The patriotism South Dakotans display on the Fourth of July has deep roots in our state’s history. In fact, we waved the Stars and Stripes before we even became a state! The Dakota Territory in the 1880s stood out for its love for civic virtue, and historians recount how few holidays rated higher than Independence Day to the settlers. Those same historians note that this ingrained love for America explains why so many South Dakotans served in the World Wars, and why we as a state revere our veterans.

As we pause to observe the nation’s birthday this week, I am concentrating especially on our veterans. Why? Because the bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. have thrown in the towel on their poorly thought-out plan to close down several VA hospitals across the nation, which included Fort Meade and Hot Springs, and to stop emergency services at the Sioux Falls VA, as well as close the clinic in Wagner.

When Biden Administration officials initially announced earlier this year their intent to take such drastic action, I immediately raised my voice in opposition. As I explained in my mid-March letter to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, those closures would have severely and negatively impacted the care of veterans in South Dakota and surrounding states. I noted that America should offer its veterans more health care, not less, and that this plan’s intent to “centralize” services would force our veterans to travel hundreds of miles for medical care they desperately need.

In short, I made clear that these recommendations to dramatically change veterans’ health care represented a betrayal of our veterans who offered to sacrifice life and limb to protect us and our freedoms. Thankfully, many other South Dakotans agreed with me and also raised their voices in protest of this terrible plan. I’m thankful the members of our congressional delegation—Senators John Thune and Mike Rounds, and Congressman Dusty Johnson—were likewise united in opposition.

So often, when we observe the federal government initiate a plan that is so obviously wrong, it seems like nothing can be done to stop it. But here, we made a difference. By speaking up in a measured, thoughtful, and powerful way, we drummed up more opposition, culminating in a bipartisan group of Senators who took action this past week to force the bureaucrats to back down. By honoring the First Amendment and protesting a terrible federal government plan, we vindicated our veterans, those who have willingly offered their lives to protect our freedoms. Standing up for their right to quality health care barely scratches the surface of all we owe our heroes—but thank goodness we did.

President Calvin Coolidge, the only President of the United States born on the Fourth of July, once said, “The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten.” This Independence Day let’s all pause and remember our defenders—our veterans. We are the land of the free because of the brave—and we who live in freedom owe them a debt that we must continuously make good on: especially on Independence Day.

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Telemedicine Abortion Ban Becomes Law; Gov. Noem Repeals Executive Order

PIERRE, S.D. – Today, Friday, July 1, HB 1318, which bans telemedicine abortions in South Dakota, becomes law. In preparation for the law taking effect, Governor Kristi Noem signed Executive Order 2022-08, which repeals her previous executive order on the subject.

“South Dakota is focused on helping moms who may be facing a crisis pregnancy situation. Those moms should know that telemedicine abortions are not safe for their health – they are four times more likely to cause the woman getting the abortion to end up in the emergency room,” said Governor Kristi Noem. “This law will have no effect on treatment for miscarriages, but doctors who knowingly break the law and prescribe these medications to end a human life will be prosecuted.”

Following the United States Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, South Dakota’s trigger law made all abortions illegal in South Dakota.

Research demonstrates that chemical abortions are four times as likely to cause the woman receiving the abortion to end up in the emergency room following the procedure.

Executive Order 2022-08 repeals Executive Order 2021-12, which banned telemedicine abortions in South Dakota.

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Girls’ Sports Legislation Becomes Law; Gov. Noem Repeals Executive Orders

PIERRE, S.D. – Today, Friday, July 1, SB 46, which protects fairness in girls’ and women’s sports, takes effect. In preparation for the law taking effect, Governor Kristi Noem signed Executive Order 2022-07, which repeals her previous executive orders on the subject.

“South Dakota is defending basic fairness for our girls so that they can have an opportunity to compete and achieve,” said Governor Kristi Noem. “As our nation passes the 50^th anniversary of Title IX, we must remember that this law exists to give biological girls equal opportunity. South Dakota will always stand up for our kids.”

Governor Noem signed SB 46 into law in February. It was the first bill that she signed into law in the 2022 legislative session, and it has been heralded as the “toughest law in the nation” to protect girls’ sports.

Executive Order 2022-07 repeals both Executive Orders 2021-05 and 2021-06, which protected girls’ sports in South Dakota until stronger legislation could become law.

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College CRT Ban Becoming Law

PIERRE, S.D. – On Friday, July 1, HB 1012, which protects college students and faculty from mandatory Critical Race Theory trainings and orientations, takes effect.

“College should be a place where freedom of thought and expression are encouraged – not stifled by indoctrination and political agendas,” said Governor Kristi Noem. “Critical Race Theory should not be forced on our students, and this legislation will prevent that from happening.”

Since signing the bill, Governor Noem also signed Executive Order 2022-02, which restricts Critical Race Theory at the K-12 level.

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A news article is out tonight talking about a new conservative caucus that is being formed, as noted in the Rapid City Journal, because once again there are those who think they are more Republican than others:

A contingent of South Dakota Republican lawmakers on Wednesday formally announced they were forming a group billed the “South Dakota Freedom Caucus” as they try to drive politics further to the right in a Statehouse where the GOP holds every statewide office and 90% of the Legislature.

And..

Republican Rep. Tony Randolph, who is the Freedom Caucus vice-chair, declined to say how many lawmakers are part of the group outside its three officers. He said they were looking to recruit members, but insisted they were not splitting from the Republican caucus.

Read it here.

I did find it amusing that they’re quoting Tony Randolph, who two years ago was openly supporting the non-republican in a general election. Because we need GOP traitors Tony Randolph & Tina Mulally to tell us who is more republican than anybody else.

Anyway, getting back to the whole “new conservative caucus” sham. Where have I heard all this before? I think it was way back… when they did the same thing 2 elections ago:

You can read about 2018’s breakaway caucus here.

Seriously. These guys have got to get a new act. Because the breakaway caucus schtick was lame in 2018, and it’s no less lame when they develop amnesia about forming it, and declare they’re starting a new one.

South Dakota Receives Presidential Disaster Declaration Approval

PIERRE, S.D. – Governor Kristi Noem announced today that South Dakota has received a Presidential Disaster Declaration that allows the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help South Dakota local governments in 20 counties and on two reservations recover from public infrastructure damage sustained as a result of tornadoes, severe storms, straight-line winds, and flooding that occurred on May 12 in the eastern part of the state.

“This is good news for those in our state who were impacted by this severe weather,” said Gov. Noem. “I appreciate FEMA giving us a response. This means FEMA can start providing assistance in a timely manner.”

Public infrastructure damage assistance will be provided to the counties of: Aurora, Beadle, Bon Homme, Brookings, Clay, Codington, Day, Deuel, Grant, Hamlin, Hanson, Hutchinson, Kingsbury, Lake, McCook, Miner, Minnehaha, Moody, Roberts, and Turner as well as the Flandreau Indian and Lake Traverse Reservations.

In a letter earlier this month requesting a disaster declaration, Noem wrote that the storm resulted in two deaths, a preliminary number of 14 reported tornadoes, and wind gusts of more than 100 miles per hour in some places. The storms also resulted in the temporary closure of roads and highways. Nearly 70,000 customers experienced power outages.

FEMA staff members will be arriving soon in the state to help begin the assistance efforts with governmental and certain private-non-profit entities. The Department of Public Safety’s Office of Emergency Management will be the state agency assigned to help coordinate the assistance.

South Dakota still has six open Presidential disaster declarations for other events and is working with FEMA on the recovery process for each of those disasters as well.

You can find the letter requesting the Presidential Disaster Declaration here.

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Gov. Noem Launches “Saddle Up” Ad Buy

PIERRE, SOUTH DAKOTA – Today, the Kristi for Governor campaign launched a multi-week, six-figure ad buy called “Saddle Up” as part of Governor Kristi Noem’s reelection efforts. The ad features lessons that Governor Noem learned from her dad, how she has applied those lessons to her leadership decisions as Governor, and how they will shape her conservative policies over the next four years.

“‘Get back on that horse and ride.’ It’s what my father taught me since I was a little girl,” Governor Noem says in the ad. “In South Dakota we don’t complain about things, we fix them. I held the reins and refused to let fear steal our Freedom. Here, Freedom runs free. So, saddle up. We’re just getting started.”

Under Governor Noem’s unwavering conservative leadership, South Dakota is thriving. Because of the Governor’s refusal to accept one-size-fits-all, big government overreach, South Dakota has the number one economy in the nation, leads the nation in personal income growth, ranks number one in tourism, and our schoolchildren lead the nation in educational outcomes.

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Where do they find the energy? I’ve got to hand it to two of the SDGOP’s county chairs to head out to DC for RNC County Chair training after the convention this last weekend, and both Linn and Katie were very active this last week at convention:

Today’s debates around Big Tech giants like Facebook, Twitter, or Google, among others, typically center around the ability that these platforms have to shape social media and determine the content that people see or don’t see. Little is known by consumers, or even Congress, about the secretive algorithms used by these platforms and the intentional or unintentional political biases at play, which is why I’ve long argued that these manipulative practices are worthy of congressional oversight and action. Big Tech, much like the Wizard of Oz, would prefer that we don’t look behind the curtain and instead just focus on what we can see. That will change if I have anything to say about it.

