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Noem, Gowdy Move to Close Fugitive Loophole

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Reps. Kristi Noem and Trey Gowdy this week introduced the No Haven for Dangerous Fugitives Act, which closes a critical public-safety loophole. More specifically, under current policy, certain individuals wanted on felony charges – including violent crimes – can flee to Indian Country and evade arrest. It was an issue discussed extensively when Gowdy joined Noem in South Dakota to meet with area law enforcement about local drug crime and policing challenges. The Noem-Gowdy proposal that resulted from the meeting would give federal law enforcement the authority, when necessary, to enter Indian Country and apprehend the defendant.

“Today, we have fugitives hiding in plain sight,” said Noem. “The way the system is set up violent criminals can use Indian Country as a haven to evade law enforcement. That policy poses a serious and concerning public safety threat to tribal communities. The No Haven for Dangerous Fugitives Act closes this dangerous loophole once and for all. I thank Rep. Gowdy for taking the time to hear from South Dakota law enforcement about this threat to public safety and then collaborate on a workable solution.”

“The priority should always be on victims of crime and public safety,” said Pennington County Sheriff Kevin Thom.  “Law enforcement faces jurisdictional obstacles that hinder our efforts while fugitives roam freely from one jurisdiction to the next, oftentimes continuing to commit more crimes.  It is time to hold fugitives accountable and stand up for victims.”

“Too many victims of crime in Pennington County over the past decades have had to hear that they would not get their day in Court because the offender was beyond the reach of even federal law,” said Mark Vargo, Pennington County State’s Attorney.  “By recognizing tribal borders as being the equivalent of state borders, the No Haven for Dangerous Fugitives Act takes a huge step toward ensuring that no one is beyond the law.  We will no longer have to wait for a new victim before an offender can be brought to justice.  This means that all of South Dakota’s communities will be that much safer.”

“This simple but important adjustment to legislation will correct an unintentional flaw that has contributed to a disparate degree of Public Safety on and near tribal lands,” said Karl Jegeris, Chief of Police at the Rapid City Police Department. “Ultimately, it will create an opportunity for reduced victimization by holding offenders accountable.”

Under current law, federal law enforcement may apprehend a suspect who allegedly committed a crime in South Dakota, for example, and then flees to another state in an attempt to evade arrest. Federal law enforcement may also apprehend a suspect who allegedly committed a crime in South Dakota and then flees to an Indian Reservation in another state.

Federal law enforcement currently do not, however, have the authority to apprehend a suspect who allegedly committed a crime in South Dakota and then flees to an Indian Reservation in South Dakota. In addition to denying victims and their families justice, the communities to which the defendant flees are put in jeopardy. The No Haven for Dangerous Fugitives Act simply allows federal law enforcement to apprehend a suspect who allegedly committed a crime in South Dakota and then flees to an Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

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While I was on the way to the Airport on Friday, I was incredulous when I heard Greg Belfrage on the radio declaring that “there was only one member of the State Bar in the entire state who supported it, and it was the person promoting it.”

Because it was a statement that I knew to be utterly false. In fact, one of the other attorney supporters, a candidate for Attorney General, was speaking about his support just recently:

The South Dakota amendment established constitutional rights for crime victims including privacy, protection from harassment or abuse, and timely notice of trial.

However, lawmakers say the voter approved constitutional amendement has unintended financial consequences and has hindered investigations.

Senator Lance Russell says he believes Marsy’s law is a benefit.

District 30 Senator Lance Russell says, “I was a state’s attorney and I had my secretaries and myself meet with victims and notify victims of the status of their case and that’s essentially what Marsy’s law requires is that if the victim would like to meet with the state’s attorney that they have an opportunity to do so. If they want to be notified of every hearing and what are proposed plea agreements that they’re entitled to have that notification.”

Read it here.

I also believe the Beadle County State’s Attorney weighed in as well:

There may be areas of the law that could use tweaking. But the legislature should think twice before trying to strip crime victims of their rights because some parts are inconvenient.

From the Argus Leader, Councilor Christine Erickson is helping to introduce a measure to bring some transparency to city contracts, as they usher the ‘Huether Era’ out the door:

A pair of city councilors wants more transparency around certain contracts being proposed by Mayor Mike Huether.

City Councilors Christine Erickson and Marshall Selberg plan to introduce an ordinance that will require the mayor to open up facility management contract drafts for public inspection no fewer than seven days before councilors are asked to vote on them.

“Not only will the City Council get it, but the public will have access to it for a full seven days,” Erickson said this week.

And..

After hearing some input from Council Vice Chair Erickson this morning, I don’t see any concerns,” Huether wrote. “It makes common sense and business sense to do it, but of course there may be some rare cases where this could cause an issue, but I am sure it can and will be worked out, as we always do.”

Read it here.

Tomorrow is set to be a big day politically with the release of Kristi Noem’s and Marty Jackley’s campaign finance reports.  But I’m also hearing rumors that Neal Tapio might be making a move, and make his entrance into the Congressional contest official.

That could be just a lot of talk, and until I see an announcement, it’s just a rumor. But it would make sense if a person has to go out and get signatures.

Keep watching!

We Can Accomplish More By Working Together
By Sen. John Thune

One of the most fundamental jobs we have in Congress is to ensure that the federal government – including the military and the brave men and women who support it – is funded and operational. Unfortunately, Congress recently failed this basic legislative function because a significant number of my colleagues in the Senate chose to use the government’s operating status as a bargaining chip for an entirely unrelated and non-urgent campaign for federal policy on illegal immigration.

Congress has the constitutional responsibility to fund the government, and when it comes to the current congressional budget process, I’m not a fan. It’s broken, and it needs to be reformed. Rather than having a long-term funding plan in place that provides certainty to the American people and our military, it’s this flawed budget process that has led Congress to funding the government using one short-term bill after another without the opportunity to truly debate the merits of federal spending.

While it’s irresponsible to govern this way, and it’s something I’m working with my colleagues to fix, it’s far more irresponsible to hang a “closed” sign on the government’s door and leave our troops and children’s health care hanging in the wind simply because one political party didn’t get its way. We can do better than that.

During the recent government shutdown, critics were quick to point out that Republicans control the White House, the House of Representatives, and the Senate, which is accurate. In the Senate, though, we have 51 Republican votes, and for some of the bills we consider, including those to fund the government, the rules require 60 votes for them to advance. So, even if every Republican senator voted yes, we would still need nine Democrats to join us to send something to the president.

While a majority of the Senate, including a handful of Democrats, supported keeping the government open so negotiations on other issues could continue, more than 40 Democrats voted to shut it down. Thankfully, realizing a government shutdown would do nothing to advance their cause, cooler heads prevailed and they voted to reopen the government a few days later. I hope it’s a sign that Democrats are willing to work with us on the big issues of the day.

By obstructing at all costs, my Democrat colleagues have been missing opportunities to help deliver positive results to the American people. Tax reform is a great example. The immediate effects of it becoming law are undeniable, and I predict they will only get better. Business after business is announcing higher wages, bonuses, and other benefit enhancements for employees as a direct result of tax reform. This is a good law, and while Democrats could have joined us to make it even better, they decided to take their ball and go home, which was disappointing.

It’s not only tax reform, though. Think about everything else that could be stronger, including America’s confidence in Congress, if we worked together more often. Washington’s political scoreboard, which people inside the Capital Beltway are far too obsessed with these days, is meaningless to the rest of the country. Working together will deliver the best results and put points on the only scoreboard that really matters: the American people’s.

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With the Unnecessary Shutdown Over, We Can Get Back to the Important Issues Before Congress

By U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.)

I’ve been frustrated with Washington’s broken budget process since coming to the Senate three years ago. Under our current system, rather than debating and passing appropriations bills to fund the government for a full year at a time, we have been operating under short-term, stopgap funding measures called “Continuing Resolutions” to keep the government open for just a few months or weeks at a time. Continuing Resolutions (CR) largely extend last year’s spending levels and fail to provide long-term certainty and stability. Of particular concern to me is the impact that short-term funding bills have on our military.

This broken process, coupled with partisan, political gamesmanship from our Democrat colleagues, recently led to a three-day “government shutdown.” Even though Senate Democrats did not disagree with the contents of the CR, which would have funded the government through Feb. 16 and reauthorized the Children’s Health Insurance Program for six years, they voted to shut down the government, thinking it would give them more leverage to pass DACA legislation. DACA stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and refers to the children of illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as young children. DACA has been part of a set of issues we are working on to strengthen border security and reform the H2B visa program, among other immigration-related matters.

This strategy of shutting down the government over DACA never made much sense because there was already broad bipartisan support to making permanent changes to the law for DACA recipients as well as the other immigration and border issues. I have been deeply involved in discussions that seek to find a way forward on immigration. Throughout these conversations, my focus has been on border security and H2B visa reform, which is very important to South Dakota’s seasonal tourism and construction businesses.

After three days, our Democrat colleagues agreed to end the shutdown and pass a Continuing Resolution through Feb. 8, 2018, citing assurances from Senate Majority Leader McConnell that we would consider DACA legislation, something we had all agreed we must take up in the near future anyway. While I don’t understand why some senators felt they needed to demand something that was already in the works, I’m pleased the unnecessary crisis ended.

Now we can focus again on bipartisan H2B visa reform, border security and DACA talks, fixing our broken budget system and adequately funding our troops. I’ve been working daily with a growing group of bipartisan senators on an immigration and spending proposal, and we continue to make progress on these important issues.

While we are moving forward with these immediate issues, we must reform our broken budget process as a whole and stop governing from crisis to crisis. Short-term CRs are no way to run a government and I will continue to work toward reforms to our budget process so we don’t get ourselves into this mess again. With our country’s 250th birthday just eight years away in 2026, the time is now to address the inefficient way that Congress manages taxpayers’ dollars.

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Continuing the Rollback
By Rep. Kristi Noem

Step by step, we are reducing the size and scope of the federal government. Yes, a lot of work remains, but over the last year, we’ve worked with President Trump to cut 1,600 regulations, repeal Obamacare’s onerous individual mandate, and deliver a massive tax cut to the vast majority of Americans. As a result, consumer confidence is at a 17-year high, 1.7 million new jobs have been created, and many families are getting a raise for the first time in years.

It’s beyond encouraging to see the economy boom again, and I’m hopeful that progress will help fuel another round of economic reforms. For instance, I’d like to see us improve our poverty programs, streamline federal agencies, roll back additional Obama-era regulations, and continue cutting regressive taxes, like the Health Insurance Tax (or HIT).

The HIT was put in place by Obamacare. While it is supposed to be a direct tax on health insurance providers for the services they provide, the tax is actually passed on to consumers in the form of substantially higher premiums and out-of-pocket costs, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The HIT also costs jobs. In fact, the National Federation of Independent Business Research Foundation found the HIT could cost between 152,000 and 286,000 jobs by 2023. Most of those jobs would be lost within small businesses.

I firmly believe Obamacare must be fully and permanently repealed. I fought to see the House pass legislation repealing and replacing Obamacare but was deeply disappointed when the Senate couldn’t pass it as well. So, until we can get a full repeal through both houses of Congress, I’m committed to taking it apart piece by piece, with the next step being a repeal of the HIT.

After hearing from many South Dakota small businesses about the devastating impact the HIT was having on them and their employees, I introduced legislation to repeal the tax. While it seems like everything in government (especially when it involves Obamacare) is partisan, even Democrats could jump on board in support of this repeal. We continue to push this legislation toward passage, but I was thrilled to put the tax on pause for 2019, which will help individuals save as much as $500 on the cost of their healthcare premiums that year.

Ronald Reagan, whose birthday we celebrate in February, famously observed that “as government expands, liberty contracts.” He was right. Big-government taxes and regulations stunt our prosperity and limit our freedoms. Over the course of the last year, that regulatory burden has begun to lift. Families have more money in their pockets because of tax reform. And in 2019, many will reap the financial benefits of a HIT delay. We must capitalize on this momentum, continue to shrink government, and watch liberty expand as a result.

Improving Our Medicaid Program

A column by Gov. Dennis Daugaard:

South Dakotans believe in self-reliance.  The pioneers who settled this state over a century ago, as well as the natives who preceded them, understood the need for self-reliance. In fact, they knew no other way. Those who came to Dakota sought freedom and a fresh start. They understood, though, that freedom requires responsibility, because they could only survive by taking care of themselves.

As a second key value, South Dakotans believe in hard work. It is simply a part of our culture. When we promote South Dakota as a good place to do business, we promote the work ethic of our people.  Those who do business in South Dakota and elsewhere will attest to the fact that South Dakotans know how to work. There’s also a sense of pride that comes with having a job to do and being able to provide for your family.

The Trump Administration recently indicated it is willing to consider state work requirements for Medicaid participants.  The federal government just approved a work requirement as part of Kentucky’s Medicaid program, and I have asked the Department of Social Services to pursue a work requirement for able-bodied adult South Dakotans enrolled in Medicaid here.

This would not apply to every South Dakotan on Medicaid. Our Medicaid program today covers roughly 82,000 children; 23,000 aged, blind or disabled persons; 1,000 pregnant women; and 13,000 very low-income parents. The work requirement would apply only to very low-income parents who aren’t already working or caring for a young child. This would place the work requirement on approximately 4,500 individuals in South Dakota.

By July 1, South Dakota will submit a proposal to seek approval for the work requirement, starting with a two-year pilot. If approved, we will begin with 1,300 Medicaid recipients who reside in Minnehaha and Pennington counties – where there is the greatest availability of employment and training resources. Pending approval, we will begin a voluntary program in these counties in July.

The Department of Labor and Regulation will enroll participants automatically for individualized employment and training services to help them find jobs. For those who earn enough to transition off of Medicaid, we will provide assistance – such as child care subsidies – to ensure their long-term success.

All work has dignity, and work is an important part of personal fulfillment. By making this adjustment to our Medicaid program, we will continue to help persons in need, while helping find jobs for those able to work, and also find that sense of pride and accomplishment which accompanies work.

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