SD Congressional Delegation is Unresponsive to Agriculture Issue

Agriculture is the number one industry in South Dakota.

You might think that it would be “job number one” for South Dakota’s Congressional Delegation: Senators John Thune and Mike Rounds, and Representative Dusty Johnson. You might be mistaken.

On December 26th of last year, I wrote about the USDA planning to restrict the use of antibiotics by cattle producers. In that article, I reported that I had made contact with our Senators and Representative about this important Ag issue. As of this date, I would give them ALL a failing grade.

Rep. Dusty Johnson: No response. AWOL

Senator Mike Rounds office responded almost immediately with this response:

I appreciate you contacting me. Whether you have concerns about legislation, need help with a federal agency or want my office to assist with an upcoming trip to Washington D.C., I am excited to hear from you.

This is just to let you know we’ve received your e-mail and a specific response will be forthcoming.

You may also wish to explore www.rounds.senate.gov which provides information about my policy positions and general information about my office.

Thank you for the privilege of serving you.

Sincerely,

Mike Rounds

Nearly a month has passed. Not a word from Senator Rounds.

Senator John Thune must have a larger budget for his staff. I got a personal call (after a couple weeks). At first, I was encouraged, but that was short lived. A very pleasant female staffer (who had no clue about the issue) assured me that they would “keep my concerns in mind”. How nice. I assured her that was NOT what I was looking for. The conversation was very cordial, but I CLEARLY communicated my request to her. I want to know what the Senator HAS DONE and/or IS PLANNING TO DO on this issue. It was obvious, that IF it’s even on the Senator’s radar, she didn’t have the foggiest idea. Her mission was to make me feel like my concern mattered to them.

Senator Rounds just “patted me on the head”, through a low-level staffer.

My hope is that some Representative from some other state might actually take the lead on this issue and prevent the USDA from further restricting Ag producers as they manage their livestock in a responsible manner.

Senators Rounds and Thune and Rep. Johnson are busy with “other business”.

*** Supplemental note after publication of this article *** Coincidentally, after this article was published, I got a call from a Johnson staffer, and a Rounds staffer both told me they had not made a decision on this issue. Both need to do their “due diligence” on this issue, but that I could “call back” to see what they were doing and what their position is. I pressed them several times before they agreed that they would call me back and tell me # 1. what position they take on the issue, and # 2 what they do about it. Frankly, I’m not very optimistic. The bottom line is that NONE of the three members of our Congressional delegation have been willing to take a position on this important agricultural issue.