Emmer focuses on transportation, vets in legislation

WASHINGTON – Rep. Tom Emmer is trying to make good on a campaign pledge to secure more federal dollars for Minnesota transportation projects, including improvements to Interstate Highway 94.

The Delano Republican introduced his first pieces of legislation this week, and one of them would allow states and local governments to compete for $250 million in federal highway funds each year.

"It was a commitment that I made to the district — the No. 1 issue of the district is transportation," he said in an interview Thursday. "It is no new spending, it's competitive only from the standpoint that I think Minnesota should be allowed to compete for more of the money that it should be getting back."

The other bill he introduced would expand veterans' ability to get health care in the private sector rather than at Veterans Affairs' facilities.

Congress passed a law last year allowing veterans to seek private care if they are unable to get an appointment within 30 days at the nearest VA facility and if they live more than 40 miles from the nearest VA facility. Emmer's bill would change the wait time to two weeks and the distance to 20 miles.

"There have been issues obviously with the VA," he said.

He said both bills stemmed from concerns he has heard from constituents.

"Everything that we're going to do starts with a constituent who says, 'Hey, I've had an issue with this,' " Emmer said.

The transportation legislation would direct the Department of Transportation to set up a program that doles out grants for construction projects that improve intersections or interchanges on highways that are used by an average of at least 50,000 vehicles per day and are in "immediate need for improvement with respect to safety."

A legislative aide to Emmer cited two potential projects in Minnesota that could compete for the money: improvements to U.S. Highway 10 and the Fish Lake interchange, where Interstate Highways 694, 94 and 494 come together near Maple Grove.

The improvement some St. Cloud residents have pushed for — an expansion of Interstate Highway 94 from Rogers to St. Cloud — would not qualify. But Emmer said he is still looking for other ways to get that done.

"We're always going to be working on anything that would allow us to improve transportation infrastructure in the district — and frankly, connected, feeding in and out of the district — and that would include Highway 94, Highway 10, Highway 5," he said.

The bill has been transferred to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Emmer and Reps. Erik Paulsen, R-Eden Prairie, and Tim Walz, D-Mankato, sent a letter Tuesday to the committee's chairman, Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., asking him to consider moving it forward.

If he does, it would likely become part of a larger highway bill that Congress is hoping to pass before the end of May, when the federal Highway Trust Fund is slated to run out of money.