Weekly Round[s] Up: January 6-20, 2025
Welcome to the first Weekly Round[s] Up of 2025! We’ve had a busy first couple weeks of the 119th Congress out here in DC. Preparation for President Trump’s second term is in full swing. While I started meeting with his nominees in December, we began hearing from those nominees in public hearings. Hosting these hearings early tees up the nomination so that we are ready to vote and get them in place now that President Trump is in office. In my committees, we’ve already voted to approve Pete Hegseth and John Ratcliffe, and they’ll now head to the full Senate. We’re hitting the ground running and ready for a busy few months as we work day in and day out to get President Trump’s chosen team confirmed, as well as accomplishing some of his major policy priorities early in his term. Here’s my Weekly Round[s] Up:
South Dakota meetings: I met with the South Dakota Wheat Growers Association; and Cammy Lantis and Leah Rinard with Lantis Enterprises. We also had many South Dakotans visiting Washington for the inauguration. I enjoyed getting to visit with them and welcome them to town at events hosted by my office over the weekend.
Met with South Dakotans from: Aberdeen, Box Elder, Brandon, Brookings, Chamberlain, Deadwood, Dimock, Estelline, Forbes Township, Midland, Milbank, New Underwood, Piedmont, Pierre, Rapid City, Sioux Falls, Spearfish, St. Lawrence, Tea, Vermillion, Wagner, Whitewood and Winner.
Cabinet nominee meetings:
- John Phelan, nominee to be Secretary of the Navy. His nomination will come before the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), which I serve on.
- Dan Driscoll, nominee to be Secretary of the Army. He will also go through SASC.
- Stephen Feinberg, nominee for Deputy Secretary of Defense who will come through SASC.
- Todd Blanche, nominee for Deputy Attorney General.
Other meetings: Brendan Carr, Commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC); Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s Ambassador to the United States; John Ketchum, CEO of NextEra Energy; Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic; Bill Anderson, CEO of Bayer’s Worldwide; and Nathan McCauley, CEO of Anchorage Digital.
I hosted a gathering with Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) honoring our seatmates, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), who are now in leadership positions within our conference. I also attended Senate Bible Study, hosted by Senator Steve Daines (R-Mont.), and Senate Prayer Breakfast, where we heard from Senate Chaplain Barry Black.
Inauguration Ceremonies: I stayed in Washington this past weekend attending the Inauguration of President Trump. This included breakfast with President Trump on Sunday morning and the Inauguration ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda on Monday. It was a great weekend celebrating our 47th (and 45th) President, and we’re ready for all the good things to come!
Hearings: We kicked off our nomination hearings with Pete Hegseth, nominee for Secretary of Defense, in the Senate Armed Services Committee. Mr. Hegseth did well in responding to questions from the committee members on his vision for the Department of Defense, including a focus on lethality. You can watch the clip of my questions here.
We also had the nomination hearing for John Ratcliffe, nominee to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, which you can watch a clip of here. In the Banking committee, we heard from Scott Turner, nominee to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development. You can watch the Banking clip here.
Votes taken: 5 – all of these votes were to move the Laken Riley Act forward. I voted yes on this legislation, which I was an original cosponsor of in both this Congress and the last Congress. This bill will require Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest and detain immigrants who have committed certain crimes until they are deported.
My staff in South Dakota visited: Aberdeen, Brookings, Pierre, Sioux Falls, Volin, Wall, White River and Yankton.
Steps taken: Week 1: 55,645 steps or 27.7 miles
Week 2: 49,483 steps or 25.09 miles
Video of the week: I joined Newsmax following President Trump’s swearing in to discuss the ceremony as well as his executive orders:
