Thune Urges Colleagues to Support Comprehensive Reforms in Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization

“The legislation before us includes the most passenger-friendly provisions, the most significant aviation safety reforms, and the most comprehensive aviation security enhancements of any FAA reauthorization in recent memory.”

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, spoke on the Senate floor in support of the bipartisan airport security and passenger-friendly reforms in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill under consideration in the U.S. Senate.

Noem’s IRS Workforce Integrity Bill Advances Unanimously

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Kristi Noem’s Ensuring Integrity in the IRS Workforce Act (H.R.3724) advanced through the House Ways and Means Committee today unanimously, setting it up to be considered by the full House of Representatives in the coming weeks (VIDEO).  The bipartisan legislation would prohibit the IRS from rehiring an employee who has been fired for certain forms of misconduct.

“If a person has been fired for accessing private taxpayer information without permission or filing false documents, they should not be rehired and given access once again to our sensitive data. But the IRS has done this hundreds of times,” said Noem.  “My bill does what IRS bureaucracy has refused to do. It stops them from rehiring people who have betrayed the trust of taxpayers.  With unanimous consent from the committee, I’m hopeful we can move this commonsense solution forward quickly.”

In February 2015, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) publicly released a new report explaining it had “identified hundreds of former employees with prior substantiated conduct or performance issues ranging from tax issues, unauthorized access to taxpayer information, leave abuse, falsification of official forms, unacceptable performance, misuse of IRS property, and off-duty misconduct.”

The agency went on to say that nearly one in five of the rehired employees with a record of prior misconduct had performance issues when they returned to the IRS.  For more information on TIGTA’s findings, click here.

VIEW NOEM’S REMARKS AT COMMITTEE HEARING

(Click for high-resolution video)

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The South Dakotans promoting Marsy’s Law are our newest advertiser here at the SDWC, and will be with us through the election.

Take a moment to click on their ad, and check out their website, and please do so for all of our advertisers such as United States Senator John Thune, Americans for Prosperity SD Chapter, Congresswoman Kristi Noem, the fine barristers at Redstone Law Firm, as well as my own Dakota Campaign Store, one of the State’s largest suppliers of campaign materials.

And if you might be interested, we do have other advertising spots available. Drop a note to the webmaster for more information!

Rounds Opening Statement at EPW Subcommittee Hearing on Small Businesses’ Perspectives of EPA Regulations

Hearing Entitled, “American Small Businesses’ Perspectives on Environmental Protection Agency Regulatory Actions”

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Subcommittee on Superfund, Waste Management and Regulatory Oversight, today delivered the following opening statement at the hearing, “American Small Businesses’ Perspectives on Environmental Protection Agency Regulatory Actions.” The purpose of the hearing is to examine how regulations promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) affect small businesses in the United States.

So, while my daughter was getting inducted into the National Honor Society last night, I kept one eye on my phone.

I wasn’t intentionally being rude, but darn it, it happened to coincide with the on-line auction ending for an item I wanted very, very badly. And I quite pleased to say that I managed to get the souvenir for this little gathering in Sioux Falls where some guys got together on July 4th, 1889…:

This is a ribbon worn by one of the participant’s in South Dakota’s Constitutional Convention, which wrote our state’s founding document around 127 years ago.

You all might think it’s boring, but as a political history buff, I think it’s kind of cool.

First, Democrat US Senate Candidate Jay Williams was out demanding that all fossil fuels be banned.

#DemDebate Stop using fossil fuels. Period!

— Jay Williams (@Jay4Senate) March 7, 2016

And in his latest missive, he claims pot prohibition “is a bad idea,” and the war on drugs was actually Nixon going after “people of color and war protesters.”

Welcome to the 1960’s.  Or at least, welcome to a candidate with liberal views from them.

It’s election day for several municipalities and school districts in South Dakota, so make a point to get out and vote!

 Thune’s Bipartisan Aviation Bill Would Keep Airline Passengers Safe

“Airline passengers deserve more transparency, and the future of aviation needs a plan. And we have one in the U.S. Senate.”

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, today released a brief video outlining his vision for the future of aviation. Thune is the lead sponsor and bill manager of S. 2658, the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act of 2016, which is under consideration in the Senate this week. Enhancing aviation security has been a priority for Thune, and his amendment that would take important steps toward protecting the traveling public and tightening the vetting process for airport workers was recently added to S. 2658.

The crusaders of Because-I-say-so, Steve Hildebrand and Steve Hickey, are on the attack again in the Argus Leader this morning, after what I assume was a crabby e-mail to Jonathan Ellis trying to whip up a controversy among South Dakota ELCA Lutherans because the group had no interest in joining them.

But in South Dakota, where voters this year will decide on a ballot measure that caps interest rates on short-term loans at 36 percent, the ELCA is sitting on the sidelines. Efforts to recruit the church, which is one of the most influential religious organizations in the state, have failed.

Supporters of the cap say they know why: The lawyer who represents the South Dakota Synod of the ELCA in Pierre also represents the payday lending industry.

and..

Two of the sponsors of the 36 percent rate cap, Steve Hickey and Steve Hildebrand, personally lobbied Zellmer for his support on the ballot issue last year. Hickey described Zellmer as a “cold fish” when it came to the issue.

In an interview this month, Zellmer said he heard them out. But he said he has not received direction on the issue from the South Dakota Synod Assembly.

“I don’t work for Steve Hickey. I don’t work for Steve Hildebrand,” Zellmer said.

and..

“I would completely trust that Bishop Zellmer is above board on these kinds of questions,” Sorenson said.

Sorenson added that Lutherans are commanded to make the best construction of what others say or do and not to assume the worst.

“I think we tend to be too suspicious of these kinds of things,” he said.

Read it here.

This fight is mainly a difference of opinion on whether a legal consumer lending product should remain legal. Economists and scholars in favor of free enterprise believe that limiting choices on things like short term loans limits freedom.  The two Steves believe in less freedom, and limits on free enterprise and want to end the availability of those types of lending products.

Beating the drum of “It’s all a conspiracy, and they’re all in cahoots!”,  these opponents of the short term lending industry have regularly been on the attack against anyone who disagrees with them on the issue, and in some cases have been fairly vicious.  The short term lending opponents have attacked the industry and made claims of them being involved with the mafia, and now they’re attacking the integrity of the ELCA’s Lutheran Bishop because he isn’t signing on to their cause.

When I say “I can’t imagine why someone would take a pass on being involved with those guys'”  I’m doing so with a heavy dollop of sarcasm.  With their name calling and strong-arm tactics, at this point, it’s hard to imagine anyone credible wanting to be involved with them.

Especially when their social engineering moves us away from free enterprise, and towards more socialism.