Weekly Round[s] Up: May 13-19, 2024

We had another busy week here in the United States Senate. Our biggest event of the week was the release of our bipartisan AI Working Group’s roadmap to the future of artificial intelligence. This report is intended to serve as a guide for the Senate as we look to craft public policy on AI in order to incentivize development in the United States. More on that later. We also had hearings, meetings and votes, including some votes on two South Dakota lawyers who were confirmed as U.S. District Court judges. Here’s my Weekly Round[s] Up:

South Dakotans I met with: South Dakota members of the American College of Physicians; Carl Wynja, Market Leader for U.S. Bank in South Dakota; Jeff Kippley, Vice President of the National Farmers Union from Aberdeen; and leaders from the Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce.

Other meetings: Members of NORPAC; Lisa Cook, member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors; Phil Musser, VP of Government Affairs at NextEra Energy; Arthur Mensch, CEO of Mistral AI; and Elizabeth Moore Aubin, U.S. Ambassador to Algeria. I spoke on a panel at the Bloomberg Government’s Newsmaker Breakfast about the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and my work on the Senate Armed Services Committee. I also attended an event to talk about artificial intelligence with leaders from financial technology companies.

AI White Paper: As many of you may have noticed, over the past year I’ve had several meetings, panels and discussions focused on artificial intelligence. I also hosted nine AI insight forums with my bipartisan AI working group composed of Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.). I am pleased to report that this past week, we released our AI roadmap that summarizes our findings and lays out priorities as we look to the future of AI. You can read more about this, as well as the full 30-page report, here.

This roadmap to the future of AI sets the stage as we seek to harness its power to bring greater prosperity to the American people while also mitigating potential long-term risks. I look forward to seeing how my colleagues use their subject matter expertise in each committee to address these issues through regular order. We have a real opportunity to shape its future, and we need to embrace this challenge with open arms.

Appropriations requests: This past week, I led 11 of my Senate colleagues in requesting funding for tribal law enforcement programs in the FY2025 appropriations bill. Tribes in South Dakota need more resources to adequately address rising crime on reservations. You can read the full text of this request here.

Votes taken: 9 – My most notable votes this week were on the confirmations of Eric Schulte and Camela Theeler to serve as U.S. District Court Judges for the District of South Dakota. Judge Schulte was confirmed by the Senate on Wednesday by a vote of 61 to 33. Judge Theeler was confirmed by a vote of 90 to 4 this past Thursday. I gave a floor speech ahead of the vote on Judge Theeler, which you can watch a clip of here.

Hearings: I attended four hearings this past week. One was in the Select Committee on Intelligence. I attended a hearing in the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee (SVAC) to talk about rural health care services for veterans. I asked about VA facilities in South Dakota and the Care in the Community program, which you can see a clip of here. I attended a hearing with leaders from the U.S. Navy to talk about spectrum. Last, I attended a Banking committee hearing with FDIC Chair Marty Gruenberg and Fed Vice Chair Michael Barr, where I asked about the Basel III Endgame proposal and asked the FDIC Chair to step down over toxic workplace allegations. Chair Gruenberg has since announced that he will do just that.

Classified briefings: I attended one classified briefing this week to talk with my colleagues about the electromagnetic spectrum. Understanding the spectrum is critical in our national defense policy.  

My staff in South Dakota visited: Aberdeen, Elm Springs, Gettysburg, Pierre, Redfield and Vermillion.

Steps taken this past week: 53,747 steps or 26.64 miles

Video of the week: I was on Fox Business’ Varney & Co. to talk more about the Biden Administration’s decision to pause munitions aid to Israel and the mixed messaging it sends to Israel and Hamas. I also talked about high inflation rates and rising prices ahead of the April inflation report. President Biden’s policy-induced inflation continues to impact families across South Dakota and the country: