U.S. Senate

Low water levels are visible at Lake Powell on June 24, 2021, in Lake Powell, Utah. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

U.S. Senate panel grapples with how to ensure access to water amid Western drought

BY: - September 20, 2023

Decades of drought in the West has made water quality and quantity a major issue requiring government funding and innovation to fix, members of a U.S. Senate panel said Wednesday. Demand for water in growing municipalities is stretching agricultural and tribal communities, while shrinking availability is leading to higher water prices, witnesses told the Senate […]

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., left, and South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, a Republican, talk to reporters in the Senate Daily Press Gallery about congressional action on artificial intelligence. (Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

U.S. Senate to examine AI’s wide-ranging impact, Schumer and Rounds say

BY: - September 14, 2023

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and South Dakota Republican Sen. Mike Rounds said Thursday they’re part of a bipartisan and private-sector consensus about the need for government oversight of artificial intelligence on a range of issues. Schumer, a New York Democrat, and Rounds held an informal bipartisan news conference Thursday to discuss […]

Dr. José-Marie Griffiths, president of Dakota State University, moderates a briefing on artificial intelligence for U.S. senators on July 26, 2023. (Courtesy of the Office of Sen. Mike Rounds)

Dakota State president moderates artificial intelligence briefing for senators

BY: - July 27, 2023

Dakota State University President Dr. José-Marie Griffiths moderated a briefing Wednesday on artificial intelligence for members of the U.S. Senate, according to Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota. Griffiths said in a news release, “With so many questions about where AI is heading and how it will change the world, it is important that our leaders […]

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, speaks during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on Sept. 28, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Patrick Semansky-Pool/Getty Images)

Senate approves Rounds amendment to block ag land purchases by adversaries

BY: - July 25, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. senators approved bipartisan amendments to the annual defense policy bill Tuesday night that would prohibit China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from purchasing U.S. farmland and screen American investment in high-tech ventures on foreign adversary soil. By a 91-7 vote (including yes votes from both of South Dakota’s senators), the lawmakers approved […]

Harleigh Walker, a 16-year-old transgender girl from Alabama, testifies before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary about how the Equality Act would protect transgender kids. (Screenshot from Senate Judiciary Committee webcast)

‘Lobbying for my right to exist’: US Senate panel examines how states target trans kids

BY: - June 23, 2023

WASHINGTON — Harleigh Walker wants U.S. senators to understand she is a typical 16-year-old girl. She likes Taylor Swift. She enjoys being on her school’s debate team. And she listens way too loudly to music in her room. “I’m just trying to be a teenager in America,” she told senators on the U.S. Senate Judiciary […]

The U.S. Capitol (Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

U.S. Senate spending panel sets funding levels for annual bills

BY: - June 22, 2023

WASHINGTON — A group of U.S. Senate Democrats on Thursday approved funding levels for dozens of federal departments for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1 — setting up a likely clash with House Republicans as a deadline approaches later this year. The move to advance the spending plan was essential if Congress is going […]

The One World Trade Center and the New York skyline is seen in the background as a man jogs through the Liberty State Park while the smoke from Canada wildfires covers the Manhattan borough on June 8, 2023, in New Jersey. (Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images)

On a record day in D.C. for smoke pollution, U.S. Senate panel debates wildfire strategy

BY: - June 8, 2023

As smoke from Canadian wildfires caused the most hazardous air conditions on record in the Washington, D.C., area on Thursday, members of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee said that Congress should lift federal firefighter pay and encourage logging to reduce the risk of future blazes. “Smoke from the wildfires burning right now […]

Farmers are increasingly having to cope with severe weather events, like wildfires, drought, hurricanes and flooding. Here, floodwaters cover a farm in Union, Nebraska, in March 2019, when damages from a "bomb cyclone" topped $1 billion. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Effects of climate change on farming, federal spending explored by U.S. Senate panel

BY: - June 7, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. senators on the Budget Committee dug into the impacts of climate change on farming during a Wednesday hearing, raising concerns about what the next few decades hold for food production and the way of life. But Republicans and representatives of farm groups pushed back against increased government regulation. Brent Johnson, president of […]

The U.S. Capitol building is seen on Oct. 22, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

U.S. Senate sends Biden debt limit legislation ahead of Monday default deadline

BY: - June 1, 2023

WASHINGTON — The bipartisan debt limit bill is on its way to President Joe Biden after the U.S. Senate voted Thursday to clear the measure for his signature. The 63-36 vote followed several amendment votes, all of which were rejected. Biden is expected to quickly sign the package, preventing a default on the debt that […]

Activists call on President Biden to not resume student loan payments and to cancel student debt near the White House on Dec. 15, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Paul Morigi/Getty Images for We, The 45 Million)

U.S. Senate votes to block student loan relief, White House will veto

BY: - June 1, 2023

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to overturn the Biden administration’s one-time student debt relief plan that is on hold due to a pending Supreme Court decision. President Joe Biden has vowed to veto the resolution, but the 52-46 vote (with yes votes from South Dakota Republican Sens. John Thune and Mike Rounds) […]

Service technicians work to install the foundation for a transmission tower at the CenterPoint Energy power plant on June 10, 2022, in Houston, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Speedier permitting of energy projects gains bipartisan backing on U.S. Senate panel

BY: - May 11, 2023

Members of both parties on the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voiced their support Thursday for reforming the federal process for approving energy projects, saying it should be prioritized to secure domestic energy supply and boost renewable energy. There is bipartisan interest in revising the permitting process and members of both parties have […]

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colorado, speaks to reporters following a meeting with House Republicans at the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 3, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

U.S. House GOP wants spending cuts — and also $10B in home-state earmarks

BY: and - May 10, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans have requested more than $10 billion in earmarks to be included in next year’s appropriations bills, despite demanding massive spending cuts as a contingent for raising the nation’s debt ceiling. All but a handful of House Republicans barely pushed through a bill that would temporarily raise the U.S. borrowing limit, […]