Weekly Round[s] Up: September 23-27, 2024
Welcome back to another edition of the Weekly Round[s] Up! It’s been a while since I’ve been able to give an update of my work in Washington. I was back in South Dakota for all of August, where I was able to make visits across the state. I attended the Brown County Fair in Aberdeen, went 4,850 feet underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility outside of Lead, spoke with two of the South Dakota Legislature’s summer study groups: the artificial intelligence (AI) working group in Pierre and the Ellsworth working group in Rapid City, visited with teachers in Brandon and met with many other South Dakotans.
Toward the end of August, I had an unexpected eye surgery which prevented me from traveling back to DC at the beginning of September. This past week, I was cleared by my doctor to travel back to DC. It was good to return to usual business in DC – hearings, meetings, votes and briefings. Read more about it in my Weekly Round[s] Up:
South Dakotans I met with: South Dakota representatives from the Basin Electric Power Cooperative; South Dakota members of Associated General Contractors; leaders from South Dakota’s Impact Aid schools; South Dakota members of the National Federation for Independent Business; Vicki Lowry with Rapid City Head Start; Jenny Briest with the Elizabeth Dole Foundation; and Madhu Gottumukkala, Secretary of South Dakota’s Bureau of Information and Telecommunications.
Met with South Dakotans from: Bonesteel, Box Elder, Bullhead, Chamberlain, Custer, Dupree, Eagle Butte, Fort Pierre, Geddes, Hill City, Kenel, Madison, Martin, McLaughlin, Mobridge, Mount Vernon, New Underwood, Pierre, Pine Ridge, Rapid City, Sioux Falls, Timber Lake, Tulare, Wagner, Wall, Winner and Yankton.
Other meetings: Jason Ambrosi, President of the Air Line Pilots Association; General Randy George, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army; Robin Vince, CEO at BNY; Olivier Nduhungirehe, Rwanda’s new Minister of Foreign Affairs; and Tom Siebel, Chairman of C3.ai. I attended a coffee and conversation event with Charlie Cook. I also had our weekly Senate Bible Study, where our verse of the week was Philippians 4:8.
Votes taken: 7 – most of these were on nominations to a position within the Department of State as well as judicial positions in Wisconsin and the U.S. Tax Court. Most importantly, we voted on a Continuing Resolution to keep the government funded into December.
As you may recall, the House and Senate have a deadline of September 30 each year to complete our appropriations process, which delegates funding to different areas of the federal government. When this process isn’t complete by the September 30 deadline, the federal government shuts down unless both chambers pass a Continuing Resolution (CR). A CR extends funding to a set deadline (December 20 in this case) to give us more time to complete the appropriations bills, which is why it’s commonly called a “stopgap” funding bill.
I voted yes on the CR this week. While our government funding process is dysfunctional at best, it’s critical for our nation, particularly our defense and national security, that we keep government open and funded. This clean CR continues to fund the government at the same levels as last year through December 20, 2024. It also includes additional funding for the Secret Service so the agency can beef up security for presidential candidates.
Hearings: I had two closed hearings in the Select Committee on Intelligence.
Classified briefings: We had a busy week with five classified briefings: a briefing on Guam as part of my work on the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC); a briefing with SASC’s Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee; our bi-weekly cyber education seminar; a briefing on activity in the Red Sea; and an all-senators briefing on election security.
Letter to President Biden: This week, I joined a letter with Senator John Thune (R-S.D.) and Representative Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) to President Biden urging him to issue a major disaster declaration for the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe following extreme weather, particularly strong winds, that occurred July 13 and 14, 2024. Read more about it here.
Legislation introduced: I introduced a bill to leverage AI for national pandemic preparedness and response through a program called MedShield. Given the millions of deaths and trillions of dollars in economic costs resulting from COVID-19, we need to make strategic investments in pandemic prevention and preparedness. I believe AI should play a key role in those efforts. Read more about this legislation here.
My staff in South Dakota visited: Aberdeen, Sioux Falls, Vermillion, Waubay and Wakonda.
Steps taken this past week: 57,348 steps or 28.37 miles
Video of the week: I joined CNN this week to give the facts on a briefing I received on 2024 election integrity, as well as the Senate’s report this week about the assassination attempt on former President Trump in Butler:
