Weekly Round[s] Up: February 24-March 9, 2025
Welcome back to another Weekly Round[s] Up after a couple of busy weeks in Washington. This past week, we heard from President Trump in his first joint address to Congress since beginning his second term. I’m looking forward to working with the president and my colleagues in the Senate to implement his agenda and deliver results for the American people to unleash American energy, lower inflation, secure the border and put America first. We continue to work in the Senate toward confirming all of President Trump’s cabinet nominees, with just one left to go before everyone at the cabinet level is confirmed. In addition, I’ve been glad to see so many friendly faces from South Dakota out in DC to talk about issues that are important to them over the past couple of weeks. Read more about all of this in my Weekly Round[s] Up:
South Dakotans I met with: Leaders from Heartland Energy; Chris Huber, President & CEO of the Black Hills Area Community Foundation; a group of leaders from South Dakota State University; the American Legion Department of South Dakota; Disabled American Veterans Department of South Dakota; Missouri River Energy Services; leaders from the South Dakota Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR); Hunter Roberts, Secretary of the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources; Larissa Luther with Breakthrough T1D; Jim Speirs, Executive Director of Arts South Dakota; representatives from the Brookings County Commission; South Dakota members of Ducks Unlimited; Becky Dewitz, CEO of the Great Plains Zoo; the South Dakota Broadcasters Association; South Dakota Manufacturing and Technology Solutions; the Dakota Credit Union Association; Brian Tande, President of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology; South Dakota Veterans of Foreign Wars; Champ Baumgarten and Sheridan Voorhees, South Dakota’s representatives to the U.S. Senate Youth Program; South Dakota representatives of the Boys & Girls Club; and South Dakota members of One Voice Against Cancer.
South Dakota towns represented: Aberdeen, Beresford, Brookings, Canton, Fort Pierre, Garretson, Hazel, Huron, Madison, Miller, Onida, Parker, Piedmont, Pierre, Plankinton, Rapid City, Sioux Falls, Sisseton, Spearfish, Summerset, Tulare, Vermillion, Watertown, Wentworth and Yankton.
Other meetings: Tim Fist with the Center for a New American Security; Jonathan Levin, President of Stanford University and Fei-Fei Li, Director of Stanford University’s Artificial Intelligence Lab; Jeff Kessler, nominee to serve as Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security; Paul Alivisatos, President of the University of Chicago; Eric Pan, President and CEO of the Investment Company Institute; leaders from Marmen; a group of Canadian Members of Parliament; Gen. Randall Reed, Commander of U.S. Transportation Command; Michael Kratsios, nominee to serve as Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Joe Kent, Nominee for Director of the National Counterterrorism Center; Eric Andersen, President of Aon; Anthony Tata, nominee to serve as Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness; Oliver McPherson, Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy; Lori Chavez-DeRemer, nominee to serve as Secretary of the Department of Labor; John Hurley, nominee to serve as Under Secretary of Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Crimes; Metin Hakverdi, German member of Parliament; and Chuck MacFarlane, President and CEO of Otter Tail Corporation.
I attended my Senate Bible Study and Senate Prayer Breakfast, where Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee was our speaker.
Hearings: I attended eight hearings. Three hearings were closed in the Select Committee on Intelligence. I had four hearings in the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC): one with Stephen Feinberg, nominee to serve as Deputy Secretary of Defense; one with John Phelan, nominee to be Secretary of the Navy; one with Elbridge Colby, nominee for Under Secretary of Defense for Policy; and one hearing to discuss defense mobilization. We had one hearing in the Senate Banking Committee to hear from four different nominees to serve in the executive branch, which you can watch a clip of here.Â
Classified briefings: I had one classified briefing related to my work on SASC’s Subcommittee on Strategic Forces. Â
Votes taken: 23 – we confirmed five more of President Trump’s nominees, including two cabinet nominees: Jamieson Greer as U.S. Trade Representative and Linda McMahon as Secretary of the Department of Education.
In addition, we took a procedural vote on the nomination of Lori Chavez-DeRemer to be Secretary of the Department of Labor. Â
Legislation introduced:
- The Purchased and Referred Care Improvement Act, legislation to require the Indian Health Service (IHS) to reimburse tribal members for care sought outside of IHS in a timely manner. Read more about this bill here.
- The Farmers Freedom Act of 2025, legislation which would provide a permanent definition of prior converted cropland under the Clean Water Act. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has used this authority to issue Waters of the United States rulemakings, which regulates navigable waterways in the United States. Read more here.
- The Avian Influenza Vaccination Strategy Act, legislation which would require the U.S. Trade Representative and the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to negotiate with trade partners on a strategy for HPAI poultry vaccine. Read more about this here.
- The Promoting Agriculture Safeguards and Security (PASS) Act, legislation which would ban individuals and entities controlled by China, Russia, Iran and North Korea from purchasing agricultural land and businesses located near U.S. military installations or sensitive sites. Read more here.
My staff in South Dakota visited: Aberdeen, Gettysburg, Hoven, Huron, Spearfish, Wall and Webster.
Steps taken: Â 91,877 steps or 46.03 miles over a two week period.
Video of the week: I joined Keloland following the President’s Joint Address to Congress:
