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Noem Statement on Confirmation of Heather Wilson as Air Force Secretary

Washington, D.C. – Rep. Kristi Noem today issued the following statement after the Senate confirmed Heather Wilson as Secretary of the Air Force:

“Throughout her career, Heather has continually answered the call to serve and exemplified forward-looking vision and bold leadership,” said Rep. Noem. “I look forward to her bringing that vision and leadership to our Air Force and the airmen who serve our nation. She will serve our country well and make South Dakotans proud.”

A graduate of the Air Force Academy and a Rhodes Scholar, Heather Wilson served in the Air Force until 1989.  Under President George H.W. Bush, Wilson served on the National Security Council.  In 1998, Wilson was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, representing New Mexico, and served there until 2009.  In 2013, she became President of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology where, among other things, she has worked to solve B1-B Bombers maintenance issues at Ellsworth Air Force Base.

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Thune Statement on Confirmation of Heather Wilson as Secretary of the Air Force

“At a time when national security is of foremost concern, she understands the Air Force’s tremendous responsibility in keeping Americans safe and will be guided by the core values of the force: integrity first, service before self, and excellence in all the Air Force does.”

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) issued the following statement after the Senate voted to confirm South Dakota School of Mines and Technology President Dr. Heather Wilson as the next secretary of the Air Force by a vote of 76-22:

“Dr. Wilson checks all of the boxes. She’s the leader of one of the nation’s top science and engineering schools, a former member of Congress, a graduate of the Air Force Academy, and an Air Force veteran,” said Thune. “She is beyond qualified to lead our nation’s air men and women, and I’m glad the Senate voted overwhelmingly to confirm her. At a time when national security is of foremost concern, she understands the Air Force’s tremendous responsibility in keeping Americans safe and will be guided by the core values of the force: integrity first, service before self, and excellence in all the Air Force does.”

Earlier this year, Thune introduced Wilson, who was nominated for the position by the president in January, at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Armed Services.

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You know Democrats don’t have faith in their ability to field candidates when the mouthpiece of the hard-left, Bernie Sanders wing of the South Dakota Democrats, Cory Heidelberger, starts writing an article as follows:

“If Democrats fail to field a gubernatorial candidate…”   That’s pretty telling when one of the Democrat Party’s marquee State Senate Candidates from this past election questions whether Democrats have the ability to field a candidate for the highest state office.

I’ve written on the topic over the course of the last year or so, and highlighted it again this past week, when I noticed that yesterday, South Dakota’s Independent Community Bankers through their president and CEO, Greg McCurry, brought up the subject again; how Elizabeth Warren’s Consumer Finance Protection Board actually hurts consumers by limiting the availability of credit instead of protecting them:

Community bankers know all too well the negative effect of the CFPB on local lending. The bureau has issued a bevy of one-size-fits-all regulations that fail to adequately distinguish between Main Street community banks and the Wall Street megabanks that policymakers intended to rein in after the crisis. These onerous rules have restricted mortgage lending at nearly three-quarters of community banks and replaced customized, relationship-based loans with cookie-cutter bureaucratic standards – none of which serves consumers.

Meanwhile, the rising regulatory workload has exacerbated consolidation in the community banking industry, which has declined from more than 8,000 in 2010 to less than 5,900 today, leaving fewer communities with access to responsible financial services providers.

The CFPB’s complex regulatory framework poses a tangible threat to the local communities that depend on community banks, which carry a disproportionate burden of any regulation because of their smaller size. Fortunately, reforming the CFPB is not as complex as the regulations it issues.

Read it here.

In my professional career, I’ve worked for a bank, which worked to keep branches open in a number of small-town South Dakota communities. What people need to realize is that along with schools, the short list on what contributes to communities dying is the ability to conduct banking.

When South Dakota small towns lose their community banks, it should be a tremendous concern. And our delegation in Washington can help reverse the trend by cutting the government red-tape that contribute towards killing these businesses, and by stopping the CFPB’s overregulation.

Mother’s Day Takes on a New Meaning This Year
By Sen. John Thune

Families across South Dakota will soon celebrate Mother’s Day. It’s a chance for all of us to honor the moms who changed us, fed us, clothed us, cleaned up after us, did our laundry, and sacrificed their own comforts and happiness to give us a better life. Honoring them one day a year hardly seems sufficient.

Growing up in Murdo, Mother’s Day was one of the few occasions when we got to eat out. My dad would treat my mom and our family to dinner after church at the Star Family Restaurant, the place where I would end up spending seven summers working to pay for college. Mother’s Day represented one of the few times a year that my mom got out of the kitchen, and true to her character, she enjoyed the moment to the fullest. Always sweet and kind, my mom had learned how to appreciate the simple things in life, a trait I’m grateful that she passed on to me and my siblings.

When Kimberley and I became parents, I had a whole new reason to celebrate Mother’s Day. Year after year, I watched as she selflessly nurtured our two daughters, and when the girls came of age, we were able on Mother’s Day to express our appreciation to Kimberley for being the super mom in our lives. She was, and is, deserving of every good thing that has come her way.

Which brings me to today. This year will be the first Mother’s Day for both of our daughters. Larissa had a little girl last September, and Brittany gave birth to a baby boy less than a month ago. Kimberley and I were proud to be there to see our two little girls embrace the intergenerational gift of motherhood and take on the daunting task of being a mom. And I got to watch Kimberley gently impart the wisdom of the lessons she learned from her days in the trenches as a young mom. They were special moments for us, and we won’t ever forget them.

This year will be a Mother’s Day like no other for our family. For Brittany and Luke and John Mark, and for Larissa and Scott and Henley, Mother’s Day just became real. And because of that, we are all truly blessed. Our family wishes all the moms out there across South Dakota a very happy Mother’s Day.

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Obamacare Has Failed; Time to Replace it is Now
By Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.)

In 2009, as part of a delegation from the National Governor’s Association, I had the privilege of meeting the President and the Vice President on their proposed health care plan, what later became known as Obamacare. Although I disagreed with his plan, it was a friendly conversation.  I wish the president would have considered some of our suggestions.

The most egregious and unsustainable portions of Obamacare were delayed. But, they are impacting us now. It was a smart political move by President Obama to delay the problems, and as I told him would happen back in 2009, those problems are hitting us square in the nose today.

I remember thinking that if all of the planned Obamacare provisions were in place, people like my dad, who is now 89, would be subject to more limitations on their health care delivery than the rest of us.  I also remember thinking that in South Dakota, we already had a plan to guarantee the renewal of insurance policies regardless of health, to assure that coverage was portable from one plan to another in the group market, and that there were limitations placed on the marketing of insurance plans so that there was a strict ratio of the most expensive premiums to the least expensive premiums. In South Dakota, this actually worked. We also allowed children to remain on their parents insurance policies until age 29, if they were a student. Once you were in the insurance system and kept your coverage in force, you never had to worry about pre-existing conditions.

Today, we also empathize with those who are concerned about running out of coverage if they or their family encounter a serious illness.  This is fixable, we know this because we did it in South Dakota.  You buy insurance assuming that when you really need it, it will be there.

Obamacare will collapse under its own weight, regardless of whether or not the Congress takes action. We need a new plan that prioritizes patients and the free market. The government has never been good at running health care. You need only look at the VA or Indian Health Service to know that.

I think the American Health Care Act, which recently passed the House of Representatives, is a step in the right direction. Removing the mandates, eliminating the taxes, providing more flexibility for states and clearing a path for the free market to work again are all good steps toward reducing premiums for families and employers.

But, it’s not perfect and I would like to see improvements, including a transition plan for folks closing in on retirement, clear assurances on how we’ll handle pre-existing conditions and stronger promotion of group insurance plans because that is the most effective delivery system we have.

Should the House bill be improved?  Absolutely. Is it still better that Obamacare? Without a doubt.

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School Meal Programs Are Hungry for Reform
By Rep. Kristi Noem

It’s hard to believe Booker is about to wrap up his freshman year of high school. How do they grow up so fast? As his attention – and that of students, teachers and parents across the state – turns to the last day of school, many school administrators are already shifting their focus to the next school year’s first day, making decisions that will impact everything from the classroom to the lunchroom.

For years, parents and students have come to me with concerns about the federally regulated food that’s landing on kids’ trays each day. We all want our kids to be healthy and happy, but current restrictions leave many students – and their school’s budget – hungry.

The Obama administration put unprecedented mandates on school meals.  Meat and grains were strictly limited, for instance. Initially, if schools were to avoid going over the limits, these particular regulations were so restrictive that students could only be served the equivalent of three chicken nuggets or so a day, although we were able to pressure the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) into granting some flexibility in this area.

Moreover, the sodium restrictions laid out as part of the upcoming Target II requirements only promise more challenges. In fact, the levels are mandated to be so low that milk and cheese would become difficult to serve on account of the naturally occurring sodium in those foods.

As a result of the endless restrictions, many schools have seen participation in school meal programs decrease, food waste increase, and costs rise. In some cases, schools are beginning to look at digging into classroom budgets just to make their meal programs solvent.

At the same time, the consequences for ignoring the rules are severe: schools would risk losing critical federal funding.

While I am grateful the Trump administration has recently announced support for flexibility beyond what President Obama ever allowed, schools need full relief from the regulatory burden – and they need that relief to be granted with the certainty of law.

Earlier this month, I introduced new legislation that returns control of school meals to states and local school districts. More specifically, my legislation would turn the current mandates into non-binding guidelines.  This way, schools could use the USDA’s recommendations as a resource in designing healthy options for kids, but there would be no requirement to follow the guidelines, if they didn’t work for students.

I firmly believe decisions that affect our kids are best made by those closest to our kids. With a nationwide scope, federal bureaucrats have made choices for our families based on faceless statistics, boiling down their calculations into one-size-fits-all requirements. But the parents, local school administrators, school nutritionists and cooks who see our kids every day observe the real-life impact of the food that lands on our kids’ trays. It’s them that I trust with these decisions, which is ultimately what my legislation is all about.

Great State, Great Staff
A column by Gov. Dennis Daugaard:

The State of South Dakota impacts the lives of its citizens daily. We drive on roads maintained by the Department of Transportation. We enjoy parks and recreational areas operated by the Department of Game, Fish and Parks. Many in need receive help from the Department of Social Services

When people think about state government, though, I would bet most think about my role as governor or about the work of our legislators. It’s the elected officials who make headlines. On May 10, 2017, State Employee Recognition Day, I want the headlines to be about the real pride of the State of South Dakota: our state employees.

More than 7,000 South Dakotans are public servants under my direction in the Executive Branch, and I am surrounded by some of the hardest working and most dedicated employees to be found in any organization. Their jobs range from administrative assistant to attorney and receptionist to registered nurse.

Some of these positions are dangerous. Our Highway Patrol officers face unknown circumstances and unpredictable people every time they make a stop or are called to action. Correctional officers and child protective services representatives may face harrowing circumstances as well.

A team in the Bureau of Information and Telecommunications plays defense in a world war against hackers who attack our computer network daily. Just one infiltration could gain personal information of our citizens and lead to millions of dollars of expense.

Every day I notice the pride with which the custodial staff in the Capitol Building clean, polish and maintain our hallmark state government building for citizens and visitors. During ‘Christmas at the Capitol,’ these dedicated people alter their schedules to water almost 100 trees throughout the building and to ensure the Capitol looks its best seven days a week.

These are just a few examples of more than 500 different kinds of jobs held in state government. This week, in honor of State Employee Recognition Day, take a moment to recognize our state employees and thank them for their service throughout the year.

No one is more invested in the future of South Dakota than the people who power it day-to-day. I hope you will share your appreciation with a state employee today.

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