Weekly Round[s] Up: July 11-15, 2022
When I am out and about in South Dakota, people always ask me: what’s it like in DC? In one word: busy. When I am in Washington, my schedule is packed full of hearings, meetings, classified briefings and votes. So much of what we do doesn’t make the news, but it’s the important work that our country needs to operate effectively. In an effort to give you better insight into my work, I thought I’d package my week into a “Weekly Round[s] Up.”
South Dakota groups I visited with: School Administrators of South Dakota, South Dakota Soybean Association, Brandon Valley Middle School, Ringneck Energy of Onida, Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Association, South Dakota Corn Growers Associations, Agribank Board of Directors and South Dakota Farm Bureau.
Other meetings this week: Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, CEO of Smithfield Foods Shane Smith, Senate Bible Study, Senate Prayer Breakfast (Senator Tim Scott was our speaker this week) and a visit to Palmdale, California to survey the progress on the B-21 raider bomber.
Met with South Dakotans from: Brandon, Pierre, Baltic, Aberdeen, Vermillion, Valley Springs, Salem, Huron, Avon, Sioux Falls, White Horse, Gettysburg, Pine Ridge, Madison, Oldham, Bridgewater, Miller, Milbank, Groton, Mitchell, Onida, Brookings, Spearfish and Volga.
Topics discussed: Inflation, Farm Bill priorities, education and the need for American energy independence.
Legislation introduced: Native American Direct Loan Improvement Act, a bill designed to improve homeownership opportunities for Native American veterans.
Votes taken: 13 – the most noteworthy were two votes on the nomination of Steve Dettelbach to be Director of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. I voted no on both the cloture and confirmation votes as I believe his out-of-touch, anti-gun views threaten the Second Amendment rights of thousands of law-abiding South Dakotans.
Hearings: Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where I served as ranking member for a hearing on the state of democracy in the Sahel – a region of Africa; Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing where we discussed my Native American Direct Loan Improvement Act; Senate Indian Affairs Committee meeting where we advanced the nomination of Roselyn Tso to be Director of Indian Health Service – I supported her nomination; and a Senate Banking Committee hearing on advancing national security and foreign policy through export controls.
Classified briefings: National Nuclear Security Administration Warhead Briefing; and Global Innovation: The Technology Race and U.S. Semiconductor Manufacturing Briefing.
My staff in South Dakota visited: Viborg, Watertown, Carthage, Howard, Kyle, Martin and Pine Ridge.
Staff happenings: I took my DC team to the Nationals-Mariners game on Wednesday. (No government funds expended!) Although they lost in a close game, we still had fun.
Steps taken this week: 55,262 (25.41 miles)
Photos of the week:
