Category: Uncategorized

Johnson, Steil, Davis, Torres Introduce Resolution Supporting Digital Assets

Washington, D.C. – Today, House Agriculture Subcommittee on Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and Rural Development Chairman Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) Ranking Member Don Davis (D-NC) and House Financial Services Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Artificial Intelligence Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI) and Ranking Member Ritchie Torres (D-NY) introduced a House Resolution expressing support for blockchain technology and digital assets.

Following introduction, the Representatives issued the following statements:

“Currently, developers are faced with uncertainty because of a gap in the regulatory framework for commodities and securities,” said Johnson. “Digital assets need a regulatory framework to thrive in America. I look forward to working with Rep. Steil to bring clarity to digital assets.”

“Digital Assets have tremendous unrealized potential,” said Steil. “I am excited to join Congressman Dusty Johnson in formally recognizing the need for Congress to take meaningful action to build a regulatory environment that fosters innovation, protects consumers from fraud, and encourages the development of digital asset technology in the United States.”

“Blockchain technology and digital assets are set to transform industries, enhance our financial system, and provide equitable access to financial services for everyone,” said Davis. “It is crucial to establish a regulatory framework that not only fosters innovation but also safeguards consumers and strengthens the everyday lives of the American people.”

“Blockchain technology and digital assets represent the future of innovation, economic growth, and financial inclusion,” said Torres. “The United States must lead in shaping a regulatory framework that fosters technological advancement while protecting consumers and ensuring transparency. By embracing this next generation, we can create a more equitable financial system that benefits every American.”

Read text of the House Resolution here.

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Senate Majority Leader John Thune Reintroduces American Beef Labeling Act
Legislation would reinstate mandatory country of origin labeling for beef 

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) today reintroduced the American Beef Labeling Act, legislation that would reinstate mandatory country of origin labeling (MCOOL) for beef. The legislation would require the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), in consultation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to develop a World Trade Organization-compliant means of reinstating MCOOL for beef within one year of enactment. USTR would have six months to develop a reinstatement plan followed by a six-month window to implement it. If USTR fails to reinstate MCOOL for beef within one year of enactment, it would automatically be reinstated for beef only.

“South Dakota ranchers – who work tirelessly to produce some of the highest quality beef in the world – deserve a fair labeling system that provides consumers with basic information on the origin of their beef,” said Thune. “As a longtime supporter of MCOOL, I’m proud to reintroduce this legislation that would promote the viability of cattle ranching across our country and provide full transparency for American consumers.”

“This bipartisan legislation will help Americans know exactly where their beef is coming from,” said Booker. “For too long, the big meatpackers have been misleading people with deceptive labeling. More transparency will enable consumers to support local family farmers and ranchers, and I look forward to working with Senator Thune to get this bill enacted into law as quickly as possible.”

“MCOOL is necessary for consumers who need to know where their food comes from,” said Doug Sombke, president of the South Dakota Farmers Union. “MCOOL is necessary for cattle producers who invest heavily in practices that produce the safest and highest quality meat in the world. Thank you Senator Thune for your efforts to secure fair markets for cattle producers in South Dakota and across the nation.”

“America’s cattle producers are grateful for Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s steadfast support for mandatory country of origin labeling for beef,” said Bill Bullard, chief executive officer of R-CALF USA. “Our cattle and beef markets cannot function properly when consumers are denied basic market information, such as where the beef they purchase for their families was produced, under which country’s food production and food safety regime it was produced, and whether their purchase will help strengthen our domestic food supply chains. The American Beef Labeling Act will remedy this situation and bring needed transparency to the marketplace for producers and consumers alike.”

“United States Cattlemen’s Association (USCA) commends Majority Leader Thune for introducing the American Beef Labeling Act,” said Justin Tupper, president of USCA. “His leadership in restoring truth to labeling is a critical step toward ensuring transparency for U.S. consumers in the marketplace. This legislation puts U.S. producers first and we look forward to collaborating with Senator Thune and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to uphold integrity in the domestic beef market.”

U.S. Sens. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), and John Fetterman (D-Pa.) are cosponsors of the American Beef Labeling Act.

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I would ask if Senator California Carley has paid attention to any court case regarding counties and election equipment this year, but I can answer that myself. Of course he hasn’t.  Because he’s brought a bill – Senate Bill 217 – that absolutely flies in the face of all those court decisions and if it passes, it will trigger lawsuits against the state for violating the rights of the disabled which South Dakota will lose. Badly.

SB 217 by Pat Powers on Scribd

Section 1. That a NEW SECTION be added to chapter 12-1:

The State Board of Elections may not authorize the use of any automatic tabulating or electronic ballot marking system.

The governing body of a political subdivision having supervision of an election may not adopt, implement, or use any automatic tabulating or electronic ballot marking system in an election.

Literally, in the opening sentences of the measure, he directly gets to the thing that’s going to get South Dakota sued in federal court, and justifiably get stomped all over the place.  And they’ll use the same precedents and court decisions that were successfully used in Lawrence County to turn back this exact same type of nonsense.

In case you forgot, re-visiting my post from January 10th…:

…
Because of this action against the county, Lawrence County Commissioners had to seek legal counsel to respond to the hand-counting petition. And via Sara Frankenstein at Gunderson Palmer, they did so:

Respondents’ Brief in Support of Motion to Dismiss by Pat Powers on Scribd

When you have a 48 page response with a table of contents, one can assume they have a lot of ammunition to bring to the fight.

That was in October. And today, the circuit court made their decision.  Not only did they find for the County, they dismissed Braithwait’s action with prejudice.

Order on Petitioner’s Affidavit and Application for Writ of Mandamus by Pat Powers on Scribd

Someone should explain to Senator Carley that the issue isn’t that state law is a magic barrier he can just change.  THESE ARE FEDERAL LAWS AND COURT DECISIONS.  He’s not going to wave his hand and make the Americans with Disabilities Act disappear – disabled people get to vote too.. and they’re allowed to use assistive technology to do so.

Go to page 37 of the PDF which is the brief submitted by Sara Frankenstein of Gunderson Palmer in the Braithwait case which explains in a few pages why that dog isn’t going to hunt. At all.

If Carley’s bill passes, I’m not sure which organization would start pounding on the State of South Dakota first. Disability Rights? The Justice Department? Individual litigants?  It would be a free-for-all which the state would quickly lose, and be forced to write checks for something we already know is very much against the law.

It’s like we’re going from bad to worse as we hit the deadline for legislation.

Legislators, I beg of you: please just stop before we go any further behind.

As sent by a reader  – as State Rep. Van Diepen introduces the Huron Mayor, a member of the city commission and a representative from the Huron schools — everyone — But Phil Jensen stands.

Do you think he’s having a bad Huron day?  Phil keeping it classy as usual.

Rounds Leads Legislation to Increase Timber Sales in the Black Hills National Forest 

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today reintroduced the Timber Harvesting Restoration Act in the 119th Congress. This legislation would require the United States Forest Service (USFS) to improve timber sales numbers in the Black Hills National Forest. Rounds originally introduced this legislation in the 118th Congress in March 2024.

In recent years, timber sales in the Black Hills National Forest have steadily decreased, putting a significant strain on manufacturers of timber products. USFS has been unable to justify these harvesting shortfalls in the Black Hills National Forest. To accommodate for the shortage and keep up with demand, local timber businesses must pay additional shipping costs to bring in timber from farther away.

“Timber manufacturers in the Black Hills area are being negatively impacted by harvesting shortages in the Black Hills National Forest,” said Rounds. “They should not have to bring in timber from long distances to meet the demand for lumber, especially when there’s no reasonable explanation offered by USFS for these shortfalls. In addition, timber harvesting is necessary to keep the Black Hills healthy, prevent wildfires and preserve its beauty for generations to come. I’m pleased to once again introduce this legislation that takes steps toward getting our timber production back up to normal levels.”

“We appreciate this legislation from Senator Rounds which would help the US Forest Service succeed and the communities depending on that success,” said Ben Wudtke, Executive Director of the Black Hills Forest Resource Association. “The US Forest Service has recognized a tremendous need for treating an additional 20 million acres through their Wildfire Crisis Strategy. Recognizing the need is the first step. This legislation is a logical next step that would help better position individual national forests for accomplishing those goals through development of tailored plans where needed.”

Specifically, the Timber Harvesting Restoration Act would:

·         Require superintendents of National Forest System units (individual national forests) to submit harvesting improvement reports to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (Secretary) if they have historically fallen well below annual Allowable Sale Quantity numbers laid out in forest plans.

·         Require superintendent reports to identify any of the following actions: 1) forest areas that could be used to help meet harvesting targets 2) any actionable steps that may help meet harvesting targets, including expediting environmental review processes, and increasing the use of Good Neighbor Authority when applicable.

·         Require superintendents to consult with private industry, advisory committees, local, tribal and state governments and relevant stakeholder groups when drafting improvement reports.

·         Require superintendents to submit improvement reports to the Secretary within 180 days of enactment of the Act.

·         Require superintendents to demonstrate actionable steps towards improving timber sale numbers within one year of enactment. If a forest supervisor does not increase timber sales from the preceding year, they will be required to submit another improvement report within 180 days after the actionable step deadline.

·         If a superintendent does not demonstrate harvesting improvements one year after submitting a harvesting improvement report, the Secretary is directed to take any reasonable steps to improve harvesting outputs. This may include providing additional personnel, expanding the use of Good Neighbor Authority and finding any feasible actions to expedite environmental review processes.

Click HERE for full bill text.

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Anti-marijuana crusader and State Representative Travis Ismay apparently doesn’t like paid petition circulators, as he’s introduced a measure to ban them:

HB 1267 by Pat Powers on Scribd

The problem he faces with that? Like it or not, it’s unconstitutional:

Meyer v. Grant is a key decision of the United States Supreme Court asserting the right of proponents of ballot measures to pay circulators to collect signatures. It was decided on June 6, 1988, on an appeal from a decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. The ruling was unanimous; the court’s decision was written by Justice Stevens.^[1]

and..

The highest court agreed with the Tenth Circuit that the Colorado statute “abridges appellees’ right to engage in political speech in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments.”^[1]

Rounds Leads Bill to Ease Regulatory Burden on Local Banks and Credit Unions

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, today reintroduced the Taking Account of Institutions with Low Operation Risk (TAILOR) Act. This legislation would require federal regulatory agencies to take risk profiles and business models of institutions into account when crafting regulations.

“During the Biden administration, financial institutions across South Dakota were negatively impacted by burdensome, unnecessary regulations due to disproportionate compliance costs, with consumers ultimately paying the price,” said Rounds. “This bill would ease the regulatory burden on smaller financial institutions so they can focus resources on taking care of their customers. I am pleased to reintroduce this legislation in the 119th Congress to codify changes that will allow small financial institutions to serve their customers instead of bureaucrats.”

Original cosponsors include Senators Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.).

Specifically, the TAILOR Act would:

·         Require regulatory agencies, such as the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to take into consideration the risk profiles and business models of individual financial institutions and shape those regulations accordingly.

·         Require the regulatory agencies to provide an annual report to Congress outlining the steps they have taken to adjust their regulations as well as a report on the modernization of bank supervision.

·         Require regulators to conduct a review of all the regulations issued by the agencies since the 2010 passage of the Dodd-Frank Act. If the review finds that the regulations issued since 2010 do not conform to the TAILOR Act, the agency would be required to revise the regulations.

·         Direct regulatory agencies to reduce burdensome reporting requirements for community banks.

Click HERE for full bill text.

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From Breitbart comes a story on South Dakota Senator and Majority Leader John Thune that the senate is moving at a rapid pace to confirm the entire cabinet for President Donald Trump:

“At the moment at least, and this is despite the Democrat delays and stalling, the Senate is currently confirming nominees at double the pace of 2017 and 2021,” Thune told Breitbart News late Wednesday morning. “As of this morning, we’ve confirmed 11 and this afternoon we’ll vote on Scott Turner’s nomination, which will be the 12th confirmed Cabinet-level nominee. On this day in President Trump’s first term and in President Biden’s term for that matter, they only had six Cabinet nominees in place so, you know, Senate Democrats have slow-walked the process unfortunately and they’re choosing to do this the hard way and dragging it out but I think Senate Republicans have demonstrated we are serious about getting the president’s nominees confirmed as quickly as possible.”

and

“In most cases we’ve been able to grind the Democrats’ resistance down and we’re going to continue grinding until the president’s cabinet is in place and as you saw this week as you pointed out there were a couple of markups coming out of committee this week with Tulsi Gabbard getting reported out of the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate Finance Committee reported out RFK,” Thune said.

Read the entire story here at Breitbart.

State Senator Steve Kolbeck is bringing back the conversation about sports betting via mobile app – this time with the state’s taxes on mobile phone sports betting to go towards property tax relief.

SportsBetting_MobileApp Resolution by Pat Powers on Scribd

This voluntary tax might be the only proposal that doesn’t involve a tax shift bill.

What are your thoughts – would a new sin tax for allowing sports betting via your cell phone be a vaild source of revenue for South Dakota Property Tax relief?

The Dakota Scout is repotting that Phil Jensen is claiming his actions to defund the Huron School District were related to “a tip” he got from a Huron parent, despite representing a district hundreds of miles away:

The bombastic lawmaker, who is no stranger to throwing himself into controversy across his long legislative career, said he withdrew the bill. Its origin came from a tip he got from a Huron parent, who said that biological boys were using girls’ restrooms in the district.

and..

Jensen’s decision to pull the bill came after a meeting with House leadership Wednesday morning. In addition to pulling the bill, he’s agreed to step down as the vice-chair of the House’s Education Committee after being asked to do so.

Read that here.

What was I saying about a slap on the wrist?  If he’s still on that committee, and all he did was “step down,” that’s all he received.