Category: Uncategorized

Protect Eye Surgery in South Dakota
By Dr. Ryan Geraets and Barbara Smith

Tomorrow, the South Dakota Health and Human Services Committee will consider a bill (SB 87) that seeks to expand the scope of practice for the profession of optometry to include surgery on and around the eye with instruments such as scalpels and lasers. As leaders in the South Dakota medical community, we adamantly oppose this legislation. Expanding the scope of practice to allow non-surgically trained optometrists to perform surgical procedures puts South Dakota patients at risk.

The average patient may not know the difference between optometrists and ophthalmologists—but there is a big difference. Ophthalmologists are medical doctors and trained eye surgeons—optometrists are not. Optometrists are valued members of the eye care team and undertake a four-year training program focusing on eye examination and disease identification. But they do not properly train in performing surgery. They learn about specific, minor procedures but do not undergo the necessary education and training to perform the surgeries included in the proposed bill.

Ophthalmologists, on the other hand, are medical doctors and trained eye surgeons. They undergo at least 10,000 more hours of training than optometrists and attend four additional years of residency, where they must complete hundreds of hands-on, supervised surgical procedures.

As South Dakota doctors who perform eyelid surgery and laser surgery inside the eye, we can attest that these are not minor surgeries. Among surgeons, eye surgery ranks as one of the most risky, invasive surgeries for a patient. We cannot forget the patient as we debate who should be able to perform these surgeries. Our first priority should be our patients and their vision.

Today, South Dakota is rightfully in line with an overwhelming majority of states that exclusively allow ophthalmologists to perform laser eye surgeries on patients, but SB 87 seeks to dilute our quality of care. This bill is part of a larger national agenda by the optometry profession stemming from an aggressive and well-funded optometry lobby. Advocates incorrectly claim that allowing optometrists to perform eye surgery would improve availability and access to eye care. Medical research, however, shows there is no significant increase in accessibility to eye care in states that allow optometrists to perform eye surgery.

In states that have enacted similar legislation, patients have been hurt. A few years after the Louisiana legislature mistakenly expanded optometrists’ scope of practice to allow them to perform surgery, a Texas resident named Charlotte was told by a local optometrist that she required laser surgery. The state of Texas rightfully prohibits optometrists from performing surgery, but instead of referring her to one of many ophthalmologists near her home who would have been happy to treat her, Charlotte’s optometrist convinced her to drive six hours to have laser eye surgery performed by one of his optometry colleagues in Louisiana.

Surgery that would have taken an ophthalmologist less than 10 minutes lasted more than two hours, and Charlotte woke up to swollen eyes, extreme pain, and discomfort. As a result of the optometrist’s laser surgery, Charlotte suffered irreversible eye damage to both of her lenses.

We cannot let this happen in South Dakota. The surgical expansions in SB 87 are dangerous and would dramatically reduce the quality of eye care in our state, potentially hurting people and causing irreversible damage. As leaders in our state’s medical community, we urge the members of the House Health and Human Services Committee to vote no on SB 87. There are no shortcuts to safe surgery.

 —

Ryan Geraets, MD, is an ophthalmologist in Sioux Falls and serves as President of the South Dakota Academy of Ophthalmology. Barb Smith is CEO of the South Dakota State Medical Association.

There are a lot of deadlines coming up quickly in Pierre this week, as the legislature moves through the home stretch in anticipation of ending the main run of session on March 9th.

Commemoration draft requests are due to the Legislative Research Council by 5:00pm, AND it is the Last day for the house of origin to pass special appropriation bills referred from the Joint Committee on Appropriations.

Wednesday is the last day for introduction of commemorations, and Friday is the last day to move required delivery of bills or joint resolutions by a committee to the second house.

Next Monday, the 6th, it the final deadline for a bill or joint resolution to pass both houses.

So watch for some of the tougher bills to move through, as well as resurrection of some compromise that have been under discussion.

Had word that the attached document was being handed out at the District 30 Crackerbarrel in Custer & Hill City on Saturday, by Mathew Monfore.. who if you’re not familiar with him, he’s the goofy evangelist who managed to get himself banned from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation for, as they put it, distributing hate materials.

Well, he’s back distributing goofy materials, which make a specific point to attack Republican State Representative Dennis Krull..

