Rounds Opposes Democrats’ $1.9 Trillion Spending Bill

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today issued the following statement after voting against the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief legislation which passed on a partisan basis without Republican support.

“Democrats used the guise of COVID-19 relief to further their left-wing agenda while putting our nation deeper into debt. I voted against this partisan $1.9 trillion spending bill that reads more like a liberal wish list than targeted pandemic relief.

“Up until this point, we have always found a way to work together on a bipartisan basis to provide COVID-19 relief for the American people. None of the previous five pandemic relief bills received fewer than 90 votes in the United States Senate. This is the first bill that did not pass either chamber with bipartisan support. In fact, it had bipartisan opposition in the House of Representatives.

“My colleagues and I offered a reasonable conservative alternative that targeted relief to those directly impacted by the pandemic and was one-third the price. Unfortunately, Democrats were unwilling to compromise. The legislation passed today is not targeted and is not specific, but rather includes many giveaways to left-wing causes.”

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Via Facebook:

Putting South Dakota’s Priorities First
By Sen. John Thune

Serving the state of South Dakota is my greatest honor, and throughout my time in Congress, I’ve sought out ways to give our state a strong voice in Washington. One of the most important ways I’ve been able to accomplish that goal is by serving on committees that I believe yield the most effective results for South Dakotans.

Although we are only a couple of months into the 117^th Congress, I have already hit the ground running in the three committees on which I serve: the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee; the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee; and the Finance Committee. I am confident that serving on these committees will continue to give me the best opportunity to make sure South Dakotans, and the issues that are important to them, are prioritized in Washington.

Agriculture is South Dakota’s top industry, and I’m proud to serve as a longtime member of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Before coming to the Senate, I served on the House Agriculture Committee, so I have long understood how critical it is for our state to have a seat at the table when it comes to negotiating and crafting policies that directly affect our state’s economy and our hardworking farmers and ranchers.

It seems like just yesterday that we were working on the 2018 farm bill, but while we only have a few of years before it expires, I have already begun talking with South Dakota’s producers and working on new proposals to help ensure they have the safety net and resources they need to be successful. South Dakota’s farm and ranch community knows adversity all too well, so I’m committed to providing them as much certainty as possible in the years to come.

I’ve held several different roles on the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee over the years, including serving as full committee chairman and chairman of the subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet, which has jurisdiction over legislation and other matters relating to the technology and communications industries, which are both critically important to South Dakota.

This Congress, I’ll serve as ranking member – the highest ranking Republican – of the same subcommittee, but with a new name: the Subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband. Serving as the top Republican on this subcommittee will give me the opportunity to continue my years-long effort to ensure all South Dakotans have access to broadband services, even in the most rural areas of our state. This role will also allow me to build off of my previous work of making 5G a reality for all Americans as well as empowering online consumers and protecting their digital footprint.

And finally, I’ll continue serving on the Senate Finance Committee and as ranking member of the Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight. Senate Democrats will be working hard to fulfill campaign promises by trying to enact the Green New Deal and Medicare for All or repeal or rollback things like the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. As a member of this powerful tax-writing committee, which also has significant government oversight responsibilities, I will do everything in my power to act as a voice of reason to fight this misguided, far-left agenda.

Committees play a key role in shaping and considering most bills before they ever come to the Senate floor for a final vote. Having a voice on these three powerful committees gives me the opportunity to elevate important issues and give South Dakotans a say on the most important policy debates in Washington. Regardless of the issue at hand, you can bet that I will be fighting for South Dakotans every step of the way.

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This popped up on social media today. And I think it might have been done on purpose:

 

Although they might be self-declared “liberty minded,” I’m not sure how that translates into something called “effective.”

Rep. Pischke’s bills in 2021 have died at a 100% kill rate. Dennert’s legislative success rate is 22%, and Alyward is 1 out of 3 at the moment.

But liberty and all.

Words and Action

By: Governor Kristi Noem 
March 5, 2021

March 10^th is a tough day. On March 10, 2020, South Dakota diagnosed our first 5 cases of COVID-19, including our first death. For many of us across the state, life changed that day as we adapted to slow the spread of the virus. For my family, the day had double meaning. March 10, 1994, is also the day that my dad passed away in an accident on our family farm.

My dad was a cowboy. He was the toughest person that I’ve ever known. Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to grow up and be like him. When he died, I was just 22 years old, and I had to take over as general manager of the family business. The months immediately after he died were filled with unending challenges and hundreds of questions. I remember thinking repeatedly, “I wish I could just ask dad.” I had no idea how we were going to keep the family business going without him. But I was determined that we weren’t going to fail.

A couple of months after he was killed, I finally got the courage to clean out his pickup. If you have a farmer or rancher in your life, you know that they often live out of their pickups. Everything important can be found in the cab.

I got to his pickup and began pulling items out of the center console and putting them in a box. I found a set of pliers, a Baby Ruth candy bar (that was his favorite), notebooks, pens, tools. And then I found a tiny tape recorder, like the kind that a doctor dictates into.

I pushed the play button and heard my dad’s voice.

My eyes started to fill up with tears. I looked down into the console and saw several more tapes, almost a dozen in all. One by one, I put them in the tape recorder and listened to dad talk about crop decisions, soil types, cows, weather, markets, and what to do if we were ever caught in a tough financial situation.

I realized that here in my hands were all the answers that I needed. Straight from him. In his voice.

In that moment, I felt a strange sort of peace settle over me. Scripture talks about a “peace that passes all understanding.” It was almost as if God was saying to me, “I will provide. Stop worrying. You will be okay. Your family will be okay. I’ve got this.”

I had the answers; I just needed to get to work.

Dad was the hardest worker that I knew. He led by example, by action. But that day, his words changed everything. I made a decision that day to be like my dad: a person of words and of action, because both matter.

That’s why I ran for office. I am committed to always serving the people of this great state with both words and action. I will do what I say, and I will always tell you what I’m doing. That’s why I approached this past year the way that I did.

It’s been a tough year. Some South Dakota families have experienced the terrible tragedy of losing a loved-one, and my heart breaks for each of them. But no matter how tough the past year was, South Dakotans are so much tougher. And that toughness has gotten us through this marathon, together. May God bless you and your family in 2021.

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The Capital Journal has an article today on former Attorney General Marty Jackley waxing philosophical on his prior race for Governor in the primary, as well as the upcoming race for Attorney General that he’s announced as a candidate for:

“Certainly everybody knows Gov. Kristi Noem and I ran against each other in the last primary,” said Jackley. “I then endorsed her. The attorney general and the governor don’t always have to see eye-to-eye. The AG needs to understand where his ‘lane’ is — law enforcement. I feel through my history of good relationships with three governors that they knew I was always talking with them for the right reasons.”

and..

Though Jackley believes that his strength is in his proven record and experiences, “on the other side, as with my loss in the governor’s race, I am not perfect. It was humbling. I learned from it. There are things about myself that I can and will change to do better in gaining the trust of the voters. One of the hardest decisions as AG is whether to seek capital punishment; it affects the victim and their family, the defendant and their family, and the law enforcement team putting the case together,” Jackley said.

Read the entire article here.

Mark this down in the dumb idea column.

There’s a “subscribers only” article in the Argus this morning about a group organizing to bring a new ballot measure that would create a mechanism to add legislators and state officials to those elected officials who could be recalled from office by popular vote.

The challenge they face is that the proposal is a solution in search of a problem. that no one is asking for.

While Reistroffer, a registered Republican, is best known for his pro-marijuana advocacy at the Capitol, he says his effort to get the question of recalls on the ballot isn’t about a single-issue. Rather, it’s about adding another layer of accountability to the South Dakota government.

He admits he was inspired to look into options about forcing the removal of elected officials from office after lawmakers and the governor enacted plans to delay implementation of a medical marijuana program. But he said recall elections could be used in response to any issue where voters and their elected leaders do not see eye-to-eye.

Read that here.

“recall elections could be used in response to any issue where voters and their elected leaders do not see eye-to-eye?”

Well, we have that mechanism now. And one of the more significant challenges in proposing a dumb idea like this is that if you go and look, you’re not going to find an example of the existing recall law in effect being used successfully in the last decade.

Seriously. I made a list:

South Dakota Recall Elections 2011-2021:

• Dave McGirr recall, Huron, South Dakota (2011)  (Came up short on Signatures)
• Deb Schmidt recall, Whitewood, South Dakota (2011) (retained with 59% of vote)
• Carl Shaw recall, Edgemont, South Dakota (2014) (Petitions rejected, and lacked reason for recall)
• Bill Campbell recall, Hartford, South Dakota (2015) (Recall petitions failed under state law.)
• Harold Gray recall, Nisland, South Dakota (2017) (The town board was unable to accept the petition, as some were petitioning against other board members)
• Jerry Toomey recall, Mitchell, South Dakota (2017) (Group failed to submit signatures for the recall effort within the 60-day window allowed by law)

One municipal recall effort in the last decade that actually went to a vote, and they decided they liked their mayor after all by 59%.

Not exactly a bell ringer of an idea that people are pounding on the door to expand on.

Nevermind when it comes to state legislators, by the time you can possibly get around to recalling them after they take an action you’re literally on top of the next election cycle where they could run again.

Is someone angsty against our federal delegation because they may have acted like statesmen in Washington? Too bad.. a law of this nature isn’t going to apply to federally elected officials.  And if someone may have acted criminally, as we are finding out, there are mechanisms that can and will be used and everything will be done and handled in the light of day.

But as for laws that aren’t used now, that no one is asking for an expansion of?  We have enough government now.

Hard pass.

I was reading at the Rapid City Journal this afternoon that State Rep. Tina Mulally had a resolution in Senate Ag that didn’t do so well today:

Foreign ownership of agriculture land could disrupt the food chain, according to Mulally.

“If they control your food, they control you,” she said.

A do pass motion by Sen. Julie Frye-Mueller, R-Rapid City, died for the lack of a second.

Read that here.

What makes this bill interesting is that when I looked, it represents a 100% kill rate of her measures this year by her legislative colleagues. Of 7 measures she was the prime sponsor of in 2021, all were either sent to the 41st day or tabled.

This latest measure, a resolution, was actually the only measure that made it past the house floor.. only to be killed quickly in a Senate Committee.

So if you think you’re having a bad day.. it might not be as bad as the 100% bad day some are having.

Thune: Partisan COVID-19 Bill is Not an Accurate Representation of What Americans Want

“Democrats decided that Republicans – and the Americans they represent – should not have a voice in this legislation.”

Click here or on the picture above to watch Thune’s speech.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today discussed the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion COVID-19 spending bill and emphasized that Democrats are using this partisan process to advance liberal priorities, including a bailout for multiemployer pension plans, climate change and other environmental policy issues, and a new taxpayer-funded leave program for government employees with no requirement that it be used for COVID-19.