considered by Congress. Rep. Fedorchak vows to protect Social Security during virtual town hall The forum will be at 7 p.m. CDT June 10. People wanting to participate in the conversation must sign up on Fedorchak's website by noon that day. The forum will be livestreamed on her website and on her official Facebook page but will not be interactive. 'I'm especially looking forward to sharing what the One Big Beautiful Bill means for our state,' Fedorchak said in a news release. Fedorchak said earlier this month that changes to Medicaid, including work requirements, included in the bill are needed to keep the program viable. This will be the third online forum hosted by Fedorchak, who is in her first term as North Dakota's only member of the U.S. House. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
E&E News
23-05-2025
- Business
- E&E News
Hill energy tech group eyes legislation, bipartisan expansion
A new Capitol Hill working group tasked with developing legislation that could help tackle an expected boom in energy demand from artificial intelligence is starting to gain momentum. The working group — spearheaded by Republican Rep. Julie Fedorchak of North Dakota — is starting to garner lawmaker interest after Fedorchak received nearly 100 responses to a request for information on powering the future of AI. 'We knew there was growing interest in how to meet AI's energy demands, but the depth and breadth of these responses exceeded our expectations,' Fedorchak said. Advertisement The congresswoman said people and companies she's heard from are tied to utilities, data center operators, energy producers, cybersecurity experts and tech innovators.
E&E News
20-05-2025
- Business
- E&E News
Republicans ax pipeline provisions in reconciliation bill
House Republicans removed two contentious provisions from their party-line megabill bill Monday that would have allowed pipeline developers to pay for accelerated permitting. The budget reconciliation legislation, however, still has what Democrats call pay-to-play policies concerning natural gas exports and National Environmental Policy Act reviews. The changes were included in an updated version of the package posted on the House Rules Committee's website Monday. More changes are likely before the legislation hits the floor as soon as Wednesday. Advertisement The House Energy and Commerce section of the megabill incorporated the 'Promoting Cross-Border Energy Infrastructure Act' from Rep. Julie Fedorchak (R-N.D.).
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Fedorchak emphasizes need for new Medicaid requirements
U.S. Rep. Julie Fedorchak speaks in the North Dakota Senate chamber on Feb. 18, 2025, as Lt. Gov Michelle Strinden presides over the session. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor) North Dakota U.S. Rep. Julie Fedorchak described Medicaid as an 'at-risk program' unless reforms are adopted to curb rising costs. But North Dakota advocates for Medicaid recipients said Thursday they worry about people slipping through the cracks and new administrative burdens being added to the state. Fedorchak, a Republican member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, voted in favor of reforms to Medicaid during a meeting that ended Wednesday. During a virtual press conference Thursday, Fedorchak said the overhaul will ensure the program remains solvent for people with disabilities, pregnant women, elderly people whom she said the program was designed for. U.S. House panel passes GOP plan that cuts Medicaid by $625B, adds work requirement 'In my opinion, I don't think this will result in fewer people receiving those benefits,' Fedorchak said. 'It will result in the people who qualify for them receiving them.' According to the Congressional Budget Office analysis, which was shared with States Newsroom, about 10.3 million people would lose access to Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program, with 7.6 million people becoming uninsured during the 10-year budget window. Those receiving Medicaid benefits would need to submit to eligibility requirements twice per year. In addition, people without disabilities between ages 19 to 64 would be required to work, volunteer or attend school for 20 hours per week to retain their benefits, she said. 'This is a very important and humane requirement,' she said. 'We want to help people become independent … this program should help encourage and incentivize able-bodied people to find a job, or be engaged with the community.' The Medicaid work requirements will not apply to pregnant women, foster youth under age 26 and tribal members, Fedorchak said. Those considered 'medically frail,' which include people who are blind or disabled, those with a substance-use disorder, or serious or complex medical conditions, would also be exempted from the work requirements. The exemptions also extend to the parent, or caregiver, of a dependent child, those who are incarcerated or released from incarceration within 90 days, those impacted by natural disasters, or people living in counties with an unemployment rate greater than 8%, or an unemployment rate 150% higher than the national average. 'There's a lot of very reasonable, I think, and appropriate exemptions included in this for folks who might not be able to reasonably meet these requirements,' she said. Kirsten Dvorak, executive director of The Arc of North Dakota, an organization that promotes the rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, said she worries about people 'falling through the cracks' because of the additional Medicaid requirements. She added she finds the inclusion of 'able-bodied' in the bill text concerning. 'How do you define able-bodied?' Dvorak said. 'Our disability community, through whatever means, is being attacked right now. And our community is nervous.' Dvorak said many people with disabilities work in North Dakota communities, in some cases due to job coaching services that are funded through Medicaid. She also questioned who was going to do the additional paperwork for the people with disabilities to continue receiving their services. Some members of the disabled community are under corporate guardianships because they don't have anybody who can make decisions for them, she said. About 108,000 North Dakota residents are eligible to receive Medicaid benefits as of April, including more than 54,000 people under age 21, according to data from the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services. No tax on tips, child tax credit and business tax cuts survive in big House GOP bill LuWanna Lawrence, a spokesperson for HHS, said the department is in contact with Fedorchak and North Dakota's congressional delegation about what the proposed legislation would mean to the state. 'We are closely monitoring the budget process at the federal level. At this time, we cannot speculate on potential impacts,' Lawrence said in a statement. Verifying the work requirements and additional Medicaid eligibility requirements is likely to require more state workers to process the paperwork, said State Senate Minority Leader Kathy Hogan, D-Fargo, a member of the Senate Human Services Committee. Hogan said she would not be surprised if state health officials approach the Legislature during the interim to request additional funding and staffing. On the proposed work requirements, Hogan said many people receiving Medicaid benefits work in low-paying service jobs that do not offer health insurance. She questioned what would happen if a person worked 18 hours one week and 22 hours the next. 'Do you lose your benefit? It's really complicated to document, particularly for lower-end workers,' she said. 'The ability to actually implement these administrative responsibilities feels like a punishment for being poor.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
