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NEWS From The Legislature
Read moreAs we finished week 6, we are now 2/3 done with the 2020 legislative session. This week Thursday, February 27th is Cross Over Day in which every bill has to be moved out of the legislative body it originated in and then go to the other chamber for action.
Read moreMARK 8:13-15 “And he left them, and entered into the ship again and departed to the other side. Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf. And he charged then , saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and the leaven of Herod.”(KJV)
Read moreRocky Blare, reporting from the Senate in Pierre. This week I was fortunate enough to have three bills pass from committee and will be considered on the floor. Representative Finck and I are sponsoring HB 1084 which increases the allowable height for vehicles carrying baled feed up to 15 feet and it passed unanimously. The bill is headed to the Senate, if it passes the Senate and signed by the governor it will go into effect immediately.
Read moreSouth Dakota is the best state in the nation to do business. We have a lot of great things going for us – low taxes, low regulations, a strong work ethic – but we must constantly work to expand our horizons and advance our communities. We’re aggressively pursuing new industries and businesses that create goodpaying jobs for our kids and grandkids. As we do that, we must also take a close look at existing issues that may hold back progress.
Read moreThe Senate recently voted to acquit the president of the two Articles of Impeachment sent to us by the House of Representatives, falling 19 and 20 votes short of the 67 needed to remove him from office. I voted against the articles of impeachment, in keeping with the constitutional intent our framers expected.
Read moreThe U.S. Senate has only confronted a presidential impeachment trial three times in American history. The first was President Andrew Johnson’s trial in 1868, which reflected the lingering divisions of the Civil War. The second was President Bill Clinton’s trial more than 130 years later in 1999. At that time, I was serving South Dakota as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. I assumed and hoped that would be the last time I would be involved with the very rarely used impeachment provision in the U.S. Constitution. Regrettably, it was not.
Read moreLast week I watched a “Gunsmoke” where some
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