Weekly Round[s] Up: November 11-15, 2024
Welcome back to another edition of the Weekly Round[s] Up. It’s been a while! The Senate has been out of session for the past six weeks, which means I was able to work from South Dakota. While my home is in Fort Pierre, I was able to make trips around the state to attend different meetings and visit with South Dakotans. Just to give you a snapshot of my month: I visited with a political science class at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, I spoke at a roundtable discussion hosted by students at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, I hosted a coffee and conversation with residents in Yankton, I spoke at a dinner hosted by the Black Hills Area Habitat for Humanity in Rapid City, attended meetings with the Sioux Falls Rotary Club and Sioux Empire Realtors Association in Sioux Falls and celebrated our law enforcement at the South Dakota Law Enforcement Appreciation Dinner.
Now we’re back in Washington to hit the ground running after what’s been a huge week for Republicans both in South Dakota and across the nation. Once everyone is sworn into office in January, we will have Republican majorities in both the Senate and House, as well as President Trump and his new administration in the White House. In case you missed it, my seatmate and our fellow South Dakotan Senator John Thune is our next Senate Majority Leader. Take all of this together and we’re looking at the opportunity to accomplish a lot of priorities over the next couple of years. All of this and more coming up in my Weekly Round[s] Up:
Meetings this week: Luis Elizondo, former director of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program; and Youssef Amrani, Morocco’s Ambassador to the United States. I spoke at a reception hosted by the UAP Disclosure Fund. I also attended a celebration for the 249th Birthday of the United States Marine Corps.
Most of our time this week was spent on Senate Leadership Elections. As I mentioned, Senator Thune was elected as our next Senate Majority leader. I was honored to give the seconding speech for his nomination in our meeting. I believe Senator Thune is the right guy for this job and our conference agrees. John embodies the principles and leadership qualities that our nation needs at a critical time. With him leading us in the Senate, Speaker Johnson in the House and President Trump in the White House, Republicans are now positioned to spend at least the next two years getting our country back on track. I couldn’t be more excited for my friend John Thune. We’re ready to get to work!
Votes taken: 8 – all of these were on nominations to judge positions in Florida and Illinois, as well as positions on the U.S. Tax Court and in the Office of Government Ethics.
Hearings: I had one closed hearing with the Select Committee on Intelligence.
Classified briefings: I had one classified briefing with General Timothy Haugh, the Commander of U.S. Cyber Command.
My staff in South Dakota visited: Aberdeen, Brookings, Deadwood, Lead, Milesville, Philip, Rapid City, Sioux Falls and Sturgis.
Steps taken this past week: 53,386 steps or 26.8 miles.
Video of the week: I had the opportunity to visit with Linsey Davis on ABC Prime Time following the Senate Leadership elections:
