Rounds Announces Staff Changes in Northeast South Dakota

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today announced the promotion of Josh Haeder to Regional Director in Northeast South Dakota. Additionally, Katie Murray, a Constituent Services Representative, is relocating to Brookings and will be based out of Rounds’ Sioux Falls office.

“Josh knows South Dakota, particularly the James River Valley,” said Rounds. “He has excelled by focusing on developing strong relationships with residents and communities throughout the region. Some of the best legislative efforts start at the local level. Josh understands the big picture and has been critical in that effort.”

Haeder has served as Senior Field Manager since January 2015. Haeder will continue to focus on constituent services and outreach in the James River Valley. He is based out of Huron with a satellite office in Aberdeen. Prior to joining Senator Rounds’ office, Haeder was the Chief Operating Officer of a credit counseling agency. His past experience also includes business and ag banking.  

“Katie is a lifelong South Dakotan with a passion for serving and helping others,” said Rounds. “She has been an asset to my team since the day I took office. In the past 20 months, she has gained valuable knowledge by helping South Dakotans who may be having trouble with a federal agency. I look forward to having a stronger presence in the Brookings area as she and her husband relocate.”

Katie has served as a Constituent Services Representative in Rounds’ Rapid City office since January 2015. She is a graduate of Black Hills State University. 

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I was going through my posts of last year, and didn’t notice that I’d repeated this column, as I have traditionally done.

The date is striking for me this year as my oldest son who was born on 9/11 took drivers ed this past summer, started his first year of high school this year, and is at that point in his life where he seems to be far less a boy, and more of a young man. (He requested “steak” for his birthday meal this year, as opposed to pizza, or something one of his younger siblings might have requested).

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So, where were you on 9/11?

As I repeat the tale again for a new audience, on that fateful day, I was in the hospital witnessing one of my life’s greatest joys, the birth of my eldest son.  I love my girls, but after 4 of them, a son was pretty exciting.

My kids were at school or at daycare, and my father – who was out of town – was expected home that day from visiting a brother and sister in New Jersey. He was to going to be on a flight in the morning out of the Newark, N.J. airport, into Minneapolis. My mother, who had doted on her granddaughters, had passed away the previous November, and this was to be the first child born into the family that she would not see.

As my wife lay there having contractions, I walked out into the hallway where I noticed some floor nurses paying unusual attention to the television. They seemed awestruck, and as I walked over they noted that a plane had flown into one of the World Trade Center towers. It seemed a horrific accident until shortly after when another jet crashed into the other tower.

It was unheard of in most of our lifetimes, and every medical professional on the hospital floor was abuzz with what was going on. On television, it quickly escalated when reports were coming in from all over of other possible planes being hijacked, and there wasn’t a soul who wasn’t glued to the television.

The military was on high alert, and planes were being grounded and there wasn’t a second of television that was not fully enveloped with the news. I had some troubled thoughts since my father was also to be flying that day, but my primary concern was for my wife.

I would bounce from attending to my wife, and checking updates of the events. I had noted to her a little of what was going on, but wisely she refused to allow the television to be turned on in her hospital suite, and said she didn’t want to know, because she had other business to attend to. And she was moving into more serious labor.

About that time, it was announced that yet another plane had been flown into a section of the Pentagon. Clearly, our nation was under attack, and there was worry written on everyone’s face.  The OB doctors came into the birthing suite and attended to my wife as professionally as could be, despite the distraction of the historic events of the moment. And all staff was in place as my wife gave birth.

After relatively short session of pushing, the baby was born. As my wife had previously given birth to four girls, a cheer went up from the staff as the Doctor announced that my wife had given birth to a boy. She held her first son in her arms for a moment, and the doctors took care of the rest of the business involved in childbirth.

It was a boy! While I love my daughters unquestioningly, and they give me great pride, I’d always longed for a son.

My son was as healthy as could be, and his mother was also doing exceptionally well. As things settled down, and as my exhausted wife began to recover, we turned on the television and discovered that the World Trade Center Towers had fallen. And we also heard the news of a plane out of the Newark Airport that was hijacked had crashed in Pennsylvania.

About that time, I had a call on my cell phone from my father who was noting the absolute pandemonium at the Newark Airport, and his good fortune to get a rental car to travel back to his sisters’. He was safe, and pleased at the news of the birth of his first grandson.

As I got off the phone and the television news recounted and repeated the tragic events of the morning, a lullaby played over the speakers in the hospital. A lullaby. At St. Mary’s Hospital in Pierre, after the birth of a child it has been their tradition for a number of years to play a lullaby to announce the joyful event.

It was a bit surreal. Amidst all of the pain and carnage of the day, a lullaby announcing the birth of a child.

For a while, I sat with my wife, and then I’d go back and check on my son. I’d do this for a while, alternating between my two family members. After an hour or so, there was another lullaby played over the hospital. And I believe I heard another one a couple of hours after that.

The thing that struck me about that day, with my son being born between the time the Pentagon was hit, and the twin towers came down was this: Hope is eternal.

And it’s an appropriate thought on this day when we remember when so many people died. It’s appropriate on a day when soldiers are fighting and dying for the right of a country to be free. It’s appropriate to remember on a day when we are only starting to count our dead countrymen struck down from a tragic natural disaster. (At the time this was written, the hurricane had just hit New Orleans – pp)

No matter how bad things seem, they will be better. The lullabies playing a duet with the television newscasts taught me that. So has my son.  Hope is eternal. Please remember that and offer your thoughts, prayers, and moral support today for the casualties of 9/11 and our soldiers.

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As a nation we continue to have servicemen and women in harms way, and it is important to remember that there is always a human cost to such an action, but as the greatest nation of people that has ever existed on this planet, we have a unique responsibility, and we must be ever vigilant.  There will always be trials for us to endure, but there is always a hope for a better world.

As my son moves into adulthood, so too are the tragedies of 9/11 another year farther away from us. In the fifteen intervening years, it seems that as a country, within our own lifetimes, we have gone from never having been so unified as a country, to never being more divided.

On the occasion of 9/11, maybe we should take it as a reminder that far more unites us as a country than divides us. And it shouldn’t take the cowardly actions enemies to the basic concept of what America stands for to remind us of that fact.

One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

From the Sioux City Journal:

The 2016 general election outcome could continue a trend in South Dakota, as no Democrat has won federal office since 2008, when Stephanie Herseth Sandlin won a House seat. Two years later, Noem knocked off Herseth Sandlin.

South Dakota is a tough state for Democrats, as Republicans usually rack up fundraising leads and the number of registered Republicans now exceeds Democrats, 246,953 compared to 169,038.

And…

In campaign finance reports through the most recent period, Williams had raised less than $37,000 through June 30. Four days ago, Thune felt so comfortable in his re-election bid that he told colleagues was giving $2 million from his own campaign funds to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, to help elect other GOP senators.

Read it here.

You know, they left out the part about both Hawks and Williams wanting more taxes onn South Dakotans. i have to think that’s not helping their dismal efforts.

I have some very fond memories of county fairs. 4-H exhibits, the midway, deep fried anything and everything on a stick, the commercial exhibits, and politics. This year is busy year for politics as this is a presidential election year, and there are a number of ballot issues.

The Minnehaha County GOP had booth in the middle of EXPO center.  It was open to all republican candidates to use as a touch down site.  I understood that candidates were expected to work at least one shift.  I opted to work a Sunday afternoon shift.

This is my first county fair as a candidate.  One of the things I needed was some high quality palm cards.  I had some printed from a budget (cheap) printer, and they were awful.  A few quick e-mails exchanges with Pat at the Dakota Campaign Store and a new batch was on way.  Pat has my thanks for getting these done so quickly and on the fly.

The Democrats had a tent/shelter set up so just as you walk in to the fair you are faced with cardboard cut outs of President Obama and Candidate Clinton.  I wondered about the wisdom in having a separate outside facility, over a booth in the expo center.  I also noticed they didn’t seem too happy to be there.  They didn’t seem to bright.  On my way past the booth, one of the workers engaged me to vote for my opponent, as I was wearing my name tag.  When I asked who he was running against, they couldn’t name him.

I found out that my partner this year was Public Utilities Commissioner Chris Nelson.  Wow!  As Secretary of State, Chris was a rock star. He is still a political rock star, just a slightly different tune. He knows the in’s and out of the election process, better than any other candidate.  To be honest, I was also a bit nervous.   The company I work for is not one of the commission’s favorites.

Mr. Nelson was scheduled to be manning the booth for three prior to me coming on, I thought it was a bit unfair to have him there by himself.  I stepped in to help out.  We did have a few problems, like the cardboard cutout of Donald Trump didn’t want to stay standing.  none the less we made it work.

A couple of things I learned:

• Trinkets are for fairs and parades
• Palm cards are for door to door and walking around
• People are paying attention and are engaged.
• Kids love stickers and balloons

It was interesting engaging people. Some people believe the government is rigged and politics is a distraction from what they are really doing.  Other believe politics is the price to be paid for government, whether or not it is good government is debatable; Some people who question everything.

Overall, I have to say ‘working the fair’ was defiantly an experience.  I met a lot of people. Some I know will cast their vote for me.  I am getting more feed back after the fair.

Now that ‘Fair’ Season is over, back to knocking on doors.

There’s an interesting question that’s swirling around Slick Rick Weiland and his allies as they come out in the public eye, promoting Amendment V, a measure that would simultaneously remove most instances of political party labels on the ballot, as well as make sure there’s never another independent or third party candidate who appears on the November ballot ever again.

Recall that chart I posted a couple of days ago on where the money is coming from for the “Yes on Amendment V” movement?

The shadowy out-of-state group “Open Primaries” has put just shy of $250,000 into using South Dakota as their laboratory for promoting Amendment V. But who is this “Open Primaries” group? Who exactly has Rick Weiland – who brought Amendment V to South Dakota – allied himself with? The answer may surprise you.

Open Primaries bills itself as  “a movement of diverse Americans who believe in a simple, yet radical idea: no American should be required to join a political party to exercise their right to vote” and that “The mission of Open Primaries is to advocate for open and nonpartisan primary systems, counter efforts to impose closed primaries, educate voters, train and support spokespeople, and participate in the building of local, state and national open primaries coalitions.”

What is is not telling you? Well for one, it’s largely funded and tightly affiliated with a former Enron commodities trader.  Yes, that Enron. The one that perpetuated one of the biggest frauds in corporate history.

For starters,Enron billionaire John Arnold has been trying to set himself up as a national political kingmaker, and in the past, as noted by Rolling Stone, he’s allegedly engineered plans to slash benefits for public workers, as well as becoming known as a corporate raider..

The dynamic young Rhodes scholar was allowing her state to be used as a test case for the rest of the country, at the behest of powerful out-of-state financiers with dreams of pushing pension reform down the throats of taxpayers and public workers from coast to coast. One of her key supporters was billionaire former Enron executive John Arnold – a dickishly ubiquitous young right-wing kingmaker with clear designs on becoming the next generation’s Koch brothers, and who for years had been funding a nationwide campaign to slash benefits for public workers.

and…

Anyone who has seen the Oscar-winning documentary The Smartest Guys in the Room and remembers those tapes of Enron traders cackling about rigging energy prices on “Grandma Millie” and jamming electricity rates “right up her ass for fucking $250 a megawatt hour” will have a sense of exactly what Arnold’s work environment was like.

In fact, in the book that the movie was based on, the authors portray Arnold bragging about his minions manipulating energy prices, praising them for “learning how to use the Enron bat to push around the market.” Those comments later earned Arnold visits from federal investigators, who let him get away with claiming he didn’t mean what he said.

As Enron was imploding, Arnold played a footnote role, helping himself to an $8 million bonus while the company’s pension fund was vaporizing. He and other executives were later rebuked by a bankruptcy judge for looting their own company along with other executives. Public pension funds nationwide, reportedly, lost more than $1.5 billion thanks to their investments in Enron.

Read that here.

But more recently, Arnold has been aggressively at the forefront of the Open Primaries movement, actively advocating and opening his checkbook when the effort has gone to various states.

Such as in Oregon in 2014..

Last week, Texas billionaire John Arnold reported giving $500,000 to help pass the top-two primary initiative — setting the record for the largest single political donation in Oregon this year.

Turns out that was just the start.  Late Wednesday, the group Open Primaries revealed that Arnold has given another $1 million in support of the ballot measure that would rewrite Oregon’s primary system.

Under Measure 90, partisan primaries in the state would be replaced with a single primaryopen to candidates of all parties.  The top two finishers — regardless of party — would advance to the general.  California and Washington both have almost identical systems.

Arnold, a former natural gas trader who once worked for the now-bankrupt Enron Corp., has been involved on a number of political causes, including revamping the education system and public employee pensions.

Read it here.

And in Arizona this year..

So, why would a billionaire want to push a nationwide effort to eliminate political primaries, and create the jungle primary, where most of the field is swept away early, and party labels are removed from the ballot?

It’s obviously not from an ideological standpoint, given his past track record in trying to push public pension reform as well as eliminate political parties. In fact, according to the Houston Chronicle, John Arnold is a big Obama supporter:

“In the small world of the Houston ultra-wealthy, the Arnolds cut a different profile. They are not on the political right – they have donated significant amounts to the Obama campaign and Democratic National Committee.

Read that here.

So what’s in it for him?

If I were a cynical man, I would point out that political parties serve an important function in supporting a candidate, rallying volunteers, providing a somewhat loose organizational structure, and many things a candidate would otherwise have to have to muster tremendous amounts of time and money to put in place themselves.

What if that was all erased? What if there were no party labels, and you could clear most of the field early – instead of letting them compete at the finish line, and you only had to choose between the last two?

Well, for starters, millionaires and billionaires would have a far easier time buying political races, as they could simply just start opening a checkbook for their hand picked candidates, and not have to contend with pesky political party activists who might be backing candidates because of ideology.

You can very quickly buy a lot of name ID with a million dollar television blitz. But the party apparatus has always served as an organizational counterweight, providing a strong level of support that money can’t buy.

No more party apparatus, and Slick Rick’s new buddies would have a lot easier time buying elections, especially as you get into bigger media markets across the nation.

That is, I’d think that, if I were a cynical man.

Somehow, I don’t think they’re going to put that on the literature.

We Will Never Forget 

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) released the following video ahead of the 15^th anniversary of the deadly terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Flight 93.    

Excerpts from Thune’s video:

“I remember talking to our youngest daughter, Larissa, and she had two questions on that day. She said, ‘Dad, are we safe?’ and ‘Are we going to get the bad guys?’ The answer to the first question obviously was, ‘Yeah, we’re safe,’ and the answer to the second questions was, ‘Yes, we’re going to get the bad guys.’ 

“We enjoy tremendous freedoms – tremendous privileges – and incredible good fortune living in this country, and specifically living in South Dakota. And that doesn’t happen by chance, it doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because there are people out there every single day who are putting their lives on the line to make that possible.”

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Still Looking for “Affordable” in the Affordable Care Act
By Sen. John Thune 

While President Obama is just a few short months away from leaving office, there are a few items he won’t be able to leave behind – like the legacy of his health care law. The president’s Democratic allies in Washington would still like to view this bill as President Obama’s top legislative achievement, but the truth is, this law has become a disaster. Thanks to Obamacare, South Dakotans have been saddled with higher premiums and fewer choices, and they’re still struggling to understand what happened to the president’s bold promise that Obamacare would be the cure-all for what ailed our nation’s health care system.

South Dakotans have been feeling the Obamacare pain since the law was first implemented, and for many, 2017 offers no reprieve. Let’s say for example that an Obamacare silver plan for a non-smoking, 40-year-old male in South Dakota cost $4,000 in 2016. If that same person signs up for that same plan in 2017, he would have to pony up an additional $1,400 next year alone. And that’s just for his premiums. He may also be facing thousands of dollars in deductibles on top of that. I don’t know many South Dakotans who can afford a 36 percent increase in health care premiums for themselves, let alone a large increase for their entire family. The cost of health care has gotten so bad that I’ve heard from multiple South Dakotans whose health care payments were more than their mortgage payments.  

The increasingly high cost of care under Obamacare has become the law’s hallmark, but unfortunately the law’s problems don’t end there. Countless Americans this year are once again discovering the hollowness of the president’s “If you like your plan, you can keep it” promise. Health insurance companies are dropping out of the exchanges in droves, which means countless consumers around the country are facing the loss of their health plan. And they may have very few options for replacing it. 

Remember when the president promised that choosing a health insurance plan would be like buying a TV on Amazon? Well, for many people nowadays, going on healthcare.gov is like choosing a TV on Amazon – if Amazon only offered one or two TVs. According to a report released in August, one-third of the country – one-third – may have just one insurer to pick from on the exchanges for next year.

Republicans, myself included, sounded the alarm for our Democrat colleagues in 2009 and 2010 about what we saw as the future of Obamacare. But this isn’t a matter of “I told you so” – far from it. This is a matter of acknowledging the reality of where we are, so that we can move forward. If we’re going to move toward a future with the high-quality, affordable health care that South Dakotans deserve, we’re going to have to start over, and Republicans are ready to go, with a lot of ideas to bring to the table. My hope is that Democrats and the next president will join us.  

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Cost of Regulations Impacts South Dakota Landowners
By Senator Mike Rounds

As Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Superfund, Waste Management and Regulatory Oversight, my job is to oversee federal agencies that promulgate some of the most egregious and harmful regulations. With more than 1 million regulations on the books today and a president who has issued more regulations than any previous administration, our subcommittee has highlighted the impact these regulations are having on everyday Americans.

Recently, I chaired a field hearing in Rapid City which focused on how regulations coming from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) are affecting private citizens’ ability to utilize and develop their land. During the hearing, we found that these agencies are not necessarily communicating with the public when they decide to issue new regulations, nor are they taking public comments into account when drafting new rules.

At our field hearing, we heard from several witnesses about the difficulty and confusion landowners may face in complying with the Waters of the U.S. rule (WOTUS). In 2015, the EPA moved forward with finalizing WOTUS, which would greatly expand the definition of a ‘navigable waterway’ under the Clean Water Act, giving the EPA unprecedented authority over significant inland water bodies not currently subject to EPA jurisdiction. This rule creates significant hurdles to normal agricultural operations, yet the EPA appears to have ignored concerns of farmers, ranchers, agriculture groups, the Small Business Administration and numerous state governors and attorneys general who oppose it.

Although the Sixth Circuit Court issued a nationwide stay on the rule, we have heard evidence that the U.S. Army Corps may be moving forward with implementing WOTUS. However, the U.S. court system should not be the primary backstop against overly-burdensome rules. If the EPA works more closely with landowners, states and agriculture groups throughout the rulemaking process, the end result would be better regulations that minimize the impact and costs on private landowners and American businesses.

We also heard from FWS on the Endangered Species Act during our field hearing. There are currently 1,226 species listed as endangered and 367 listed as threatened in the United States under the Endangered Species Act, and approximately half of the listed species have 80 percent of their habitat on private land. While the FWS attempts to work with landowners to encourage voluntary species management and conservation, the Endangered Species Act continues to impede landowners’ abilities to utilize and develop their land by imposing significant restrictions on what landowners can do on their own property.

Make no mistake, I understand that rules and regulations have a place in society. My concern lies with overbearing, burdensome rules and regulations that are promulgated by unelected bureaucrats who fail to fully consider local impacts before enacting rules. Each year, Americans pay nearly $1.9 trillion to comply with regulations, far more than the $1.4 trillion we pay in individual income taxes on April 15. As we heard during the field hearing in Rapid City, the high cost of complying with these regulations is hurting our economy and limiting the productivity of our farmers, ranchers and landowners who make a living on the land. I will continue working in my oversight capacity to identify and mitigate the negative effects of overly-burdensome regulations on our ag community.

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Eternal Gratitude
By Rep. Kristi Noem

John Ellsworth was just 13 years old when his mother met him at the door and told him his father wasn’t coming home.  America had lost a hero.

John’s father, Brigadier General Richard E. Ellsworth, flew 400 combat missions during World War II, earning numerous medals and proving himself as a man of great courage.  He returned to the U.S. where he became wing commander of the Rapid City Air Force Base.  While co-piloting a bomber during a simulated combat mission in 1953, however, his plane encountered bad weather, pushing it off course.  The freezing rain and fog limited the pilots’ visibility and the plane struck a hill, killing everyone on board.  A few short months after General Ellsworth was laid to rest in the Black Hills National Cemetery, President Dwight D. Eisenhower traveled to Rapid City to rename the base in his honor.

Those who have served and the families who sacrificed beside them deserve our nation’s eternal gratitude.  Since 1948, the Black Hills National Cemetery has been but one way this appreciation is shown. 

Today, the cemetery offers 100 acres of peaceful landscape to serve as the final resting place for service members and their families.  The facility, however, will not have the room required to continue serving veterans unless it is expanded.

After working with a number of area veterans and related federal agencies, I introduced the Black Hills National Cemetery Boundary Expansion Act, which would add around 200 acres of land to the cemetery by simply transferring federal lands that are currently under the Bureau of Land Management’s jurisdiction to the Department of Veterans Affairs. 

By expanding the Black Hills National Cemetery in this way, today’s veterans and service members, as well as their families, can be assured that America will be able to offer our eternal gratitude for all they have done.

Earlier this summer, we lost Chief David Beautiful Bald Eagle, a courageous World War II paratrooper and one of the legendary Lakota Code Talkers.  He too was laid to rest in the Black Hills National Cemetery and continues to be an inspiration to the Lakota people and everyone who had the privilege of knowing him.  It is his legacy, the legacy of General Ellsworth, and the legacies left by the brave men and women like them that we honor at the Black Hills National Cemetery.  Expanding it is a duty we must fulfill. 

I was humbled to see our Black Hills National Cemetery Boundary Expansion Act receive unanimous support in the House earlier this month.  While further action is needed before this bill reaches the President’s desk, I’m hopeful we’ll see movement before year’s end.  Our veterans deserve the certainty that our nation will forever show its gratitude for the contributions they’ve made in protecting our security, freedom, and country.

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