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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 for it anyway.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Senate blocked the fix and the House passed a fake one. Here's every Republican we track who voted to let ACA premiums more than double.