Why the push by Monfore at the Cracker Barrels to attack Krull?  I’m getting word from out west that allegedly, “there is a plan” afoot that is being discussed for the hard right to run both Senator Julie Frye-Mueller for Senate AND to place her husband Mike Mueller on the ballot for District 30 State House.

Which doesn’t really sounds like a good idea, given what happened this session..

An LRC employee, a new mother, said that she had a concerning conversation with Frye-Mueller and her husband Mike, a lobbyist, last week in the LRC offices. The employee said Sen. Frye-Mueller engaged in an inappropriate conversation about breastfeeding and vaccinating her baby.

Read that here.

So not only would the person saying some pretty awful things to an employee represent District 30, her husband who was present and “smiling” during the conversation about how to get breastmilk flowing would be right along there with her.

Ugh.  I would think we could easily come up with two better candidates… two who weren’t involved in unwanted creepy conversations with a legislative employee.

Jack Billion, who represented Democrats in their 2006 race for Governor has passed away yesterday, according to reports.

Billion faced the uphill task of running against incumbent Governor Mike Rounds as he pursued a second term of office, as Billion lost to Rounds on a vote of 62% to 36%

In addition to running for Governor, Bilion served as a State Representative from 1993-1996.

Services are currently pending.

 

State Senate Majority Leader Casey Crabtree
Weekly Column: Progress for South Dakota

MADISON–While most of District 8 was digging out from the latest blizzard, your state Legislature dug in and worked hard to meet our Crossover Day deadline and we considered the largest tax cut in South Dakota state history.

South Dakota’s Legislative process works. We extend an opportunity for every piece of legislation to have a hearing. This allows every lawmaker the chance to be a voice for their district. The Senate recorded 219 proposals in 2023, and 63 percent have been agreed to by the Senate and sent to the House of Representatives.

This week I continued to advocate for tuition freezes at our universities and technical colleges. Making school affordable is one of the best ways we can impact workforce development for our next generation leaders. Tuition freezes help kids fight inflation and keep more dollars in their pocket as they enter the workforce. Plus, keeping our talent in South Dakota after high school means we need more affordable higher education. That is how we grow South Dakota’s economy and expand prosperity for our residents.

The Senate had a robust and healthy debate on a number of issues in Week 7. Notably, the Senate considered two proposals to address the foreign ownership of agricultural land in the state. Every member of the Legislature agrees that the Chinese Communist Party should not own land in South Dakota. We agree in principle along with the Governor. The question is how the state establishes laws, processes and regulations that do not adversely impact honest, hardworking farmers looking to sell land to young families who want to start farming.

My hope is that farmers, landowners and policymakers can agree on a proposal for the 2024 session in the absence of a federal solution to this national security threat. The Legislature did unanimously pass HB 1189 to address foreign land ownership. This bill closes a loophole in the current foreign ag land ownership ban. Right now, foreign persons are banned from owning 160 acres or more. This bill bans foreign entities from owning more than 160 acres.

Next week is our deadline to pass policy proposals before we turn our attention to finalizing the state’s budget in the final week of session. The Senate will have its first chance to vote on the largest tax cut in the history of the state. I am committed to a fiscally conservative budget for our state. We can meet our needs and increase funding for schools and vulnerable populations while also reducing the tax burden for South Dakota families. Based on the strength of our economy, we can do it, South Dakota.

###

As related by Austin Goss at Dakota News Now, South Dakota Democrats aren’t exactly bullish on their standing in South Dakota:

Cunningham, who unsuccessfully mounted a bid for State Treasurer in November, used much of his five minute speech to criticize the party’s past electoral performance.

“We have spent millions of dollars and what have we accomplished? We have accomplished sinking into the toilet.”

Read the entire story here.

America’s energy security depends on our ability to produce reliable and affordable energy at home. President Biden and Democrats’ Green New Deal agenda to prematurely transition from conventional energy, like oil and natural gas, entirely to renewable power would undermine our energy security, as it has already begun to do. The truth is we can’t rely solely on renewable sources, as the technology has not advanced to the point that it can support all of our energy needs. Instead of an ill-fated transition that would lead to higher prices and increase dependence on foreign imports, we should pursue an all-of-the-above energy policy.

An all-of-the-above energy policy embraces the full spectrum of available resources: clean sources like wind, solar, hydropower, biofuels, and nuclear, as well as oil, natural gas, and clean coal. South Dakota’s all-of-the-above model of wind, hydroelectric, conventional energy, and production of renewable fuels like ethanol and biodiesel has made our state a leader in cleaner and more efficient energy technologies. While South Dakota generates over 80 percent of our electricity from renewable sources, conventional fuels still play an essential role in delivering a reliable and affordable energy supply. In contrast, California relies too heavily on renewables without sufficient storage or backup from conventional sources to meet demand. As a result, Californians pay some of the highest energy prices in the country for a highly unreliable electrical grid.

Unfortunately, President Biden and Democrats remain focused on a premature transition from conventional fuels to green energy. From cutting off oil and natural gas development on federal lands and canceling the Keystone XL pipeline to raising taxes on oil and gas producers, President Biden’s policies have made investing in conventional energy an increasingly risky prospect. But the Biden administration is also working to discourage private investment in conventional energy by using the long arm of regulation to implement environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies.

One example of this overreaching ESG agenda is the Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed climate disclosure rule. It would require publicly traded companies to evaluate climate risks in their financial statements and disclose their own greenhouse gas emissions, as well as that of their suppliers and customers. Since this regulation is infeasible, many companies would be coerced into severing or reconsidering their ties with industries that produce emissions, namely conventional energy and agriculture.

The Biden administration has extended its climate policies across the financial system in an effort to discourage investment in conventional energy, and many financial regulators have promulgated draft principles for “climate-related financial risk management.” And, recently, the Department of Labor issued a new rule to allow pension plans to consider ESG factors, rather than just the rate of return, when investing for millions of Americans’ retirements. In other words, using workers’ retirement funds to invest in green companies, even if it means lower returns for hardworking Americans.

The Biden administration’s climate agenda puts America’s energy security at risk. By relying too heavily on renewables before the technology is able to meet our energy needs, Democrats’ plan ensures today’s high prices will persist. A genuine all-of-the-above energy policy, on the other hand, would put the United States on a path to a more secure energy future. I will continue to work toward solutions that embrace all available energy technologies and ensure a reliable, affordable, and secure energy future.

###

I grew up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and stayed around to study Government and Philosophy at Augustana University. After graduating, I knew I needed to gain experience in politics to apply my field of study, so I applied to intern in Congressman Johnson’s office.

It only took a few days for the internship to exceed my expectations.

I’ve learned it takes a lot of work to accomplish anything in Congress. From speaking to constituents, introducing legislation, committee hearings, and so much more; the work of a Congressman is fast-paced.

Much of the work to keep up with the inner workings of Congress is done by young and intelligent individuals, known as interns.

Rep. Dusty Johnson has just 15 full-time staff across four offices, which is a similar scenario for most rural America Representatives. In order to efficiently and effectively serve the needs of over 800,000 South Dakotans, interns are hired. The intern is a vital member in any effective office. Interns also benefit from their service by gaining experience as a young professional.

A Congressional internship provides a unique opportunity to gain firsthand experience of how Congress works with insights and guidance from an office filled with advanced and established professionals.

I’m a couple months into my internship and I’ve worked on several projects assisting the press and legislative teams, giving tours of the Capitol, talking with constituents, attending meetings and briefings, and so much more.

Oh, and did I mention you go to work on Capitol Hill?!

I cannot give enough praise for how valuable this internship has been, nor can I put words to how much I recommend this experience.

The window for applying for the summer internship is open, so apply now! You can fill out the application at https://dustyjohnson.house.gov/services/internships.

###

From Austin Goss on Twitter:

Jennifer Slaight-Hansen defeats John Cunningham with roughly 93% of the (weighted) vote. pic.twitter.com/zIWaKXVboq

— Austin Goss (@AustinGossSD) February 25, 2023

Hot of the press, Hughes County State’s Attorney Jessica LaMie has completely shut down any notion of an investigation in response to Tom Pischke’s monkey-grinder show demanding criminal action against 27 of his fellow State Senators in support of Julie Frye-Mueller.

In her response, LaMie noted “The law is clear in South Dakota. The Executive Branch, which includes State’s Attorneys, cannot interfere in the internal workings of the Legislature including the investigation and discipline of a legislator. It is for that reason that no further action will be taken by the Office of State’s Attorney for Hughes County.”

No coming back from that one, as the State’s Attorney was quite clear in confirming the “victim impact statements” dog isn’t going to hunt.

Poor Tom. He can’t get any bills passed, and now he fails once again.