Category: Uncategorized

Rounds, Warner Reintroduce Legislation to Provide Financial Stability to Muni Bonds

Allows high quality municipal debt to be classified at a level equivalent to debt issued by corporations

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sens .Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), members of the Senate Banking Committee, today reintroduced bipartisan legislation to allow high quality municipal debt to be classified at a level equivalent to debt issued by corporations. Debt sold by state and local governments is currently excluded from consideration under a rule requiring banks to hold enough high quality liquid assets to fund their operations for 30 days. This exclusion may create a disincentive for banks to hold their positions in the municipal-debt market, potentially making it harder for state and local governments to issue bonds to fund infrastructure projects.

“Access to capital is critical for South Dakota communities looking to finance important infrastructure projects like bridges and roads,” said Rounds. “Our bipartisan legislation would allow banks to count high-quality, investment-grade municipal debt as level 2B High Quality Liquid Assets under federal banking regulations. Doing so will help maintain a healthy demand for this debt and prevent borrowing rates for municipalities from dramatically increasing.”

“As a former governor, I know firsthand how critical it is for states and municipalities to issue bonds that fund their basic operations, including the construction of schools, roads, and local projects,” said Warner. “We must ensure a continued and reliable access to capital markets for our local governments, and this legislation represents a compromise that achieves that while appropriately balancing concerns for the long term stability of our financial system.”

Under proposed rules issued by federal banking regulators, debt sold by states and localities isn’t eligible to count as High Quality Liquid Assets (HQLA), which means they won’t qualify as assets necessary for banks to retain under new funding requirements issued following the financial crisis. These requirements ensure that banks maintain a liquidity coverage ratio that includes holding a certain amount of HQLA, but prohibits munis from being considered as HQLA. The rules effectively cabin off an entire category of high quality and highly liquid debt from being considered as HQLA, limiting the incentive for financial institutions to hold these assets and potentially adversely affecting the issuance of such debt by states and municipalities.

The Federal Reserve recently weighed in on the issue, making limited changes to their previously issued rule. However, the two other regulators involved—the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp—have made no changes to allow the institutions they regulate to count municipal bonds toward their liquidity buffers. The Rounds-Warner bill would categorize certain types of municipal debt as level 2B, on par with certain corporate debt, and would receive a 50 percent equivalent to the liquidity ratio requirement. This action would bring municipal bond debt on par with corporate debt, and help stabilize the municipal securities market.

In addition to Rounds and Warner, the legislation is cosponsored by fellow Senate Banking Committee Members Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). The legislation was previously introduced in the 114th Congress.

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With Noem Support, Obamacare Repeal Passes House

Washington, D.C. – Rep. Kristi Noem today voted to repeal Obamacare and replace the failed health care law with patient-centered reforms, moving forward on a long-held promise made to South Dakotans.

“Health care is one of the most personal issues people deal with, which is why I’ve fought so hard to return control to patients,” said Noem. “I’ve heard from many, many South Dakotans who were being asked to defy their family’s budgetary constraints and pay $10,000 or more per year on health coverage under Obamacare.  What’s worse, the deductibles on that coverage were so high they couldn’t actually afford to use it.  The legislation passed today would repeal this failing system.”

Noem continued: “The proposal we’ve been working on with President Trump offers new safety nets: a tax credit to individuals and families, additional resources for states to help beyond what the credit offers, protections for those with pre-existing conditions, assurances to young people that they can remain on their parents’ plans until age 26, and enhanced Health Savings Accounts.  Ultimately, I do not believe the federal government should be the decision maker on health care.  When programs are necessary, states should be in charge, and in all other cases, it should be you, the patient, who is in the driver’s seat.  That’s the vision reflected by today’s bill.”

Delegation Meets With New VA Secretary David Shulkin to Discuss Future of Hot Springs Facility

 

(Thune, Rounds, and Noem meet with Secretary Shulkin and his staff)

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and U.S. Rep. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) today issued the following statements after meeting with U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary David Shulkin, who told the delegation he is still reviewing the decision by the Obama administration to close the Hot Springs facility. Secretary Shulkin noted that clinical operations in Hot Springs will continue for the time being, and the VA is making progress in hiring employees for the new onsite call center. The VA will continue to plan for facility expansions in Rapid City while maintaining the residential rehabilitation treatment program in the Hot Springs domiciliary.

“I appreciate Secretary Shulkin’s willingness to meet with us and keep these lines of communication open,” said Thune. “Although he did not reverse his predecessor’s decision to realign services within the Black Hills, he demonstrated a sincere interest in looking at how to best provide the quality care our selfless veterans have earned through their service and sacrifice. I look forward to working with the secretary to ensure veteran care and safety are prioritized and encourage him to visit the Hot Springs campus before making further decisions.”

“I thank Secretary Shulkin for agreeing to revisit the previous administration’s decision to close the Hot Springs campus and keep the facility open while it conducts a nationwide evaluation of all VA facilities,” said Rounds. “I support Secretary Shulkin’s goal of focusing on quality of care for veterans during this new evaluation. While the Hot Springs campus is no longer an immediate target, it is still in a larger pool of all VA facilities which could be reconfigured. But the decision will now be driven by quality of care, and the Hot Springs campus is one of only 17 VA facilities across the nation to receive a five-star rating for care. I also want to thank the Save the VA organization and the community of Hot Springs for their hard work and support of this facility. I look forward to continuing to work with them, my colleagues and Secretary Shulkin as we continue to seek ways to make sure the care of our veterans always comes first.”

“Veteran needs must drive any decision about Hot Springs,” said Noem.  “From the first town hall I held in Hot Springs days after the VA first announced it would close the hospital, to the U.S. House VA Committee hearing held on site at my request, to the hundreds of one-on-one discussions, veterans have consistently stressed that Hot Springs is the Veterans’ Town and we’d like to keep it that way. I am grateful to Secretary Shulkin for giving us the opportunity to share what makes this facility so indispensable, but I strongly urge him to visit the campus before additional decisions are made.”

Earlier this year, Thune, Rounds, and Noem met with outgoing VA Secretary Robert McDonald who told the delegation the VA would close a large portion of the Hot Springs facility. Secretary McDonald’s decision came after a December 2016 meeting with the delegation during which they encouraged McDonald to thoroughly consider the input he received from veterans, staff, and other community stakeholders. McDonald visited the Hot Springs facility late last year.

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“SD Dems Resist Change, While SD GOP Promotes Openness In Ramkota Rendezvous”

That’s an awesome headline to read, especially coming as it has from South Dakota Public Broadcasting, as they cover the debacle that was the 2017 McGovern Day Dinner, and it’s counter programming of the event by the  David Horowitz book signing by Republicans.

Former US House candidate Paula Hawks says there’s a riff between two factions.

“Folks who are in that older subset who are comfortable with the way things have always been going and they’re comfortable with the way they’ve always done things and they want to move on in such a fashion,” Hawks says. “Then you have that faction of people who are younger, that 20 to 35 year old group who really want to see movement and who want to see action. They don’t want to talk about things ad infinum.”

and..

After several hours of debate, changes to the party’s constitution were tabled… even though it appeared they had the numbers to pass them.

Read that here.

A riff between two factions?  For Dems, I think their riff is more of a slow strum. The attempt at a palace revolt that was put down by their queen, Ann Tornberg, doesn’t sound like it’s over yet, which means the drama from the Democrats is going to go on for some months as we move farther into the 2018 election cycle.

In the meantime, as you might take from the headline, Republicans had nice press in the article:

Following his election to party chair, Lederman says the GOP’s focus turns to attracting younger voters.

“The millennial generation believes in community and they believe in inclusiveness. That’s what the Republican Party is about,” Lederman says. “It’s about allowing people to have the freedoms of religion, and allowing people to keep more of their tax dollars. We promote free speech and being able to speak your mind. I think that that will resonate with young people. The question is how, or what medium do we use to get that message to them.”

and..

The Republican’s Freedom Rally and the Democrats’ McGovern Day happened at the same time on the same date in the same place. Yet the objectives differ.

McGovern Day is the Democrats’ flagship statewide fundraiser. The Freedom Rally targets the GOP base. Politicians from both sides used the competing events against one another. Democrats criticized the Republican’s guest, and Republican’s criticized the Democrats for closing off McGovern Day activities to the press.

Read it here.

And Dan is right. the GOP has always been the party of freedom.  At the same time Democrats close their doors to pick their kings and queens.

Here’s a bit of palace intrigue from the South Dakota Democrat Party’s rebellion which was put on hold to be continued at a later date.  Remember the commentary this weekend from the events, specifically from Larry Lucas:

There was an attempt earlier in the day to amend the party constitution and move officer elections to Spring, which would have forced a vote on the continued leadership of South Democratic Party Chair Ann Tornberg.

Ultimately, there was no vote on those amendments, said former State Sen. Larry Lucas. The amendments were tabled. Had they passed, he said, they would have forced a vote for a new chair on Saturday.

“I don’t believe any Democrat in South Dakota was prepared to do that,” Lucas said.

Read that here.

It’s coming out that we should pay special attention to the fact that Lucas was the one to pooh-pooh the attempted coup, as one correspondent pointed out that Larry Lucas is brand new to the Dem’s e-board:

I heard Frank Kloucek was on the dems eboard, and didn’t run again after he found out Larry Lucas had the votes to beat him for the spot, most e board members stayed the same.

That’s pretty interesting, especially coming as it did. Because Frank Kloucek has never been shy about his opinion of Ann Tornberg:

Frank Kloucek, a former Democratic state legislator and member of the party’s executive board and central committee, said he agreed with Hawks’ assertion that Democrats need to move in a new direction.

“Ann has to go,” he said. “The ball keeps getting dropped.”

Read that here.

Frank also had been publicly critical of Tornberg in the SDDP’s listening sessions.

And now that the dust has settled, Frank is off of the Democrat’s Executive board, as the revolution has been postponed to another day.

Having attended a great many political dinners over the past 29 years I’ve been involved in South Dakota politics, I think I can safely say when a political dinner is boring. And when it comes down to it, I’d put the 2017 SDDP McGovern Day Dinner down as excruciatingly dull.

I was going to extract more fun clips out of it, but sorry. I’m crying uncle at listening to any more of this. It is so dull, it is beyond me why they closed the dinner to the media.  The meal invocation might have been something they didn’t want the press to see, but otherwise it was as boring as dinners of any other political persuasion.

I mean, seriously. It was “sign up for the silent auction in the back” and introduction of officials, here’s videos from important party people, and like every GOP County Dinner I think I’ve ever been to, and there have been a few like this that went on far too long. …. And with this meal, the wine was bitter with the tears of Democrats over their losses and the fact that Donald Trump is our President. Not to mention that their printed program had less advertising than most county GOP County dinners was pretty telling that this is a party in decline.

If you want to listen to the super secret, closed to the media Democrat dinner in it’s near entirety (I clipped some at the beginning while they were eating with no speaker, and off the end with Sutton and Heinert) I’ve got it here for your listening pleasure as provided to me by an attendee: 

Sorry for the quality, I had to compress it down significantly to get it uploaded. It’s a huge audio file regardless, despite the meal being so boring.

From KELOAM on April 11th:

Sideras is planning to leave the end of June. Mayor Mike Huether is hoping to hire from within, but it’s a tough act to follow.

“So mayor, what are the plans now? How do you replace someone with 33 years of spit and vigor and fire and leadership?”  (Huether, once again talking in the 3rd person -pp)

Read that here.

and from KELO TV Last night, Mayor Huether speaks on on the fire chief’s accelerated departure date:

“I can tell you that he’s no longer an employee with the city of Sioux Falls effective today,” Huether said. “We [are] gonna move on, take care of our city in the best way that we can, just like we’ve always done.”

Read it here.

I’m sure we’re going to be hearing about this.

*UPDATE*

KELO AM’s Todd Epp has a few comments about it as well:

As much as I admire Mayor Huether as a leader and all that he’s done for the city, I think this was an unfortunate choice of words. It sounds like he’s trying to sweep this mess aside. That’s not going to happen. We in the media won’t let that happen, or at least I hope not. Something major happened to one of the most important city leaders who was appointed to his position by the Mayor. Then fired by the Mayor.

and…

Given that Mayor Mike may have designs on higher statewide office, this also becomes a test for him on how to handle adverse publicity on an important public matter in a transparent manner.

Read that here.

From Facebook:

Please keep Sean in your prayers for a speedy recovery.

Thune: Our Nation Depends on Farmers and Ranchers

“Our nation, and the world, depend on our farmers and ranchers. We need to make sure that they can sustain their operations and continue to efficiently feed America and the world.”

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), a longtime member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, today discussed the challenges currently facing America’s agriculture economy. There are several ways Congress and the president can help spur growth in that sector, like by negotiating bilateral trade agreements, repealing harmful and burdensome regulations, and reforming the tax code.

Another way Congress can work to improve the agriculture economy is by creating new and revising existing federal farm programs that will be authorized under the next farm bill.

Earlier this year, Thune announced that he would introduce incremental farm bill proposals that will cover several titles of the overall farm bill. Thune has already introduced the Soil Health and Income Protection Program, a new voluntary income protection program for farmers that is designed for today’s production agriculture and soil health needs. He’s also introduced multiple proposals that would increase the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acreage cap, add cost-saving multiple use options to CRP management, and create new common-sense management options for other easement programs.