Senator Mike Rounds: Weekly Round[s] Up: April 29-May 5, 2024

Welcome back to another Weekly Round[s] Up! This week, I was fortunate to have my son Brian, his wife Kerry and their three kids visiting Washington. They were able to join me at the Capitol on Wednesday morning for breakfast in the Senate Dining Room, a tour of the Capitol and a tour of the Senate floor. They had a fun week of sightseeing in DC, and I was able to join them at the National Archives and Washington Monument in between my meetings, hearings and briefings this week. We were successful in passing unique legislation this week, which I'll talk about later. More on that and the rest of my week in my Weekly Round[s] Up:

South Dakotans I met with: The South Dakota Snowmobile Association; members of the Independent Community Bankers of South Dakota; Tura Synhorst, a South Dakota member of the American Beverage Association; South Dakota Zero to Three; Brandon Delzer, President of the South Dakota Rural Letter Carriers Association; the South Dakota Telecommunications Association; George Hawkins, South Dakota's 2024 Teacher of the Year; South Dakota Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) employees; students from Sturgis Brown High School; and South Dakota students participating in the Close Up Foundation's Native Youth Policy Summit.

Visited with South Dakotans from: Aberdeen, Bison, Brookings, Canton, Chamberlain, Clear Lake, De Smet, Eagle Butte, Freeman, Garretson, Highmore, Huron, Kimball, Kyle, Marty, Mitchell, New Effington, Pierre, Salem, Scotland, Sioux Falls, Sturgis, Vermillion and Wall.

Other meetings: Vice Admiral Rick Cheeseman, Chief of Naval Personnel; Ashish Vazirani, Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness; Roelof Botha, Managing Partner of Sequoia Capital; representatives from Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas; Colonel Robert Newbauer, Commander and District Engineer of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Omaha District; and Alexandr Wang, CEO and founder of Scale AI. I had a phone call with Secretary of Veterans' Affairs Denis McDonough.

I also attended two events this past week to discuss advancements in artificial intelligence. I moderated a panel titled "Insights on Novel Military Applications of AI" at the Hill & Valley Forum. I attended an AI Impact forum hosted by Punchbowl News, where I had a fireside chat conversation on the promise of AI and the updates in Congress to incentivize innovation, particularly in the health care field and working toward cures for diseases like cancer.

Votes taken: 4 – two of these were on a nomination for a U.S. District Judge in Illinois, the other two were on the Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act (FAA Reauthorization).

Hearings: I attended three hearings this week. One was in the Select Committee on Intelligence. The second was in the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) where we heard from Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and Director of Defense Intelligence Agency Jeffrey Kruse. I had the opportunity to ask them about threats posed by the partnership between China and Russia. You can watch a clip of that here. I also attended a Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee hearing to get an update on budget requests for the VA.

Classified briefings: I attended four classified briefings this week: One with SASC's Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities; one briefing on national security threats at the border; and one with SASC's Subcommittee on Cybersecurity. I also had a classified briefing to receive updates on the B-21 Raider stealth bomber coming to Ellsworth Air Force Base.

Legislation introduced: Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and I introduced the AI Grand Challenges Act, legislation that directs the National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish an AI Grand Challenges Program. Through this, the NSF would administer a $1 million minimum prize for national AI competitions. This would incentivize entrepreneurs to harness artificial intelligence to address measurable challenges to benefit the United States. You can read more about this legislation here.

Legislation passed: This past week, legislation I introduced with Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), the Stop Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, passed the Senate. This bipartisan legislation would stop the IRS from imposing fines and penalties on American hostages. It also applies to wrongfully held detainees. It now heads to the House of Representatives. You can read more about this bill here.

Middle Resolution Policy Foundation: Announcing our Special Guest Speaker! Get Your Tickets Today!

We are pleased to announce that Virginia's Deputy Secretary of Education, Emily Anne Gullickson, has just joined our lineup of guest speakers at our 3rd Annual Education Summit on May 18 at Maggiano's Restaurant in Short Pump starting at 9 am.

