Weekly Round[s] Up: March 16-22, 2026

Welcome back to another Weekly Round[s] Up. 

We had a long week here in DC. During this past week, I met with several South Dakotans, attended multiple briefings, voted eight times, introduced two pieces of legislation and participated in several interviews.

Normally on the weekends I travel back to South Dakota to visit with folks from around the state. However, votes on the SAVE America Act and Senator Mullin’s confirmation kept us in D.C. this weekend. On Saturday, I spoke on the Senate floor in support of the SAVE America Act which I have cosponsored. During my remarks, I discussed the double standards when it comes to showing identification in everyday life in America. For example, you need a photo ID when you open a bank account, rent a car or board a plane. This winter you even had to show two forms of identification to shovel snow in New York. American elections should be for American citizens only and the SAVE America Act takes steps to secure our elections. You can watch my full floor speech here.

Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) remains unfunded. Despite Democrats having 14 opportunities to fund the department, they continue to play politics with the safety and security of the American people. Now more than ever we need a fully funded DHS; airports are in chaos, families are going without pay and the potential for terrorist attacks goes up each day the department is unfunded. Funding DHS is not optional.

More on this and the rest of my week in the Weekly Round[s] Up:

South Dakota groups I visited with: South Dakotans with Breakthrough T1D; Impact Schools of South Dakota; Rapid City Youth City Council; Carrie Heberlee, National Association of Postal Supervisors; South Dakotans with American Coalition for Ethanol; Dr. Brian Tande, President and Ralph Davis, Vice President for Research at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology; American Council of Engineering Companies of South Dakota; Sheila Gestring, President of University of South Dakota and Chris Kassin, Senior Executive University of South Dakota Foundation; and Lee Strubinger, Research & Reporting Director, John T. Vucurevich Foundation.

Met with South Dakotans from: Baltic, Brookings, Dell Rapids, Garretson, Pierre, Rapid City, Sioux Falls, Vermillion and Wentworth.

Other meetings: Rwanda DNSC; Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe; Darren Guccione, CEO and Co-Founder of Keeper Security; Steve Vintz, CEO of Tenable; General Frank Donovan, Commander, U.S. Southern Command; Kristen Davies, Chief Information Officer, Department of War; and General Anderson, Commander, U.S. Africa Command.

I also attended our weekly Senate Bible Study on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Senator Mullin (soon to be Secretary Mullin) spoke at our weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast.

Legislation Introduced: This past week, I introduced the Investments in Rural Transit Act, legislation that would help rural transit providers improve their services. You can read the press release on this piece here. I also introduced the Small Business Investor Capital Access Act which would increase access to capital for small businesses and entrepreneurs by modernizing outdated securities regulations. You can read about that here.

Hearings: This past week, I attended a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing and a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing titled Worldwide Threats. This one one of our only Intelligence hearings that is not classified! You can watch my questions to CIA Director Ratcliffe here.

Briefings: I attended one classified briefing with the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Airland.

Votes taken: 8 – As noted earlier, we spent much of this past week debating and voting on the SAVE America Act. As a cosponsor of this legislation, I fully support this bill. Additionally, I voted in support of an amendment to this legislation that protects women and girls in athletics by banning biological men from women’s sports.

I also voted on a procedural motion related to Senator Mullin’s nomination to serve as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. We hope to confirm him this week.

This past week, I voted to fund DHS once again, and once again it failed due to opposition from Senate Democrats. There have now been 14 opportunities to fully fund DHS, but Senate Democrats continue to block fully funding this department.

There was also a vote to remove United States Armed Forces from Iran via a War Powers Resolution, which I voted against. Iran has been rebuilding their offensive capabilities in order to harm the United States and our allies. We take any military actions seriously, especially boots on the ground in the Middle East. However, this threat from Iran is not going away and we must make certain that we’re in a position to defend our nation from those who wish us harm.

Lastly, I voted to confirm Anna St. John as United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Steps taken: 61,438 steps or 29.61 miles.

Video of the Week: On Wednesday I joined Fox Business to talk about the conflict in Iran, click here to watch.