This is Standard Republican Policy. Is This What You Want?
Forget the slogans. Judged by what they voted for, what they did, and what they refused to stop, this is what Republicans in Congress stand for, on 20 issues, with the receipts.
Articles about Mike Rounds
Republicans Cut Medicaid by Nearly $1 Trillion. They Scheduled the Pain for After You Vote.
The Big Beautiful Bill cuts Medicaid by close to $1 trillion over 10 years, and the Congressional Budget Office says the law will leave 10 million more people uninsured. Republicans made sure the biggest cut doesn't start until 2027 — after the midterms. 198 Republicans on this site voted for it.
Chris Smith Led 128 Republicans in Asking for a Federal Probe of Planned Parenthood. They Asked Whether It 'Illegally Received $88 Million.' Nobody Has Found That.
Chris Smith co-led a 128-Republican letter — signed by 103 Republicans on this site — asking HHS's inspector general to investigate Planned Parenthood. It describes an SBA eligibility review of pandemic loans as a probe into whether affiliates 'illegally received $88 million' — months after the last attack on Planned Parenthood's funding closed nearly 30 clinics.
Republicans Tied a Weak Stock Trading Ban to a Voter ID Law. It Failed. One Republican Says That Was the Plan.
86% of Americans want members of Congress to stop trading stocks. Republicans glued the ban to a strict voter ID law, so it died in the Senate 53–47 on September 30. Fifteen Republican senators on this site voted to advance the package, and many of them have stock trading problems of their own.
Nine Americans Were Killed in the West Bank. These Republican Senators Voted Not to Even Ask What Happened.
On September 29, the Senate voted 47–51 against forcing a vote on asking the State Department for a report on nine U.S. citizens killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers since 2022. Fourteen Republicans with report cards on this site voted no.
13 Senate Republicans Voted to Keep a Trump Rule That HHS Says Will Cost Up to 2 Million People Their Health Insurance
On September 29, thirteen Republican senators on this site voted to keep a Trump administration rule that makes Obamacare coverage harder to get. HHS itself estimates the rule could cost 1.2 million to 2 million people their health insurance.
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Mike Rounds flies private on your dime #maga #southdakota #corruption
South Dakota Senator Mike Rounds spent more taxpayer money on travel than any other member of the United States Senate, including over $625,000 on luxury private charter flights, nine times what the other senator from his own state spent on private planes.
Mike Rounds Spent More Taxpayer Money on Travel Than Any Other Senator — $625,000 of It on Private Charters, Mostly From a Company Whose Owner Gave Him $4,000
Between October 2024 and March 2026, Mike Rounds' office spent more on travel than any other Senate office, including more than $625,000 on charter planes. Each charter leg to Minneapolis ran about $6,000; a round-trip commercial ticket from Pierre to Washington often costs $500 to $1,000.
The House Voted to End Trump's Iran War. On September 24, 14 Republican Senators We Track Killed It by One Vote.
The House passed a resolution ordering U.S. forces out of the Iran war in July. The Senate finally voted on it September 24 and it failed 49-50. Fourteen senators on our report cards voted no — including Jon Husted, who said two days earlier the war 'needs to come to an end as quickly as possible.'
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Mike Rounds is writing the Senate's AI rules while Big Tech pays him
South Dakota Senator Mike Rounds is writing the Senate's rules on artificial intelligence while taking handouts from the Big Tech companies he's supposed to be regulating.
Twenty-Four Republicans on This Site Have Refused to Debate Their Opponents This Year. Cliff Bentz Turned Down Four Invitations.
Updated October 15: David Rouzer skipped a UNC Wilmington forum and Russell Fry backed out of an NAACP forum six hours before it started; Tom Cotton's only agreed debate fell through. October 12: Keith Self, asked on national TV whether he would debate, called the district 'my seat.' October 10: Cliff Bentz declined four debate invitations because accepting would make his opponent look 'credible,' Jim Pillen called debates 'theater,' and Julie Fedorchak pulled out of North Dakota's public TV debate. Earlier: Jeff Hurd declined televised debate invitations and agreed to one 30-minute session before a friendly audience instead. John McGuire says he'll debate when his opponent apologizes for raising a BlackRock sale the disclosure records in his wife's retirement account. They join fourteen Republicans we have already documented ducking the one event they can't script.
Mike Rounds Helps Write the Senate's AI Rules. AI Money Has Now Put About $815,000 Into His Reelection Race.
Wired found outside groups — mostly a super PAC funded through Andreessen Horowitz — have spent about $600,000 backing Mike Rounds, and he's taken roughly $215,000 more straight from employees and PACs of AI labs and other tech companies. Rounds co-wrote the Senate's AI roadmap, and AI executives see him as 'a top supporter of the industry.'
Mike Rogers, Mike Rounds, Tom Tiffany and Rick Jackson All Turned Down Debates This Week. Three of Them Said They Were Busy Talking to Voters.
In four states, in three days, four Republicans on this site said no to a debate or forum their opponent was ready to do. A Michigan Senate debate went on with an empty podium, South Dakota's public broadcaster aired its Senate debate without the senator, and a second Wisconsin governor's debate was canceled.
Mike Rounds Pays His Senior Adviser More Than $153,000 a Year. Meta and a Tobacco Giant Were Paying Him Too.