Ms. Emily Anne Gullickson, Virginia's Deputy Secretary of Education

Ms. Gullickson joined the Virginia Department of Education in 2023, leaving her position as the Founder and CEO of A for Arizona.   Under Gullickson's leadership, A for Arizona successfully advocated for nearly a dozen first-in-the-nation laws around assessment choice, expanding teacher and principal talent pipelines; seat time flexibility and innovative school design regulatory freedoms; K-12 transportation modernization; eliminating open enrollment barriers, and advising on the nation's leading school-level financial transparency portal.  As a testament to her commitment to innovation in education, Ms. Gullickson's organization launched the Expansion & Innovation Fund in 2018. This initiative awarded nearly $50 million in seed funding to 118 grantees, fostering a diverse portfolio of small learning communities, solutions to modernizing K-12 transportation, and innovative learning models that aimed to boldly reimagine education. We are thrilled that Ms. Gullickson will join our exciting lineup of engaging education entrepreneurial presenters.

Don't wait - get your tickets today!

Scott Parkinson for U.S. Senate: Two Things - Trump and Faith

There's been some more good news out of Mar A Lago!   This weekend the Trump campaign once again acknowledged during a donor retreat at Mar A Lago they're expanding the Electoral Map to include pick-up opportunities VIRGINIA and Minnesota. The Trump campaign is planning to invest in Virginia to Win Big and Avoid the Rig!    When I met with President Trump backstage at his Richmond rally in early March, we talked about defeating Tim Kaine and Joe Biden. I knew he was sincere about the opportunity of winning Virginia and this news substantiates our conversation.

I've known we can win this race against Tim Kaine ever since I saw Glenn Youngkin defeat Terry McAullife in November 2021.    When I considered running for the Senate, a close friend asked me: Why don't you wait ten years?    They talked about how I have 4 little kids. They said Tim Kaine is too powerful. He's got millions of dollars in his campaign account. He's connected with the biggest liberal donors from his time running the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Kaine was even Hillary's 2016 running-mate!    I thought to myself, we don't have ten years! We have to save our country. It's time to step up and make a difference.    Cortlynn and I prayed together about the race.    I was reminded of my favorite Bible verse. Matthew 17:20.    Jesus said, "Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."    I have the faith that we can win.    For the past 13 months, I've been planting mustard seeds all over Virginia. Our campaign is growing. And together - we can move mountains.

Gary Bauer: Attacking America, A Dangerous Movement, A Clear Threat

Attacking America Take a good look at this picture.

Above is what the statue of George Washington at George Washington University in our nation's capital currently looks like. Washington is the epitome of an American hero. He was famously eulogized as, "First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." But he is trash to the trash occupying George Washington University. This desecration is beyond disgusting. It's very telling that the first impulse of these anti-Israel protesters is to attack symbols of America. Some well-meaning students may be involved in these campus occupations. But at its core, this is an anti-Israel, anti-American, anti-Western Civilization movement. It is funded by wealthy idiots and directed by anarchists and radical Islamic groups. All the evidence is there. We just have to open our eyes. In all the years of the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King, Jr., and other civil rights leaders never lowered the American flag and raised the flag of black power. They embraced America and wanted all the promises of America to be applied equally to them. This movement on our college campuses today is full of hatred for the civilization that these students are blessed to reside in. Even during the tumultuous 60s, I don't recall such an obsession with desecrating monuments to America's founders. I have been encouraged to see young men and women on various campuses fighting back and marching to the campus flag pole to put the American flag back up and defend it from these anti-American radicals. I only wish there were many more students who felt the desire and the courage to do that. It's sad that more people in the communities surrounding the universities aren't resisting these neo-Marxists and their Islamist allies. Growing up in the Midwest, I can tell you that if someone took down the American flag at a college in Kentucky, Indiana, or Ohio, it wouldn't be down long. My father, Spike Bauer, and all the other Spike Bauers in the neighborhood, who fought and bled to save us from Nazism and Imperial Japan, would have put that flag back up and dared anyone to try to take it down again. I wonder what these misguided students think would happen in Gaza if a group of reformers who wanted a better life for the Palestinian people lowered the Hamas flag and put up the American flag. A Dangerous Movement A new Wall Street Journal report adds yet more evidence that these radical Hamas Youth protests are not "organic" or spontaneous events. These students were trained for months by extremist groups, including National Students for Justice in Palestine and the Black Panthers. Students at Columbia University also tried hosting a training session with a group called Samidoun, which is known for supporting terrorism and violence. Columbia officials twice banned the group from campus. So, students held the training seminar on Zoom. When Columbia administrators learned of the Zoom meeting, they suspended several students. This is a very dangerous movement. The evidence is all there. These are the shock troops of what many on the left hope will become an un-American revolution. Anyone with a shred of decency who is involved with these pro-Hamas protests is being used. Several commentators have noted the prevalence of masks among the student radicals. Participants in the civil rights movement weren't known for wearing masks. Anti-war protesters against the Vietnam War didn't routinely don masks. Masks are meant to intimidate and threaten people. If you hear commotion outside your home and see people in masks, your first reaction will be, "These people intend to harm me." By the way, many jurisdictions in America have laws against wearing masks while engaged in illegal activities. Those laws were passed specifically because KKK members covered their faces when they were intimidating blacks. A Clear Threat The National Lawyers Guild at Columbia Law School has issued a statement denouncing Columbia administrators for liberating Hamilton Hall from the extremist protesters. The statement contained this chilling threat, "No Jew is safe until everyone is safe, and no Jew is free until Palestine is free." Not surprisingly, the National Lawyers Guild has a history of Marxism.   Columbia Law School is one of the top law schools in America. Seven Supreme Court justices have attended Columbia Law School, including Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. If she had the misfortune of attending Columbia Law School at a time like this, she would not be free or safe on campus, and she certainly would not be reassured by angry demonstrators chanting calls for genocide with their faces covered. Insane Demands The neo-Marxist indoctrinators who run the Chicago Teachers Union are negotiating a new contract with the neo-Marxists who run Chicago, and no one is representing the normal citizens of Chicago. Most Americans agree that teachers deserve to be paid well. Of course, that assumes they are doing a good job of teaching and that students are actually learning. It's hard to argue that Chicago's schools meet that standard. Just over 25% of Chicago's middle school students are proficient in reading, and only 18% are proficient in math. Evidently, the Chicago Teachers Union isn't very good at math either. The union is demanding approximately $50 billion in additional salaries with nine percent annual raises until teachers make $145,000 a year. The entire state of Illinois raises about $51 billion in tax revenues each year. But that's not all. The union is also demanding free abortions for teachers, annual LGBTQ training, and policies that ensure parents are never informed of a child's "gender transition" at school. Just one more reason why school choice and major educational reforms are so important. Day Of Remembrance Last night, Israelis began to observe Yom HaShoah, a national day of remembrance for the heroes and martyrs of the Holocaust. While we remember the first Holocaust, we must never forget that the Islamic Republic of Iran and its allies in Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad are insisting on another one. Speaking in Jerusalem last night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that the Jewish state will always defend itself, even if it must stand alone. Here is a brief excerpt of his remarks: "Eighty years ago, in the Holocaust, the Jewish people were totally defenseless against those who sought our destruction. No nation came to our aid.   "Today, we again confront enemies bent on our destruction. I say to the leaders of the world, no amount of pressure, no decision by any international forum, will stop Israel from defending itself.   "As the Prime Minister of Israel – the one and only Jewish state – I pledge here today from Jerusalem on this Holocaust Remembrance Day: If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone. . . And I say to you, we will defeat our genocidal enemies. Never again is now!"   There's another somber remembrance event held every year at Auschwitz, the largest of the Nazi death camps, called "The March of the Living." Sadly, this year's march was marred by a disgusting display of bigotry as pro-Hamas anti-Semites waved Palestinian flags and harassed the marchers.

Save the Date: May 28th MCRW Dinner Meeting