New research shows that Big Tech companies are manipulating the online experiences of millions of Americans in ways unknown before, with a demonstrated and disturbing bias against communications from Republican candidates and policymakers. Republican leaders have had enough, and we’ve introduced legislation to stop it.

Researchers at North Carolina State University recently analyzed emails sent by Republican and Democrat candidates during the 2020 election cycle. The non-partisan study found that Gmail, which is the largest email provider in the United States, sent nearly 70 percent of emails from Republican candidates to spam while allowing 90 percent of emails from Democrat candidates to sail through Google’s filtering algorithms without issue. A data discrepancy like this one can’t be ignored.

These findings are alarming on many levels, but especially when it comes to the integrity of our elections. Email is a vital method of communication for elected officials and candidates to reach voters, and it’s a problem when the most-used email provider in the United States demonstrates a pattern of limiting political discourse from one of the major political parties while essentially amplifying it for the other party. No major Big Tech company should have the ability to place its thumb on the scales by limiting the content that voters see, especially behind closed doors.

I recently pressed Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai on this issue. Google disagrees with the allegation that its e-mail filtering algorithms are politically biased. Thankfully, there’s an easy way to clear everything up: Google could be more transparent with the public about its algorithms and why Republican emails are discriminated against at such a high rate.

Or better yet, Google could leave the decision up to the consumers to make their own online decisions. That might be a novel idea to Big Tech, but it’s something American consumers are demanding now more than ever before.

This would be required of all major platforms if Congress passes my Political Bias in Algorithm Sorting (BIAS) Emails Act, which I introduced earlier this month. It would prohibit email platforms from using biased filtering algorithms on emails from federal political campaigns unless a user took a proactive action to apply a label to that email. My bill would also require these platforms to explain when emails from political candidates are marked as spam and provide transparency reports into the platform’s sorting practices.

Consumers should have the most power to determine what they do or don’t see online, especially when they have opted to receive emails in the first place. Nothing in the Political BIAS Emails Act would stop a user from marking an email they don’t want as spam – but it would prevent large platforms from trying to make those decisions for the user.

Last week, Republican leaders in the House of Representatives introduced companion legislation to the bill I introduced in the Senate. Their support and leadership will be necessary if we are going to take on the largest Big Tech companies on behalf of consumers everywhere. I’m not new to this effort. In fact, I’ve introduced multiple pieces of legislation that would also hold Big Tech accountable and empower American consumers. My Filter Bubble Transparency Act and Platform Accountability and Consumer Transparency Act would also create meaningful change for online users, and they both enjoy bipartisan support.

Big Tech has an outsized ability to shape consumers’ online experiences, and it’s only growing. Republicans believe in empowering consumers to make their own decisions within a free market of ideas, and if we are trusted with majorities in Congress next year, we will have more tools and leverage at our disposal to hold Big Tech accountable.

The decision is up to the voters – they just might want to check their spam folders to learn more.

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Gov. Noem Appoints Mark Vargo as Attorney General

PIERRE, S.D. – Governor Kristi Noem has appointed Pennington County State’s Attorney Mark Vargo as Attorney General effective today.

“Mark Vargo returns integrity, experience and stability to the Attorney General’s Office,” said Governor Noem. “He is an outstanding prosecutor who has the respect of law enforcement agencies and prosecutors statewide. Mark will provide the leadership the office needs until the next Attorney General is elected in November and takes office in January.”

Vargo has more than 30 years of professional and public legal experience. He graduated from Princeton University in 1985 with a Bachelor of Arts degree and earned his law degree with honors from Georgetown Law Center in 1988. He has served as an Assistant State’s Attorney for Florida’s Dade County, Assistant United States Attorney for the District of South Dakota and has been Pennington County State’s Attorney since 2013. He was nominated in 2010 for a U.S. Department of Justice’s Director’s Award and was named the South Dakota Prosecutor of the Year in 2015. Vargo has been active in the Rapid City area serving as an adjunct professor, high school debate coach and youth soccer coach.

Last week, Vargo was the lead prosecutor in the Senate impeachment trial against the former attorney general.

“I am honored to have been asked by Governor Noem to serve as the Attorney General,” said Vargo. “I have worked closely with the Attorney General’s office in the past and have a high respect for the abilities of the staff. My goal is to provide office members the necessary support so they can keep doing their job and honoring the rule of law for the citizens of South Dakota.”

Vargo will serve as Attorney General through Friday, Jan. 6, 2023. The new Attorney General is scheduled to be sworn in Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023.

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