Author: @SoDakCampaigns

Energy Bill Benefits South Dakotans
By Senator Mike Rounds

The Senate recently passed a bipartisan, comprehensive energy bill that will increase energy security and help keep energy costs low for South Dakota families. The Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2016 is the first comprehensive energy bill to pass the Senate in nearly a decade. Included in the final package are a number of measures to improve the energy needs of South Dakotans, and other provisions that will directly benefit our state. I was pleased to vote for it on the Senate floor.

The bill includes my easement disclosure amendment that would make sure landowners are aware of all the options available to them when choosing to place their land in a conservation easement. Landowners in South Dakota deserve to know that perpetual conservation easements aren’t their only option. This legislation will increase awareness for shorter, termed easements that keep the landowner and the federal government on equal footing. I believe it will also result in greater conservation opportunities.

Specifically, this amendment contains language to establish a federal education program through the U.S. Department of the Interior to allow landowners to learn all of the federal conservation options available to them when choosing to restrict future use of their land through a federal easement. The agency will be required to make landowners aware of this program when approaching them about participating in a conservation program.

Another South Dakota provision included in the energy bill is the Black Hills National Cemetery Boundary Expansion Act, introduced by Sen. John Thune and me earlier this Congress. This will facilitate a permanent land transfer of around 200 acres of Bureau of Land Management land to expand the Black Hills National Cemetery near Sturgis. The permanent land transfer will guarantee that generations of South Dakota veterans will be able to rest peacefully in the Black Hills National Cemetery.

Reauthorization of the Brownfields program was included in the energy bill as well. I worked with a number of my colleagues on the Brownfields Utilization, Investment and Local Development Act, also referred to as the BUILD Act, which will provide funding for technical assistance grants to small communities and rural areas. This will be helpful to many South Dakota communities by expanding the scope of eligible grant recipients to include non-profit community groups. I was happy to see it included in the final energy bill.

The bill will enhance our ability to protect the electric grid from weather events and cybersecurity threats. Passing the Energy Policy Modernization Act is just one more example of the Senate’s commitment to strengthening economic security for the American people and of our dedication to an all-of-the-above approach to energy policy. We would have liked to see additional energy production measures included in the bill, but operating under a divided government requires any legislation passed to meet the approval of both Republicans and Democrats. We may not have gotten everything we wanted, but this bill is step in the right direction.

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Commonsense Accountability
By Rep. Kristi Noem

With Tax Day only a week or so behind us, the amount of personal information we send in with our tax return is still fresh in our minds: Social Security numbers; our annual salary; in some cases, the routing number for our bank account!  That’s the kind of information we wouldn’t share with just anyone, so it begs the question: whose hands does this information fall into once it arrives at the IRS?

Before we get too far in, I want to say that I’ve met with some incredible folks in South Dakota who do some of this work and do it with integrity.  But the IRS is a nationwide agency.  Not everyone lives up to South Dakota’s standards, including many decision-makers within the IRS.

In the past few years alone, the agency has targeted groups based on their political beliefs.  They’ve let criminal acts pass by the wayside, sending out billions of dollars in improper payments.  They’ve let calls from taxpayers go unanswered, picking up just 15.6 percent of calls during the height of tax-filing season this year.  Thousands of employees have neglected to pay their own taxes.  And all the while, the agency has handed out about $6 million worth of bonuses.

With all of this as background, it may come as no surprise that the IRS also knowingly hired hundreds of former employees who had previously been fired for misconduct. Some of these people had been fired from the IRS for filing false documents.  Some accessed sensitive taxpayer information without permission.  Some just didn’t show up to work for what totaled about 8 weeks’ worth of work, leading to a stamp on their personnel file saying: “Do Not Rehire.”  Incredibly, all of these people were rehired.

Nearly one in five of the rehired employees had new performance issues when they returned to the IRS, according to a federal report.  This defies commonsense.

What’s more, the IRS has shown a complete disregard for changing the practice and insists that prior conduct or performance issues do not play a significant role in deciding the candidates they choose to hire.  I couldn’t let this policy stand.

I introduced legislation to prohibit the IRS from hiring employees they had already fired once for misconduct.  It earned bipartisan support, and on April 21, the House of Representatives gave the legislation its stamp of approval.  The Senate has already started its work on this legislation.  I’m hopeful they can sign off on this bill soon and put this commonsense reform on the President’s desk.

In addition to the bill I introduced, the House passed legislation that ended bonuses to IRS employees until the agency starts to fix its terrible customer service record.  We also passed a bill to get rid of an unaccountable IRS slush fund, giving taxpayers a greater say over how fees the IRS collects are used.  Finally, we passed legislation to stop the IRS from hiring any new employees until they can certify that no employees are delinquent on their own taxes.  These are commonsense, if you are out there to protect hardworking taxpayers.

These bills are only a snippet of what must be done to correct a broken system.  Nonetheless, as we work toward a fairer, flatter and simpler tax code, I’ll be looking for more opportunities to make the IRS more accountable to you.

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Celebrating Agriculture’s Leadership in Conservation
A column by Gov. Dennis Daugaard:

Our dedicated farming and ranching families, many of whom have been on the land for generations, know how important it is to take care of the land because their livelihoods depend on it. As we celebrate our natural resources on Earth Day, we should applaud stewards of working lands for protecting our land and water.

Each year, the South Dakota Cattlemen’s Association, the South Dakota Grassland Coalition and the Sand County Foundation bestow the Leopold Conservation Award^® on a farming or ranching family who demonstrates outstanding conservation leadership, and is dedicated to land and wildlife conservation. The award is named for renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold.

This year’s Leopold Conservation Award recipients, Cronin Farms, have been committed to keeping land health and livestock welfare at the forefront of their management technique. They attribute their continued success on the land to efforts which mimic the natural environment as much as possible.

Monty and Mike Cronin, with their long-time farm manager Dan Forgey, manage a mixed livestock and crop farm that shares a sizable border with the Oahe Reservoir on the Missouri River. This location draws a significant amount of wildlife to their land. Their diverse enterprise provides an excellent example of how outstanding land stewardship and economic resilience go hand in hand.

Congratulations to Cronin Farms and all landowners across South Dakota who care for the natural resources we all depend on. Their commitment to a healthy environment ensures that our natural resources will be here for our future generations.

For information on Cronin Farms, Inc. and the many conservation practices farmers and ranchers use, visit LeopoldConservationAward.org.

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Senate Passes Thune’s Bipartisan Aviation Bill, Including Major Security Reforms

“This bipartisan legislation takes several important steps to protect passengers’ safety and security and makes air travel a little easier along the way.”

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, today applauded the Senate’s passage of his bipartisan Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Act of 2016 (S. 2658), which makes important reforms to protect consumers and enhance airport security in South Dakota and throughout the United States.

“This bipartisan legislation takes several important steps to protect passengers’ safety and security and makes air travel a little easier along the way,” said Thune. “We worked hard to make consumer protections and airport security our top priorities in this bill, which is why it’s been called ‘one of the most passenger-friendly FAA reauthorization bills in a generation’ and includes one of the most comprehensive sets of aviation security reforms since President Obama took office. While passing this legislation in the Senate is an important step, we have more work to do. The traveling public will be best served once this bill makes its way to the president’s desk and is signed into law.”

Thune was the lead sponsor and bill manager of S. 2658, which passed the Senate by a vote of 95-3 and now heads to the House of Representatives for consideration. Click here for more information on S. 2658 and here for more information on Thune’s airport security measures that were included in the final bill.

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If you missed it, South Dakota Farmer’s Union spent time circulating petitions this past year to drastically alter our political system in South Dakota via initiated measure to removes the authority for redistricting from the Legislature and grant it to a redistricting commission.  Nevermind that might be of questionable constitutionality, but Doug Sombke of Farmer’s Union led the charge on it.

But now this person who wants to change the rules for everyone else in the state is facing criticism of his own over not exactly following the election rules for his own organization:

South Dakota Farmers Union members in the Aberdeen area are set to discuss a resolution circulating at the union’s district meetings that challenges the results of its most recent officer election and calls for a special convention to replace them.

Members in three of the organization’s seven regional districts have voted in support of the resolution, which accuses the union’s president, Doug Sombke, of suppressing participation in the December election. Most recently, a majority at the regional meeting in Watertown Saturday approved the measure that said the union’s board violated the group’s bylaws by allowing members to vote though their counties weren’t in good standing with the organization.

and…

Following the most recent resolution approval Saturday, Michael O’Connor, one of those in charge of circulating the resolutions, said he hoped that the union’s top officers would step down. He said if that didn’t happen, he was prepared to call for support from members in regional and county meetings until the required 20 percent of members can call for a new convention.

“I hope they see that they could resign with a little integrity,” O’Connor said. “If they won’t do that we want to continue to go forward, no doubt about it.”

Read it all here.

So, the person questioning the integrity of the redistricting process is having his own integrity questioned in how he conducts elections?

Maybe he should have fixed his own roof first.

US Senator John Thune is in the process of posting his FEC report, and as I’m told by campaign staff, the report will continue to show Senator Thune is as strong as ever:

We have finished up our 1Q 2016 FEC report. Our total receipts for the quarter was $686,739. Our cash on hand on at the end of the quarter was $11,802,581.

We are pleased with the continued financial support for Senator Thune that is reflected in these figures and we intend to be well-prepared for the re-election campaign this fall.

Senator Thune continues to post strong fundraising numbers as he starts his campaign against Democrat’s “If no one else will do it” candidate.

And how is Jay doing, anyway?

Jay Williams FEC Q1 2016

Jay Williams just posted his FEC report showing the challenger as having raised $9,764, spent $3,581, and left with $5970 cash on hand. And ninety cents.

Who helped fund this effort? Dem Chair Ann Tornberg was in with $500. Rapid City Dem Jay Davis gave $500 (It must be a Jay thing). Williams’ wife Carol was in with $1023, another Williams was in with $2600, and there were a few more donations to help him “almost” reach 10k.

You know who I don’t see? Most of the Dem party faithful.

Looks like even they know not to make a bet on a lame horse.

is it about time for Paula Hawks to hang it up? Hawks’ FEC is not up yet, leaving questions as to whether she can compete at a statewide level, but Kristi Noem’s is in. And it has her campaign looking as good as ever.

Noem 2016 1q FEC

Showing $280,102 coming in as funds raised against $128,708 in expenses, Congresswoman Noem now has an incredible $1,648,516 Cash on hand to defend her Congressional seat against Paula Hawks, who has yet to seem engaged in this race.

Will Hawks offer a glimpse into her campaign gaining the support of Democrats? Or will she offer excuses as to her lackluster campaign.

State Senator Phil Jensen is a member of the Legislative branch of government in Pierre. And apparently, he has run afoul of another branch of government. Over a pile of branches:

Grand Jury Issues Indictments in GEAR UP Financial Investigation

 PIERRE, S.D.- Attorney General Marty Jackley announced today the three individuals who were arrested by complaint for their roles in the financial misconduct case surrounding the GEAR UP in March 2016, have each been indicted by a Charles Mix Grand Jury.

The indictments are as follows:

Daniel Mark Guericke, 58, White Lake, 2 counts of falsification of evidence, class 6 felony, punishable by up to 2 years imprisonment in the state penitentiary and/or $4,000 fine, 4 counts of conspiracy to offer forged or fraudulent evidence, class 5 felony, punishable as a Class 6 felony, with a maximum sentence of 2 years imprisonment and/or $4,000 fine.

Stephanie A. Hubers, 43, Geddes, 1 count of grand theft, class 4 felony, punishable by up to 10 years in the state penitentiary and/or $20,000 fine, 2 counts of grand theft by deception, class 4 felony, punishable by up to 10 years in the state penitentiary and/or $20,000 fine, 3 alternative counts of receiving stolen property, class 4 felony, punishable by up to 10 years in the state penitentiary and/or $20,000 fine,

Stacy Lee Phelps, 42, Rapid City, 2 counts of falsification of evidence, class 6 felony, punishable by up to 2 years imprisonment and/or $4,000 fine, 2 counts of conspiracy to offer forged or fraudulent evidence, class 5 felony, punishable as a Class 6 felony,  with a maximum sentence of 2 years imprisonment and/or $4,000 fine.

The Preliminary Hearing previously scheduled for April 19, 2016, has now been replace with a scheduled arraignment on all three individuals on May 2, 2016, at 9:30 a.m., at the Charles Mix County Courthouse in Lake Andes, S.D. At the arraignment it is anticipated the defendants will be advised of these charges, the maximum penalties, their rights, and enter a plea of not guilty. These individuals are presumed innocent until such time as proven guilty.

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A correspondent writes me this evening and asked me to spread the word about the following:

My 93 year old neighbor (and lifelong Republican) has been pulling fences (yes I said 93 ). He has about 200 fence posts available. He would like two bucks each. Can you get the word out?

Done. And Done. Any candidates need fence posts for 4×8’s out there?  Drop me a note, and I’ll hook you up.