BIG Investments
By Rep. Dusty Johnson
August 16, 2024

BIG Update

South Dakota received a presidential disaster declaration for the historic flooding in the southeast portion of the state. Twenty-five counties have received disaster assistance from FEMA and four of those counties qualify for individual assistance for residents and business owners. This is great news for recovery and rebuilding efforts after many homes and buildings were destroyed.

In the aftermath of the flood, I joined Senators John Thune and Mike Rounds in sending a letter to support Governor Noem’s disaster declaration request. I’m glad the President approved this request.

BIG Idea

Project labor agreements (PLA) are a contract between the federal government and construction companies about how workers will be handled on the job site. Recently, President Biden published an executive order that federal construction projects worth more than $35 million use a project labor agreement. These require a union to be involved, which proves difficult in South Dakota because most of the contractors in the state aren’t unionized.

Requiring unionized contractors would mean construction workers at Ellsworth Air Force Base or other projects in South Dakota have to find workers from out of state. This will cost taxpayers more, hurt our state’s economy, and hurt the readiness of our base.

I’m opposed to this rule and have been working to prohibit requiring these project labor agreements on federal construction projects. To learn more, watch KOTA’s story about the roundtable here.

BIG News

What was once a gold mine is now a scientific data mine. At the site of the old Homestake mine, a mile below ground, the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF), in partnership with Fermilab and the Department of Energy, is searching for answers to questions we might not even have yet.

For three years, construction and excavation teams have worked to remove 800,000 tons of rock to create a cavern the size of eight soccer fields. Excavation is officially complete, bringing SURF one step closer to beginning research on particles called neutrinos that can hopefully give insight into big questions about our universe.

It was phenomenal to see the facility. I look forward to the great economic impact this will have on our state and to learning what the scientists will discover.

From Facebook comes some advertising from the Davison County Republicans that I was not expecting this Friday night:

The Davison County GOP is having their upcoming Lincoln Day Dinner.. in September… featuring their keynote speaker, State Representative Chris Karr from Sioux Falls.. touting him as the person “who passed the largest tax cut in state history.”  Ooookay. Because there was no one else involved with that?  Like other legislators? The Governor?

Was there no one available from Brookings to speak that they had to go to Sioux Falls?

You know, if only there was a statewide elected official from around Mitchell. But that might mean supporting someone who actually lives in the community…

Here’s an interesting anecdote that came my way today. 

On her campaign website – which was recently redone – Secretary of State Monae Johnson has expressly declared that “I am against voter fraud, online voting and online voter registration.”  (You can read that under Meet Monae):

While the Secretary of State claims to be AGAINST ONLINE VOTER REGISTRATION, there is an interesting contract that she signed in her role as Secretary of State that seems to be contrary to that stated position. A $4.5 million dollar contract.

Contract between SDSOS and KNOWINK by Pat Powers on Scribd

Go ahead and read it yourself, but the latest contract between the Secretary of State and election vendor KNOWINK seems to have been written with specific provisions with regards to online voter registration.

If Secretary of State Johnson is going to sign a contract for online voter registration, she probably shouldn’t declare on her revamped website that she’s against online voter registration less than 60 days later.

Just a thought.

From Facebook, Brook Kaufman is sharing the good news of her organization’s (Visit Rapid City) successful presentation to the National Association of Secretaries of State:

Build the Wall
By: Gov. Kristi Noem  
August 16, 2024    

“We don’t complain about things – we fix them.” When my dad taught me that, he was talking about cows, horses, fences, and ranch chores, not the wide-open Southern Border. But the lesson holds true.

The truth is, we could complain about President Joe Biden and Vice President (and Border Czar) Kamala Harris’s failures at the Southern Border until the cows come home. Instead of complaining, South Dakota is doing our part to fix it. 

We recently welcomed home our seventh detachment of South Dakota National Guard troops to the border. The last few groups have all had the mission of working with Texas to construct the border wall. We sent an engineering company – we sent builders.

South Dakota guardsmen constructed more than five miles of border wall. They fortified 20 miles-worth of wall with concertina wire. And they repaired 46 breaches in the crucial area between Del Rio and Eagle Pass, TX.

I spent a day with them helping them build the wall – it wasn’t easy work. They had to clear miles of rough ground in 100-degree heat and Texas humidity before they could get to work on barrier construction. But they were glad to do it in service to our country.

These brave soldiers were more than 1,000 miles from home. Their work was crucial to keep South Dakota – and every other state – safe. The sad reality is that due to the incompetence and mismanagement of our border, every state is now a border state.

When we control the border with physical barriers, we make it tougher for cartels to facilitate their drugs and human trafficking into our country. We funnel the traffickers towards areas where we have a stronger presence. And if anyone does try to breach the barrier, we give law enforcement and Border Patrol precious time to respond. That’s just common sense – but the Biden Administration abandoned common sense when they stopped constructing the wall.

 South Dakota will continue to do this work – but we shouldn’t have to. President Biden and Vice President Harris are leaving the border wide open on purpose. Texas is working with South Dakota and other states to pick up the slack.

 We will continue to do our part. We have another group of South Dakota National Guard soldiers scheduled to deploy to the Southern Border on a federal activation later this Fall. And we will continue to do everything we can to mitigate the cartels’ influence here at home.

 I have seen such incredible patriotism and leadership from the South Dakota National Guard troops that we’ve deployed to the border over the years. The commander of the most recent detachments was a young female lieutenant who is working on her PhD in Animal Science at SDSU, meanwhile she is also an ROTC instructor. She’s a leader. She’s getting results. I wish that I could say the same about our current “leadership” in the White House.

 In the meantime, we won’t complain about things. We’ll continue to fix them. If the Biden-Harris Administration won’t build the wall, we will. We will continue to do everything we can to keep our people safe.

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South Dakota Receives Presidential Disaster Declaration after Historic Flooding 

PIERRE, S.D. – Today, Governor Kristi Noem announced that South Dakota has received a presidential disaster declaration due to the historic 1000-year flooding event that occurred between June 16 and July 8, 2024. 25 counties have received disaster assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and four of those counties have qualified for individual assistance for residents and business owners.

“South Dakota has worked tremendously hard to get to this point and will continue working to rebuild our communities. I am so proud of our people,” said Governor Kristi Noem. “This event was unprecedented, but our response was exactly what South Dakota always does. We work together to get our neighbors back on their feet.”

Residents and business owners in the following four counties qualified for individual assistance: Davison, Lincoln, Turner, and Union. Residents must contact FEMA to register.

Disaster Recovery Center dates & locations will be announced very soon.  It is not necessary to go to a center to apply for FEMA assistance. Impacted individuals located within one of these counties can go online to disasterassistance.gov, call 800-621-3362 or use the FEMA mobile app to apply.

In addition, federal funding is available to state, tribal, eligible local governments, and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by the flooding in the following 25 counties: Aurora, Bennett, Bon Homme, Brule, Buffalo, Charles Mix, Clay, Davison, Douglas, Gregory, Hand, Hanson, Hutchinson, Jackson, Lake, Lincoln, McCook, Miner, Minnehaha, Moody, Sanborn, Tripp, Turner, Union, and Yankton.

As Governor Noem reiterated many times throughout this historic flooding event, for those local communities, the cost share will be 75% federal, 15% state, and 10% local. These local entities will work with state and FEMA officials to obtain this assistance.

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Rapid City Democrats were announcing yesterday that they had a replacement for the Democrat running for District 34 Senate.. but I’m not seeing that on the Secretary of State’s website:

The Brookings County GOP is hosting it’s annual summer picnic tomorrow evening in Hillcrest park, if you’re so inclined.

I can’t make it this year as I’m traveling, but it’s actually one of the more tolerable GOP events, as it ticks off a lot of boxes – the speeches are short, the food is good, and it is always worth the $5.   What more can you ask for in a political rally?

Remember my post a short time ago noting that the SDGOP’s Confederate caucus is having some meeting in a few weeks to go over demands they’re going to make on the party for their fall effort?

It sounds like they’re not going to accomplish a darn thing except talking and talking and wasting the day if you look at their agenda:

Ballot Propositions Discussion
• Purpose
• Goal
• Action Plan
• List of ballot propositions: (They list all of the ballot measures, one by one by one.)

Strategy/Coordination of Key Races
• Public Utilities Commissioner
• Other

Read that here.

It’s so cute how they talk about an “action plan.”  Because if you look at the monthly FEC Report that was just filed by the Republican Party, I don’t think there’s enough money to pay for any action:

SDGOP 2024 AugustFEC Federal by Pat Powers on Scribd

I don’t see that any of the people who were calling this meeting on the list of people who donated.   And as they’re going to find out, almost nobody else’s name is on the list, either. When groups rant on about too many people being under the Republican tent, and they need to kick people out of the Republican Party, what happens when they get their wish? A State Republican Party that 4 months before the election only raises $278.

$278.43 raised, $7705.26 spent, $49943.19 cash on hand.   At that burn rate, the party has about 6-7 months left, and that’s spending the bare minimum. Throw some campaign expenditures in there, and it’s going to be gone much faster than that.

A donation for $250, a donation for $25, and 3.43 in interest is not a sustainable model.  We’d be even further into it if they had been able to hold TAR camp this year. County GOP groups are holding on to their cash, statewide candidates are not going to send in cash that might be used against them if there’s a takeover, And the state party is left unable to support it’s candidates.

$278.43.. wow.  To put it in perspective, I spent about that last week to have a few comic books professionally pressed and cleaned for my collection (first world problems, I know).    This is not a good situation. SDGOP fundraising has been brought to a near-halt by agenda driven groups who have no interest in the fact that “a rising tide lifts all ships,” and are more concerned with attacking “the establishment,” and wanting to force the GOP off the road.

At this rate, they’ll have their wish by the time of the next State Party officer election.

Attorney General Jackley’s Statement On DCI Investigation Into Actions of Former Division of Motor Vehicles Employee

PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley issues this statement regarding the investigation into the actions of a former South Dakota Division of Motor Vehicles employee.

“The Attorney General’s Office was contacted in February of 2024 by the state Department of Revenue after the agency reported a former Division of Motor Vehicles employee had created a false/fraudulent motor vehicle title. The Department of Revenue and the Governor’s Office cooperated with the investigation conducted by the Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI).

The DCI investigation led to the discovery of 13 forged vehicle titles by the former employee between 2016 and 2023. The titles were used to secure almost $400,000 worth of loans. There is no evidence that others were involved in this criminal activity. Since the former employee has passed away, no charges will be filed.”

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