Weekly Round[s] Up: February 10-16, 2025
Welcome back to another Weekly Round[s] Up! We’re continuing to confirm President Trump’s nominees at a record pace here in the Senate. We now have 18 in place, including Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence, whose swearing-in ceremony I attended this week at the White House. As we vote on nominees, we continue with our regular business in the Senate like meetings with South Dakotans, hearings and classified briefings. I also introduced legislation this past week to create more oversight of the bureaucracy. More on all of this in my Weekly Round[s] Up:
South Dakotans I met with: Leaders from the Oglala Sioux Tribe, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe; Dr. Troy Meink, nominee to serve as Secretary of the Air Force, who is originally from Lemmon and graduated from South Dakota State University (Go Jacks!); representatives from the South Dakota chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business; physicians from the South Dakota State Medical Association; leaders from Black Hills Area Habitat for Humanity; and members of South Dakota Civil Air Patrol.
South Dakota towns represented: Brookings, Eagle Butte, Hermosa, Lemmon, Madison, Mission, Pierre, Pine Ridge, Rapid City and Sioux Falls.
Other meetings: Emil Michael, nominee for Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering; Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency; David McIntyre, President and CEO of TriWest; Bill Pulte, nominee to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency; King Abdullah II of Jordan; and Gary Cohn, Vice Chairman of IBM. As I mentioned, I attended the swearing-in ceremony for our new Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, whose nomination passed the Senate this week. I supported her through the process and look forward to working with her, particularly through my work on the Select Committee on Intelligence. I also attended our Senate Bible Study and our Senate Prayer Breakfast, where Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma was our speaker.
Hearings: I attended three hearings this week. One was a closed hearing in the Select Committee on Intelligence. One was a hearing in the Senate Armed Services Committee to hear from the leaders of United States Northern Command and United States Southern Command. I also attended a hearing in the Senate Banking Committee where we heard from Jay Powell, Chair of the Federal Reserve. You can watch my questions from that here.
Classified briefings: I attended one classified briefing on Central Command as part of my work on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Votes taken: 7 – we confirmed three additional cabinet nominees this past week: Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Secretary of Health and Human Services and Brooke Rollins for Secretary of Agriculture. We also took two procedural votes on the nominations of Howard Lutnick for Secretary of Commerce and Kelly Loeffler for Administrator of the Small Business Administration.
We’re working hard to get to the finish line on cabinet nominees. There are 24 positions within the executive branch that are considered “cabinet level.” Of these, two are not confirmed by the Senate: Vice President JD Vance, who was elected by the American people, and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, who was hand-selected by the President. This means we have just four nominees left before President Trump has his full cabinet in place, but rest assured we’re just getting started on the President’s plan to Make America Great Again.
Legislation introduced: I introduced two cybersecurity related bills this past week. The Cyber Conspiracy Modernization Act would strengthen penalties for cybercrimes. The Providing Individuals Various Opportunities for Technical Training to Build a Skills-Based Cyber Workforce Act of 2025 (Cyber PIVOTT Act) would provide scholarships to students and professionals training in cyber-related fields. You can read more about these bills here.
I also joined Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) in reintroducing the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act to help put power back in the people’s hands instead of the administrative state. Under the REINS Act, once major rules from government agencies are drafted, they must then be affirmatively approved by both chambers of Congress and then signed by the President, satisfying the bicameral and presentment requirements of the Constitution. Currently, regulations ultimately take effect unless Congress specifically disapproves. Read more here.
My staff in South Dakota visited: Pierre and Tea.
Steps taken: 50,659 steps or 25.23 miles.
Video of the week: I joined Newsmax for an update on cabinet confirmations, as well as to discuss eliminating the federal Department of Education:
