HOEVEN: FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHOULD REIMBURSE NORTH DAKOTA FOR DAPL PROTEST COSTS

Senator John Hoeven (R - ND)

Washington, D.C. - July 22, 2018 - (The Ponder News) -- Senator John Hoeven today issued the following statement after North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem filed a claim with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers seeking $38 million to cover the costs related to the illegal protests surrounding the Dakota Access Pipeline. As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Hoeven secured $10 million in Fiscal Year 2017 through the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Emergency Federal Law Enforcement Assistance program to help reimburse the state.

“The Army Corps of Engineers and other federal officials did not enforce the law, which allowed the illegal encampment to take place,” Hoeven said. “The State of North Dakota should not have to bear the resulting costs and that is why I have worked to secure funds to reimburse the state. I support the Attorney General in these continuing efforts to make the state whole and will assist however I can on behalf of our state’s taxpayers.”