Weekly Round[s] Up: December 7-14, 2025
Welcome back to another Weekly Round[s] Up. Starting off with some exciting news: my legislation, the Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial and Sacred Site Act, passed the Senate unanimously on Thursday afternoon. This bill will place the 40 acres of land at the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre into restricted fee status, meaning it’s held in trust by the Oglala Sioux and the Cheyenne River Sioux tribes to be preserved for the next generation. It now heads to President Trump’s desk to be signed into law. We also announced my nominees for the 2025 Angels for Adoption award, Emily and Riley Krause from Brandt. The Krauses have opened their home to several foster children and are the adoptive parents of Livia.
On top of these highlights, I kept busy with many meetings, briefings and votes. It was a productive week in D.C. and I was fortunate to end it by visiting with folks in Sioux Falls. More on the rest of my week in my Weekly Round[s] Up:
South Dakota groups I visited with: Stephen Williamson, Associate Vice President at Southeast Technical College Foundation; Marcus Warnke, South Dakota State Forester; South Dakotans with New York Life; and Lorraine Polak, South Dakota State Director of USDA Rural Development. Lorraine was previously on my team as a Housing Policy Specialist. It was nice visiting with her this past week and exciting to hear about the good work she is continuing to do for South Dakota.
Met with South Dakotans from: Pierre, Rapid City, Sioux Falls and Watertown.
Other meetings: Members of Parliament of Latvia, Ainars Latkovskis and Janis Dombrava; Directors of the Department of Energy National Laboratories; the Honorable Thomas Silberhorn, German Member of Parliament; Builders for Tomorrow Fund; Dr. Torsten Kroeger, Chief Science Officer and Jennifer Wall, General Counsel at Intrinsic Innovation; Charlie Scharf, CEO and President, Wells Fargo; and two members of the Finnish Parliament.
Briefings: I attended multiple briefings this week including two closed Senate Select Committee on Intelligence briefings, one on the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, and another on U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
Hearing: This week I attended a hearing with the Senate Committee on Armed Services where we received testimony on the Administration’s deployment of the National Guard across the United States. You can watch me question Mr. Charles L. Young III, Mr. Mark R. Ditlevson and General Gregory M. Guillot here.
Passed Legislation: On Thursday evening, my bill to preserve the Wounded Knee Massacre grounds unanimously passed the Senate and is now on track to be signed into law by President Trump. My bill, the Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial and Sacred Site Act would place 40 acres of land at the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre into restricted fee status, making certain that the land is held by both the Oglala Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes for generations to come. Read more on it here.
Announced my Nomination for Angels in Adoption Award: This past week, I announced that I nominated Riley and Emily Krause of Brandt for the 2025 Angels in Adoption award, presented by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption (CCAI). Emily and Riley Krause fostered eight children before adopting Livia and are currently working toward their second adoption. Read more about the nomination here.
Senate Prayer Breakfast: On Wednesday, Senator Cassidy spoke at our weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast.
Votes taken: 12 – This past week I voted on nominees Robert Chamberlin, to be U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Mississippi, William Crain, to be U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana, James Maxwell II, to be U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Mississippi (Yeas). I also voted on authorizing the en bloc consideration of nominees (Yea) and on the motion to proceed on the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act. I voted against Senator King’s Health and Human Services Administrative Procedure Act CRA and Senator Schumer’s Biden-Covid Era Subsidy Extension (Nays). To close the week, I voted for the Health Care Freedom for Patients Act of 2025 (Yea).
Democrats do not have a feasible plan to lower health care costs. They would rather continue to use the same broken policies that have made health care unaffordable. Extending COVID-era Obamacare subsidies for 3 years without Hyde amendment protections, which prohibit federal funding for abortions, is a nonstarter for Republicans. Senate Democrats have known this all along. I look forward to continued discussions with my colleagues on how to address the high cost of health care.
My staff in South Dakota visited: Aberdeen, Brookings, Deadwood, Lead, Spearfish and Sturgis.
Steps taken: 65,748 steps or 30.05 miles.
Video of the Week
Click the image below to learn more about the Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial and Sacred Site Act that recently passed the Senate and is heading to President Trump’s desk to be signed into law.
