Weekly Round[s] Up: December 2-6, 2024
We’re back to work out in Washington following Thanksgiving! I hope you all had a great holiday filled with family, friends and delicious food. We are truly blessed to live in the greatest state in the greatest country in the world, which is one thing we can all give thanks for. I spent time this week attending meetings with South Dakotans, hearings, votes and classified briefings. I also began meeting with President-elect Trump’s cabinet nominees this week. I had productive meetings with three nominees this week where we took time to discuss the issues our country is facing, as well as priorities for the next administration. More on these meetings and everything else in my Weekly Round[s] Up:
South Dakotans I met with: Amy Bruner with Minnehaha County Moms for Liberty; and the National Association of Farm Service Agency County Office Employees. Their current President, Joel Foster, is from Milbank.
Cabinet nominee meetings: As many of you may know, each of the individuals President-elect Trump nominates to serve in his cabinet must be confirmed by the Senate. As such, I will be meeting with his nominees as they move through the confirmation process.
I met with Elise Stefanik this week, nominee to serve as the United States’ Ambassador to the United Nations. I am confident in her ability to be a strong advocate for policies that put America First and our adversaries last, particularly with regard to China.
I also met with former Representative Doug Collins, nominee for Secretary of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Doug shares my vision for the VA – it’s time to make the VA work for Veterans again. His nomination will come through the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee.
Pete Hegseth, nominee for Secretary of Defense, also came to my office for a meeting this week. As someone with boots-on-the-ground experience, he would bring a refreshing perspective and a new approach to strengthening our military. I appreciated his perspective as a warrior for making the Department of Defense a more lethal force well into the future. Mr. Hegseth’s nomination will come through the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Other meetings: Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for Liberty; leaders from Talus Renewables; General C.Q. Brown, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the American Business Immigration Coalition board members; Sedat Önal, Turkey’s Ambassador to the United States; Dr. Harald Malmgren; Patrick Gruber, CEO of GEVO; and Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Federal Reserve. I also spoke at a conference hosted by Empower to speak about AI and financial services issues.
We had a half-day Senate Republican “retreat” on Tuesday where we took time to talk about priorities heading into the new Congress, including working as quickly as possible to get President-Elect Trump’s cabinet confirmed so he can have his team in place. We also had a dinner honoring the Republican members of the United States Senate who are retiring this year.
Votes taken: 13 – similar to the past few weeks since the election, all of our votes were on nominations to judicial positions. The judges we voted on this week are located in California, Massachusetts, Washington DC, Pennsylvania, New York, New Mexico and Georgia. As we near the end of this administration and a Democrat-controlled Senate, the President and Leader Schumer are pushing through their most left-leaning, controversial nominees. As a result, I did not vote to confirm any of the seven judges that passed the Senate this week.
Hearings: I had one closed hearing in the Select Committee on Intelligence.
Classified briefings: I attended three classified briefings this week. I had one classified briefing related to my work on the Senate Armed Service Committee’s Subcommittee on Air, Land and Sea. We also had an all-members classified briefing on the Salt Typhoon hack, a successful effort by China to listen in on cell phone communications and read text messages for an extended period of time. Finally, I hosted my biweekly Cyber Education seminar, a classified session for members of the Senate and their staff to receive an update on our cybersecurity operations in the defense sector.
My staff in South Dakota visited: Belle Fourche.
Steps taken this past week: 49,295 steps or 24.78 miles.
Video of the week: I spoke with media following my meeting with Pete Hegseth:
