US Senator Mike Rounds’ WEEKLY ROUND[S] Up
October 5-19, 2025
Welcome back to another Weekly Round[s] Up. We have officially passed three weeks of being in a government shutdown. Democrats have now had 11 opportunities to reopen government but are refusing to do the right thing for the American people. The shutdown is having real, damaging effects on many Americans. Federal workers, including full-time uniformed members of the National Guard have missed a paycheck, food assistance is in jeopardy, some seniors are left without access to telehealth and air travel is growing more chaotic by the day.
On a positive note, the National Defense Authorization Act passed the Senate during the government shutdown. While we still have to conference it with the House version of the NDAA, the Senate version contains many wins for South Dakota. I’m particularly pleased that this version includes my legislation to ban individuals and entities controlled by China, Russia, Iran and North Korea from purchasing agricultural land and businesses located near sensitive military sites. The NDAA is a great example of bipartisan work in the Senate. As we remain in a government shutdown, I hope my Democrat colleagues decide to work with us to open the government up. After that happens, we can continue to work through the pressing issues that are facing the American people. More on the rest of my week in my Weekly Round[s] Up:
South Dakota groups I visited with: Merchant Payments Coalition; Kory and Ali Anderson with Dakota Foundry; Kelsey Lovseth, NEA Director for South Dakota, Stephanie Hageman, President of South Dakota Education Association; and the South Dakota Newsmedia Association, Flandreau Sioux Tribe, and Student Media Organizations students from Black Hills State University.
Met with South Dakotans from: Brookings, North Sioux City, Vermillion, Watertown, Webster, and Wessington Springs.
Other meetings: CIA General Counsel nominee, Joshua Simmons; Bill Pulte, Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency; Inspector General Michael Horowitz with the Federal Reserve Board, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; Oleksandra Ustinova, Member of the Parliament of Ukraine and Anton Henov, F-16 Pilot, Head of the Ukrainian F-16 Program; Postmaster General David Steiner; Leadership with GeoExchange; General Kenneth S. Wilsbach, Department of the Air Force’s 24th Chief of Staff nominee; Major General Pirak; Javier Perez-Tasso, CEO of SWIFT; Paul Coussan with the National Parks Foundation; and Marissa Marshall from the Badlands National Park Conservancy.
Hearings: I attended 4 hearings last week including an Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee hearing, two Senate Armed Services Committee hearings, and an Open Nomination hearing for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. During the open nomination hearing, I was able to give opening remarks for Peter Metzger, who I used to work with on the Select Committee on Intelligence. I know he will do great in this new role once confirmed. Watch a clip from the hearing here.
Briefings: Last week, I attended two briefings, one with the Senate Armed Services Committee as well as a closed Senate Select Committee on Intelligence briefing.
Senate Bible Study: I attended our Senate Bible Study, where the verse of the week was Luke 3:8 which speaks of repentance. I also attended our weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast with our speaker, former Senator Don Nickles from Oklahoma.
Votes taken: 32 – I voted again (several times) for the clean Continuing Resolution to extend government funding through November 21. As I’ve said, we need to open government back up. I also voted twenty times on different amendments to the NDAA, ending with the official vote to pass the FY2026 NDAA. I voted for Harold D. Mooty III, of Alabama, to be US District Judge for the Northern District of Alabama.
My staff in South Dakota visited: Aberdeen, Brookings, Lennox, Mobridge, and Vermillion.
Steps taken: 60,775 steps or 28.93 miles in week one, 45,472 steps or 21.36 miles in week two.
Video of the Week: Last week I joined Stuart Varney on Fox Business, watch the interview by clicking below.
Did Sen. Rounds really just claim that the “deep state” is monitoring senator phone calls? Wow. This is nuts.
Here is what really happened… “As described by various Senators, the toll data collection was narrowly tailored and limited to the four days from January 4, 2021 to January 7, 2021, with a focus on telephonic activity during the period immediately surrounding the January 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol,” Smith’s lawyers wrote Tuesday to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
We had an attack on the Capitol, for God’s sake! There was an investigation to see what occurred. Deep state? What has happened to these guys?
Quote was from Fox News article, Oct. 22, 2025… “Jack Smith defends subpoenaing Republican senators’ phone records: ‘Entirely proper’”
thank you. that was well and accurately reported sir.
Senator, I read you were not concerned about the demolition of that part of the East Wing of the White House, the People’s House to build a gaudy monstrosity of a ball room. We are not the French with their palace at Versailles!
oh dear. The East Wing of the White House was built in 1942 and houses the First Lady’s office and staff, a family theater, and a colonnade entrance for visitors. None of which sounds particularly essential or historic.
The 1,470 sq ft East Room has been used as a ballroom, and is located in the main part of the White House itself. In addition to using the East Room as a ballroom, Trump has his own 20,000 sq foot ballroom at Mar-a-Lago if he wants to host a big party.
What’s under the East Wing: the highly secure Presidential Emergency Operations Center, AKA The Bunker..
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I asked my son who works in DC to tell me how big a hole they are digging.
I suspect the real story is what is going underground, a more secure bunker, a parking garage, a data center?
The 90,000 sq ft ballroom is just the icing on the cake, and something to distract the public from any discussion of what’s going on underground. .
agreed
The history of the East Wing of the White is most certainly of interest to the critics of the new construction project.
When it was built, the country was at war, German Uboats were operating off the east coast,& with all of that, FDR decided Eleanor had to have more office space, and a private theater too. Yep, that’s what it was.
From the Argus Leader on Jan 8th, 2021… “But misinformation and falsehoods about wide-spread fraud fueled Wednesday’s violent riots, Thune said. And that includes, at some level, Trump’s rhetoric… Scripture says: When you sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind,” Thune said. “You could see this coming,”
Senators should think about that at next week’s Bible study.
God is truth. And all of this happened as a result of Trump’s lies. Our senators knew that back then. And they know it now. Blaming the “deep state” or the investigation into January 6th, is embarrassingly dishonest. But… you could see this coming too.
Mike Rounds does not give a damn about South Dakota’s farmers and ranchers. $40 billion to Argentina, who then turned around and sold all of their soybeans to China without an export tax. Did Marion say anything against Trump and Bessent? No! Now Trump wants to import beef from Argentina to bring down American beef prices. Did Marion say anything against Trump? No! Marion is simply a feckless worm that ought to be treated like the ineffectual little creature that he is. Time to throw him off the boat and into the muddy Missouri where he belongs.
Mmmmm can’t wait to see the branding switch from South Dakota Angus to Argentina Angus. They have money to burn for promotion too thanks to El Jefe