Senate taps Thune for second term as chairman of transportation committee

Sen. John Thune, R.-S.D., was selected to lead the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation for a second straight term.    The U.S. Senate last week officially ratified Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., for his second straight term as chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation for the 115th Congress.
   Since January 2013, Thune has served as senior most Republican member of the committee, which has broad jurisdiction over matters relating to the Coast Guard, communications, highway safety, inland waterways, interstate commerce, marine and ocean navigation safety and transportation, marine fisheries, merchant marine and navigation, nonmilitary aeronautical and space sciences, oceans weather and atmospheric activities, regulation of consumer products and services, as well as regulation of interstate common carriers including railroads, buses, trucks, vessels, pipelines, civil aviation, science, engineering, technology research and development and policy, sports, and transportation.
   “It is a great honor to be selected to serve for a second term as chairman of the Commerce Committee,” Thune said in a statement. “I look forward to working with Ranking Member Bill Nelson and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle on issues at the forefront of innovation and competitiveness, consumer protection, science, transportation, and economic growth in my role as chairman.”