US SENATOR MIKE ROUNDS WEEKLY ROUND[S] UP FEBRUARY 3-9, 2025

US SENATOR MIKE ROUNDS WEEKLY ROUND[S] UP
FEBRUARY 3-9, 2025

Another week, another Weekly Round[s] Up! We had a busy week out in Washington as we continue working to confirm President Trump’s cabinet members. This weekend, I had the opportunity to have dinner with President Trump and most of my Republican colleagues in the Senate at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. It was great to sit down with the President to discuss our legislative priorities for the upcoming year. I had hearings in the Senate Banking Committee and the Select Committee on Intelligence. The best part of this past week was the 12 different meetings I had with groups from South Dakota, with 27 different towns across the state represented. Read more about all of these groups, as well as the rest of the week, in my Weekly Round[s] Up:

South Dakotans I met with: Associated School Boards of South Dakota; Mike Behm, Director of the South Dakota Department of Transportation’s Division of Planning and Engineering; a group of leaders from Special Olympics of South Dakota; South Dakota Association of Rural Water Systems; Troy Wellman, Moody County Sheriff; Erik Gaikowski and Doug DeGroot with AARP South Dakota; Jonathan Kleinjan, Executive Director of the South Dakota Wheat Commission; Tracey LeBeau, Administrator and CEO of the Western Area Power Administration; the South Dakota Native Homeownership Coalition; the Community HealthCare Association of the Dakotas; leaders from tribal colleges and universities in South Dakota; and Ivan Giraud, CEO of Bel Brands USA, which has a facility in Brookings.

South Dakota towns represented: Aberdeen, Arlington, Beresford, Britton, Brookings, Canistota, De Smet, Egan, Fort Thompson, Howard, Huron, Kimball, Kyle, Lake Andes, Madison, Miller, Mission, Mobridge, Pierre, Rapid City, Sioux Falls, Sisseton, Tea, Toronto, Watertown, White River and Woonsocket.

Other meetings: Peter Pham from the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center; Gabriel Schulze, Co-Head of Cerberus Frontier; Ronald Gidwitz, former United States Ambassador to Belgium; a group of cadets from the United States Military Academy at West Point; Michael Duffey, nominee for Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment; Elbridge Colby, nominee for Undersecretary of Defense for Policy; David Arons, CEO of the National Brain Tumor Society; and Robert Cook, President and CEO of FINRA. I also met with several groups of leaders from countries in Africa, including leaders from Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya and Rwanda.

I attended our weekly Senate Bible Study. Instead of our usual Senate Prayer Breakfast this week, we had the annual National Prayer Breakfast. This was hosted in Statuary Hall in the Capitol with leaders from across Washington. We had many readers and musical guests, but our main speaker was President Trump. You can watch his remarks here.

Hearings: I attended three hearings this week. Two of them were closed hearings in the Select Committee on Intelligence. One of these hearings was in the Senate Banking Committee, where we heard from witnesses and discussed debanking issues. We even had a South Dakota connection at that hearing – Nathan McCauley from Anchorage Digital headquartered in Sioux Falls was one of our witnesses. You can watch a clip of my questions here.

Votes taken: 20 – we continue to work on getting President Trump’s cabinet confirmed. This past week, we confirmed Chris Wright to lead the Department of Energy, Pam Bondi to serve as Attorney General, Doug Collins to be Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Scott Turner to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Russ Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget. For those keeping track at home, we confirmed five cabinet members in one week, bringing the total to 13. We had only confirmed six cabinet nominees three weeks into President Trump’s first term in 2017 as well as President Biden’s term in 2021.

Legislation introduced: I led the Timber Harvesting Restoration Act, legislation which would require the United States Forest Service to improve timber sales numbers in the Black Hills National Forest. In recent years, timber sales in the Black Hills National Forest have steadily decreased, putting a significant strain on manufacturers of timber products. In addition, timber harvesting is necessary to keep the Black Hills healthy, prevent wildfires and preserve its beauty for generations to come. Read more about this legislation here.

I also introduced the Taking Account of Institutions with Low Operation Risk (TAILOR) Act. This legislation would require federal regulatory agencies to take risk profiles and business models of institutions into account when crafting regulations. Read more about this bill here.

Inauguration resolution: I introduced a resolution to honor the personnel who worked to support the ceremonies and events for the 60th Presidential Inauguration that took place on January 20, 2025. Read the full resolution here.

My staff in South Dakota visited: Aberdeen, Fort Pierre and Rapid City.

Steps taken: 50,847 steps or 25.54 miles.

Video of the week: I joined Stuart Varney on Fox Business to discuss U.S. relations with China, as well as more of President Trump’s cabinet nominations: