Welcome back to another Weekly Round[s] Up! We’re back in session after a one-week in-state work period. I was able to meet with several South Dakotans to talk about agriculture, education and energy issues. In addition, I met with U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to discuss my legislation to eliminate the federal Department of Education. Getting rid of the bureaucratic overhead and administrative costs will allow us to put more money into the critical programs to support special education, children with disabilities, tribal education, high-poverty areas, Impact Aid, career and technical education and Pell Grants. Under my legislation, all of these programs will remain operational, just housed under other departments. More on these meetings and the rest of my week in my Weekly Round[s] Up
South Dakota groups I met with: Agtegra Cooperative; José-Marie Griffiths, President of Dakota State University; Miles Beacom, board member of the Dakota State Applied Research Corporation; Dr. Sheila Gestring, President of the University of South Dakota; Jim Dover, President and CEO of Avera Health, and Kim Malsam-Rysdon, Vice President of Public Policy at Avera Health; Joseph Graves, South Dakota’s Secretary of Education; members of the South Dakota Farm Bureau; students from West Central and Lemmon High Schools; members of the South Dakota Cattlemen’s Association; and a group of South Dakota ethanol producers.
South Dakota towns represented: Amherst, Dell Rapids, Harrisburg, Hartford, Houghton, Lemmon, Leola, Madison, Mellette, Midland, Pierre, Sioux Falls, Vermillion and Winner.
Other meetings: Svanhildur Hólm Valsdóttir, Iceland’s Ambassador to the United States; Keith Bass, nominee for Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs; Lt. Gen. Dan Caine, nominee for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Bradley Hansell, nominee for Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security; Margie Palmieri, acting Chief of the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office; Even Rogers, CEO of True Anomaly; Linda McMahon, U.S. Secretary of Education; Brig. Gen. Patrick Karuretwa, head of International Military Cooperation within the Rwanda Defense Force; Gen. Gregory Guillot, Commander of United States Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command; and Jack Hidary, CEO of SandboxAQ. In addition, I spoke at the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s conference about policy to make housing more affordable.
I hosted our Senate Bible Study, where Luke 3:3 was our verse of the week.
Center for Effective Lawmaking: This past week, I was named as one of the top-five most effective Republican lawmakers in the 118th Congress by the Center for Effective Lawmaking, which is run by the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University. This score is based on metrics such as substance of bills introduced, their progression throughout the legislative process and how many were signed into law. Read more about this here.
As lawmakers, one of the most important parts of our jobs is writing and introducing substantive bills and shepherding them through the legislative process with the ultimate goal of getting them signed into law. We were successful in getting results for the people of South Dakota in the 118th Congress across policy areas ranging from agriculture to national security and defense. There is still plenty of work to be done on all of these issues and more in the current Congress. I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues in the Senate to get results for our state.
Hearings: I attended five hearings. I had two hearings in the Select Committee on Intelligence, one of which was closed. In the open hearing, we heard from leaders in the Intelligence Community, including CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, FBI Director Kash Patel and NSA Director Timothy Haugh. You can watch a clip of that here.
In addition, I had one hearing in the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), where we heard from Dr. Troy Meink, nominee to serve as Secretary of the Air Force. Dr. Meink is a native of Lemmon, South Dakota and a graduate of South Dakota State University (Go Jacks!). I was pleased to introduce him at this hearing. You can watch a clip of that here
I also had two SASC Subcommittee hearings: one in the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and the other in the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces.
Classified briefings: I had one classified briefing as part of my work on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Votes taken: 19 – As most of President Trump’s cabinet is now confirmed, we continue to work on confirming other executive branch positions, such as Deputy Secretaries and Assistant Secretaries at various federal Departments. One confirmation I’m particularly excited about is Michael Kratsios, the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. I’m looking forward to working with him on issues relating to the Sanford Underground Research Facility near Lead, as well as artificial intelligence.
Legislation introduced: This past week, I reintroduced the MedShield Act of 2025. This legislation would implement a recommendation of the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence to create a program titled MedShield to leverage AI for national pandemic preparedness and response. Read more about this here.
Tribal public safety letter: I sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum requesting the creation of a “Violent Crime Reduction Commission” to address violent crime on reservations. This proposed body would be made up of officials from the Department of Justice, the Department of the Interior and leaders from tribal areas under federal criminal jurisdiction. Read more here.
My staff in South Dakota visited: Dell Rapids, Madison, Sioux Falls, Sturgis and Watertown.
Steps taken: 53,522 steps or 26.13 miles.
Video of the week: As I mentioned, I introduced South Dakotan Dr. Troy Meink at his nomination hearing in the Senate Armed Services Committee: