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Thune Selected for Second Term as Commerce Chairman 

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate officially ratified U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) as chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation for the 115^th Congress. 

Sen. Thune issued the following statement on the selection:

“It is a great honor to be selected to serve for a second term as chairman of the Commerce Committee. 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.” 

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Off to a Great Start
By Sen. John Thune

This month not only marks the beginning of a new year, but also the start of a new Congress. With new beginnings come new opportunities, and the 115th Congress is already off to a great start. On day one, I reintroduced legislation that would help advance rural broadband services in South Dakota and around the country. Expanding access to these necessities of modern life is key for states like South Dakota, and by passing my MOBILE NOW bill, Congress could take a big step toward laying the groundwork for the future of the nationwide 5G network.

Also during the first week of the new Congress, I joined Sen. Rounds and Rep. Noem in reintroducing our bill that would expand the boundary of the Black Hills National Cemetery just outside of Sturgis. The bill was near the finish line in December, which is why we quickly reintroduced it this month. I’m confident we’ll soon be able to send it to the president for his signature, which will ensure our military heroes have a place to rest in peace for generations to come.

While a great deal of attention is often paid to what happens on the Senate floor or in front of TV cameras and reporters, a lot of our most important work takes place behind the scenes in the various committees on which we serve. I’m glad that for the 115th Congress, I’ll again serve on the Commerce, Finance, and Agriculture Committees – three important committees that will help deliver positive results for South Dakotans.

The current farm bill expires in September 2018, but in my opinion, it’s never too early to start working on the next one. My role on the Senate Agriculture Committee means the countless suggestions I’ve received from South Dakota farmers and ranchers will also have the attention of my colleagues on the committee. I will continue to fight for South Dakota’s top industry and make sure our stakeholders’ voices are heard. This isn’t my first rodeo either. The 2018 farm bill will be the fourth farm bill I’ve helped draft during my time in Congress.

Comprehensive tax reform is another major agenda item we intend to tackle this year, and it’s long overdue. The federal tax code is too large, too complicated, and too outdated. So outdated that neither of my daughters had yet been born when Congress last took a serious a look at reforming our tax code more than thirty years ago. For perspective, I’m now a grandfather. As a member of the Finance Committee, I look forward to playing a key role in our fight to simplify and modernize the tax code so that it helps, instead of hinders, economic growth and job creation in this country. I also hope this provides me with an opportunity to finally kill the death tax, something I’ve spent years trying to do.

This year I’ll be returning to the top spot on the powerful Senate Commerce Committee. The committee has already made some significant security and accountability reforms to our air, rail, and highway transportation systems, but we’ve got more work to do in 2017. I’ll also be working with committee members this year to develop forward-looking technology proposals – like my MOBILE NOW bill, for example – that will hopefully help make life safer and more efficient for the American people.

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Ending the Reign of Regulators
By Rep. Kristi Noem

Expectations are high for the 115th Congress, which was sworn in the first week of January, but I’m optimistic that we’ve matched those expectations with an aggressive, commonsense agenda. More importantly, there has been no hesitation in getting to work on that agenda.

Less than 100 hours from the time I took the Oath of Office for the fourth time, the House of Representatives passed the REINS Act, a bill I cosponsored to stop the overreach of federal regulators.

Under the Obama administration, regulatory agencies have grown at a considerable rate. Their budgets alone have spiked 16 percent since 2008 while their staffs have increased in size by 13 percent. The impact of this expansion has rippled throughout our economy, crashing into each of our wallets like a tidal wave.

Almost 25 percent of a new home’s cost is due to regulatory bureaucracy, and by 2025, Obama-era vehicle standards are expected to raise the cost of a new car by almost $3,000. The prices of microwaves, light bulbs, air conditioners, and dishwashers have also gone up significantly because of federal regulators.

From a broader perspective, all these regulations drain much-needed resources from our economy. In 2015, regulations cost the American economy nearly $2 trillion in lost productivity and growth. To put it another way: if our regulatory system were a country, it would have the world’s ninth largest economy – right behind India.

For years, we have battled the Obama administration on the issue of red tape. After putting pressure on the Department of Labor, we were able to get them to back down from regulating small family farms. I also introduced legislation to prohibit the EPA from proposing or finalizing new farm dust standards, which helped prompt the agency to abandon efforts to further regulate the type of dust farmers and ranchers kicked up. And when OSHA proposed to ban kids from doing certain farm activities when they were hired to work on relatives’ farms, we pushed back and they backed down.

With proposals like the controversial “Waters of the U.S.” – or WOTUS – rule coming down, it is clear we need a stricter way to hold regulators accountable. That’s where the REINS Act comes into play.

If enacted, any regulation with an economic impact of over $100 million would have to be approved by Congress through an up-or-down vote. If this law would have been in effect under Obama, more than 500 regulations would have been subject to a vote in Congress.

More than two-thirds of the House, including me, has never had the opportunity to serve under a Republican president. I understand the expectations are high, but so are mine. While it’s just one checkmark on a long list of reforms I’d like to see made, passing the REINS Act in the opening hours of this new Congress gives me optimism for what we can accomplish.

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Good News from the State’s Financial Report
A column by Gov. Dennis Daugaard: 

This past week the state budget office issued South Dakota’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, or what those of us within state government sometimes refer to as “the CAFR.” The Bureau of Finance and Management made the report public on the Friday before New Year’s Day.

Just like a business, each year South Dakota prepares audited financial statements. These statements are required by law, and are used to qualify us to receive federal funds. The report is also reviewed by agencies which evaluate our state’s credit worthiness.

The annual report includes our state government’s complete financial statements. Also contained in the report is information about the state’s economic conditions and outlook, the profile of the government, major initiatives, and a financial analysis of the state’s funds. The report is then submitted to the Department of Legislative Audit for review.

The report for Fiscal Year 2016 shows that the state is in a strong financial position. For the 30^th consecutive year, Legislative Audit issued an unqualified “clean” audit opinion, meaning the CAFR is materially accurate.

This marks the earliest CAFR release in 20 years. When I first came into office, we were finishing this report in June – almost a full year after the close of a fiscal year. The hardworking staff at Finance and Management made it their goal to do better, and each year since then, they’ve been issuing the CAFR more quickly. They’ve now cut the timing in half. By moving the date up six months, this marks the earliest CAFR release in 20 years.

It’s important to complete this report promptly. The report helps inform budgetary decisions and is one way our state is meeting rating agencies’ expectations. It is also a tool for the citizens who must hold state government accountable for its management of taxpayer dollars.

Improving our state’s financial practices is one of my highest priorities, and I am proud of the progress we have made in the last six years. South Dakota has obtained AAA ratings from all three major rating agencies. We have built and maintained a rainy-day fund that is ten percent of our general fund budget. We have been conservative in estimating revenues and expenses. When we have one-time money to spend, we have used it to repay debt early, secure an existing asset, endow an ongoing expense or create a new asset.

South Dakotans must responsibly manage their money in order to stay in business and take care of their families. They expect their government to do the same. Our just-issued CAFR validates that South Dakota’s state finances are in solid condition.

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A report from a reader just popped in:

Matt Michels is on South Dakota public radio right now. He said he is considering running for governor and will make a decision at the end of session. He said people are encouraging to him since Mickelson pulled out.

That’s an interesting development.

In the program, which you can listen to here, the Lt. Governor indicates that he’ll likely make a decision after the end of session.

From KSFY, we learned something new today:

Officials have identified an animal found in preparation to be eaten inside a Huron garage on New Year’s Day.

and..

The department said officers responded to a call of something burning inside a garage on the southeast side of Huron on Jan. 1. When officers arrived, they found two people burning a hog and another unidentifiable animal to be consumed.

Officers and Animal Control took what they believed was some type of canine. It was transferred to the SDSU lab on Wednesday for a forensic exam.

Read it here.

Apparently, Only SDSU can eat them up. And that’s just in sports.

There has been some interesting discussion under the post I did about how the goofy liberal views of a couple of law professors might flavor how legislators look at the request to put 1.2 million into the school to keep things running at our state’s law school in the face of enrollment cuts and poor bar passage rates.

One commenter noted “At any institution of higher education there will be differing viewpoints, and we should encourage differing viewpoints.”

Myself, and others certainly agree.

In particular, incoming State Senator Jim Bolin, a retired teacher agrees. He agrees very much.

And as I discussed with him yesterday, he’s going to bring back a proposal that narrowly missed passage in 2006 when liberals (Republicans and Democrats) in the State Senate teamed up to kill a bill that had already passed the House to ensure that differing viewpoints were welcome in our institutions of higher learning:

2006’s House Bill 1222 had strong support in the State House – which passed it 42-26, but narrowly failed in the Senate on a 15-18 split.  The idea at the time was that the Board of Regents would report to the legislature on an annual basis the steps the institutions are taking to ensure intellectual diversity.

As opposed to being fed a steady diet of any one philosophical viewpoint, Universities would actually need to pay heed to the viewpoints of others, and report to the legislature on their efforts to not marginalize them.

At the time, Regents – via their Executive Director Tad Perry – opposed this report on the free exchange of ideas. But now, coming at a time when students are fed a steady and unabating diet of liberalism from the classroom podium, they are attacked for their views, and self-proclaimed Social Justice Warriors are stifiling free speech, it’s very much a current topic.

And with Bolin’s planned reintroduction of the measure, one well worth the time that legislators would ask of the universities to ensure that free speech on campus is not infringed upon, and along those lines what they’re doing towards those efforts.

Our tax dollars go towards our institutions of higher learning. A simple report asking about what Universities do to ensure free speech is a pretty minor thing to ask in return.

Unless they somehow have a problem with it. Free speech, that is.

In case you’re interested, my story about the Aberdeen American News ignoring a criminal’s refugee status had a big mention in a follow-up article on the World Net Daily web site.

Powers said this is a legitimate question for South Dakotans.

“With the only mention of the attempted molestation of a disabled woman by the refugee, newly placed in the community, coming hours after an article critical of their non-coverage of the crime, it’s hard to categorize the WND outrage as just more fake news on Facebook,” Powers wrote.

“The fact that the Aberdeen American News still omitted facts of the story after being publicly excoriated for it only gives credence to accusations that news coverage of crimes being committed by refugees in the community are possibly being shielded from public view.”

‘If this had been a crime against a Muslim …’

Commenters on Facebook and on Powers’ blog were upset.

“If this had been a crime against a Muslim, it would have been all over the front page locally and nationally and cited as a hate crime,” posted one commenter on the blog.

You can read it all here.

From the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, apparently the Democrat Minnehaha County State’s Attorney is declining to charge incoming Democrat State Senator Reynold Nesiba for his unwanted sexual advances, where the Senator-Elect claimed that the woman was just playing hard to get:

The Minnehaha County State’s Attorney’s Office announced Thursday afternoon that further investigation into the allegations against Reynold Nesiba revealed “inconsistencies” in the evidence about the Sept. 26 incident from which the charges stem.

and…

“I’m thankful that the process was carried out and that I’m vindicated,” Nesiba told Argus Leader Media in a telephone interview.

The 51-year-old alleged victim told officers in September that the yet-unelected legislator made unwanted sexual advances and refused to leave her home on the 700 block of S. Phillips Avenue, at one point removing his clothes and lying on her bed.

Nesiba, according to an arrest affidavit, told officers that he’d used no force and that he interpreted the woman’s actions as playing “hard to get.”

Read it here.

If you recall, the original affidavit from the victim claimed that Nesiba did a little more than what the Argus story noted above:

The 51-year-old victim told an officer that two days prior she had invited Nesiba to her home after meeting him on Facebook and in person a few times.

After sharing a kiss, Nesiba made repeated, unwanted sexual advances and refused to leave the woman’s home, she told police.

After asking Nesiba to leave, the victim found him naked in her bedroom. He repeatedly tried to undress her and, at one point picked her up, put her against the wall in a rough manner, carried her to the bedroom, and placed her on the bed. The victim said she felt pain in her ribs.

Nesiba told the victim, “You don’t need those pants,” and began to unbuckle the victim’s pants, court documents say.

At some point, the victim said she and Nesiba were in the kitchen when he reached into her pants and touched her vagina.

The victim says the incident lasted about an hour and stopped only because the victim said she needed to go to work.

and..

On Sept. 30, Nesiba spoke with law enforcement about the incident, according to court documents. He didn’t deny much of the woman’s version of events, but said at no time did he use force or cause any harm that he knew of. He said he thought the victim was playing “hard to get.”

Read that here.

Interesting that it was reported earlier that “He didn’t deny much of the woman’s version of events,” yet now we’re being told by the State’s Attorney that there were inconsistencies in the evidence.

Nesiba might be claiming to the press that he was “vindicated” by not being charged with a crime in the alleged incident.

But by the contents of his earlier statement, it may be hard for him to proclaim himself innocent. By any stretch of the imagination.

Thune Receives Department of Navy’s Distinguished Public Service Award

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today was awarded the Navy Distinguished Public Service Award, the highest honor the secretary of the Navy can award to a civilian, which was presented by Rear Admiral Craig Faller, the Navy’s chief of legislative affairs.

“I am honored to receive this award and am humbled by the opportunity to support our sailors and Marines who stand watch to keep us safe each day,” said Thune. “As the son of a World War II naval aviator, this honor is all the more special to me and my family. As I continue my work in the Senate, I will always support our men and women in uniform and their families for the sacrifices they make on our behalf.”

The citation reads as follows:

“For exceptional service to the Department of the Navy as a member of Congress, Chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Senator Thune’s dedicated service to our Sailors and Marines ensured they were provided the resources necessary to support and defend the Nation’s interests around the globe. His tireless support for Navy energy initiatives as a member of the Agriculture Subcommittee on Energy guaranteed the highest levels of sustainability and readiness for our combat forces and ensured that the Navy-Marine Corps team was the most capable force in history. With grateful appreciation for his many years of public service to the Nation and for his outstanding contributions to the Navy and Marine Corps, the Honorable John Thune is awarded the Department of the Navy Distinguished Public Service Award. 

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