Robert Skjonsberg has worked for Rounds for over a decade and is a registered South Dakota lobbyist for more than a dozen clients, among them Meta and Altria. Senate rules say a staffer at his pay grade may not affiliate with a firm that sells professional services — and he is listed as a co-owner of one.
Fifty Republican Senators Voted Against Even Debating an End to the Boat Strikes. A Year Into the Campaign, 227 People Are Dead in a "Year of Murders".
Five weeks into the boat strike campaign, the Senate voted on whether to pull U.S. forces out of a fight Congress never authorized. It failed 48-51. Fourteen Republican senators we track voted no, and thirteen of them voted no every time it came up again.
Fourteen Republican Senators We Track Confirmed RFK Jr. After He Said His Samoa Trip Had 'Nothing to Do With Vaccines.' He Had Already Written the Prime Minister Asking to Study Samoa's MMR Vaccines.
The AP and the Guardian obtained a January 2019 letter in which Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asked Samoa's prime minister to let his team study the country's MMR vaccines. He told senators the trip had nothing to do with vaccines. Fourteen Republicans we track voted to confirm him.
Republicans Are Coming for IVF and Surrogacy. Twenty-Five of the Ones We Track Signed the Bill.
Five state Republican parties have added anti-IVF language to their platforms. In Congress, the SAFE KIDS Act would void surrogacy contracts with citizens of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea — and 25 Republicans with report cards here put their names on it.
Congress Gave ICE $70 Billion and No Rules on Conduct. Now ICE Is Buying Electric Shock Gloves.
ICE plans to spend up to $20 million on gloves that deliver painful electric shocks — ten times what Susan Collins points to as the de-escalation reform that justified her vote. Here are the 201 Republicans with report cards on this site who voted for the money.
Mike Rounds Traded a Handshake for His Vote. A Year Later, Most Tribal Radio Stations Say They'll Be Gone Within a Year.
Rounds said he wouldn't vote to claw back public broadcasting money until the White House promised $9.4 million for tribal radio. He voted yes. The promise lasted one year, and now most of the stations say they will close without more.
45 Republicans We Cover Broke the Law That's Supposed to Stop Insider Trading in Congress
The STOCK Act asks members of Congress to do one thing: tell us what they bought and sold, within 45 days. Forty-five of the Republicans on this site couldn't manage it — some by years. The penalty is $200, and it's often waived.
A State Had to Sue the Federal Government to Investigate Child Sex Crimes. Three Days Later, 50 Republicans Promoted the Man It Sued.
New Mexico sued the Justice Department on August 5 for stonewalling its criminal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein's ranch. On August 8, the Senate confirmed Todd Blanche as attorney general anyway.
At 4:17 in the Morning, 50 Republican Senators Handed the Justice Department to Trump's Former Personal Lawyer
Todd Blanche was confirmed as attorney general 50-49 before dawn on Saturday. Fourteen Republicans we track voted yes — and thirteen of them had already voted to put him at the Justice Department once before.
At 4:36 in the Morning, 52 Republican Senators Voted to Advance a New Hurdle Between You and the Ballot Box
Before leaving town for a month of vacation, the Senate held an overnight vote on a brand-new photo ID bill written by Ohio Sen. Jon Husted. It failed. Fifteen Republicans we track voted to advance it anyway.
Mike Rounds Handed South Dakota's Green Card Program to a Private Company. Investors Lost $100 Million, a Cabinet Secretary Died, and He Got to Answer the Legislature in Writing.
As governor, Rounds privatized South Dakota's EB-5 visa program. A state employee gave the contract to a company he secretly owned, a beef plant swallowed $100 million in foreign money and went bankrupt, and the cabinet secretary at the center of it killed himself six days before a grand jury.
South Dakota Locks Up More of Its People Than Any Democracy on Earth. Mike Rounds Voted Against the Prison Reform Law Trump Signed.
The First Step Act cleared the Senate 87 to 12. Mike Rounds was one of the 12. Eight years later, South Dakota is breaking ground on a $650 million prison and half the people it releases come back.
ICE Is Reading Your Posts. Congress Paid for It.
A Wall Street Journal investigation found ICE is paying contractors millions to scan social media around the clock, then using subpoenas to unmask Americans who criticize the agency. Nobody has been charged. That may be the point.
14 Republican Senators Just Voted to Let Your Child Care Bill Go Up
Trump's HHS scrapped the rule capping child care copays at 7% of a family's income. On July 30 the Senate had a chance to undo it. These 14 Republicans we track voted no.
The Senate Has Now Voted 13 Times on Ending the Iran War. These 13 Republicans Voted No Every Time It Mattered.
On July 30 the Senate came one vote short of forcing a debate on Trump's unauthorized war with Iran. These 13 Republican senators we track voted no — a week after the House told the president to get out.
52 Republican Senators Just Voted to Hand ICE Nearly $70 Billion
In the early morning of June 5, the Senate voted 52-47 to pour nearly $70 billion into ICE and Border Patrol with no oversight, no transparency, and a new slush fund for punishing 'non-cooperating' cities. Here are the senators with report cards on this site who voted yes.
12 Republican Senators We Track Just Voted to Keep Us in Trump's Iran War
One day after the Senate told Trump to get U.S. forces out of the Iran war, these Republicans helped block a second resolution — handing Trump a win and ducking Congress's duty to decide on war.
197 Republicans Voted to Spike Your Health Insurance Premiums
The Senate blocked the fix and the House passed a fake one. Here's every Republican we track who voted to let ACA premiums spike.