Gov. Noem Press Conference 1-21-2021

Good morning everyone. Thank you for being with us today. It's been a busy start to the legislative session. I wanted to go over a few of the bills that we've introduced this week and that are still coming before I take your questions. On Tuesday, I signed an executive order that will merge the Department of Agriculture with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. As all of you know, the new name of that department will be called the Department of Ag and Natural Resources and the merger will take effect 90 days after that executive order. The budgets and the two departments would be merged combining on July 1st and Hunter Roberts will be the secretary of the new department and the Lieutenant Governor Larry Rodin will continue to be the agriculture ambassador throughout the state. We did this merger for several reasons. Number one, I wanted to set up a one-stop shop for our ag producers. Agriculture is our number one industry in the state and we have some redundancy between the two departments that we can consolidate and make it much easier for them to navigate our regulatory processes and programs that they use on a regular basis. We also will be saving taxpayer money by being able to reduce those costs and full-time employees going forward. As Scott VanderWaal, the president of South Dakota Farm Bureau said, you know, the agriculture industry is continuously evolving and this is going to help facilitate that kind of involvement that will allow us to make it much more efficient for our farmers and ranchers going forward. In addition to the merger, yesterday I announced and introduced two pieces of legislation that will permanently extend health care flexibilities that we introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the state of South Dakota. The first one had to do with flexibilities that we built into telehealth and the ability for folks to access health care through that modern mechanism and then also recognition of out-of-state licenses for health care workers. Now with telehealth, we've seen these types of services get accessed over 70,000 times just in regards to our South Dakota Medicaid system. We've seen very few people come up with problems with that. It's facilitated the delivery of health care through that program and we think it's a good thing to make permanent. The second piece of legislation that has to do with recognizing out-of-state licenses allows us to get people moved into the state of South Dakota and get them licensed so they can immediately get to work in delivering health care and meeting a lot of our workforce needs we have in that area. We know that all these flexibilities work. We haven't heard any concerns about the implementation of those and so we're going to continue to move forward and build on those innovations to make sure that South Dakota's health care system remains excellent and providing the care that it's known so well for. Today I'm going to be introducing two more bills. We're introducing legislation authorizing the Department of Agriculture to construct building the Dakota Events Center in Huron at the South Dakota State Fairgrounds. We call that facility the Dex Building and we plan to have it up and running by the 2022 State Fair. This is going to be a world-class complex that will be able to host regional and national rodeo and livestock events. I'm excited about the possibility that we'll have to market South Dakota to events that today we just don't have a facility to host but we need to continue to work and be aggressive to get it up and going by the time we get to the 2022 State Fair and so that's why today we're introducing a bill that will allow us to hit the ground running and additionally I'm introducing a bill today that will protect the privacy rights of donors who give to charitable organizations. You'll be getting a press release from my office shortly on the details of that legislation and the construction of the Dex Building today. Now tomorrow my office will be introducing legislation to ease the permitting process for home builders and homeowners in the state of South Dakota. As you all know South Dakota's housing market is booming. New constructions are up 160 percent compared to the national average and we have housing and construction employment is up by 10 percent in our state. People are moving to our state because they value our quality of life and the respect that our government shows its citizens and that's tremendous news but we also don't want home ownership or home construction to skyrocket and so what we'll be doing is following a protocol that we utilized last year for counties and implementing it at the city level. Last year we passed a bill that streamlined zoning restrictions at the county level so this bill will mirror that in that it will allow those same types of flexibilities and innovations to happen at the city level. This will help keep our housing costs affordable for South Dakotans while spurring supply to meet the increased demand from people that are moving to the state and you'll all be getting a press release from my office tomorrow on that piece of legislation. Now before I turn it over to questions I just want to remind you that everything that we do and that I do as governor and my office puts forward is focused on families and allowing them to be safer to be healthier and to be stronger and the bills that I'm working on this week accomplish that goal. With the Department of Ag and Natural Resources merger it's going to give our state's largest industry success far into the future. With the health care flexibility legislation it's going to allow our already excellent health care systems to take better care of the folks that live here in our state. The Dex building will be a game changer for Huron and for the livestock industry in our state and our ability to market it and the zoning bill will allow our communities to continue to grow and families to build their homes and to live while keeping costs down for South Dakotans. Strong families lead to strong communities and strong communities lead to a strong state and that is my goal each and every day. So with that I'll open it up to any questions that you may have for me today. Austin Goss, Dakota News Now. Sure. Governor you attended the inauguration yesterday and I just would like to ask did you have a chance to interact with the the new president or vice presidents or members of their administration and what do you hope that that relationship is like between South Dakota and the federal government now especially after they decided to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline yesterday? Yeah I did not have the chance to interact with the president or vice president or any members of the cabinet but I am hopeful that we'll find ways to work together that's good for the people of South Dakota. Governor. We'll go here first. Thank you. Since 16 and President Trump's election, Republicans have lost the House, the Senate, the presidency. What's the status of the Republican Party? You've talked about soul searching. What's the new direction? Well I've spoken specifically about Republicans focusing on joining together and focusing on doing what's best for families and for people and keeping our word on policies that we've long embraced. I think a lot of what we've done in South Dakota this year is what Republicans believe. Respecting people's personal responsibility and also focusing on balancing a budget which we do in South Dakota each and every year being fiscally responsible and then protecting and valuing life. So you know in our state I think we lead by example and I'm proud of what the families here in South Dakota are doing together to be successful. Lee. Thank you. During your State of the State address you had brought up a proposal to ban abortion on you know pre-born children with Down syndrome. The one abortion clinic in the state does them until 13 weeks and six days and most don't know whether pre-born children have Down syndrome until about the 16 to 20 week period. What would this bill accomplish? This bill would prevent doctors from knowingly performing abortions because of a diagnosis of Down syndrome. So specifically if that diagnosis is given and the doctor knowingly performs that abortion because of that diagnosis it would have a punishment for them. And real quick one follow-up. You have a super majority in both chambers. Why stop at Down syndrome? Well I think that this is an important bill to have a conversation around and this is my priority this legislative session. Governor Steven Gross from the AP. I know another initiative that you had mentioned is the school curriculum related to civics and history. Some education groups have said that the current curriculum is fine. They're doing a great job. Why does the current curriculum need to change? I think a focus on civics and history is incredibly important. This initiative that I'm proposing will bring more resources to teachers. It will give them more options for curriculum. It'll have a specific focus hopefully on South Dakota's history and allowing that to be taught in our schools on a more widespread basis. So this is something that I think as we look across the state, across the country, the ability to have a civil debate and to articulate thoughts and the facts around our history is incredibly important and this is something that teachers and schools will value having in their classrooms. If I can ask a kind of tangential question. How do you think historians will look at President Trump and his role in the insurrection of the capitol? Well I'm not an expert in predicting how historians will view something. I have continuously focused on the policies that the Trump administration pursued and what they accomplished and overwhelmingly they were good for South Dakota. They lowered our taxes, allowed us to keep more money in our pockets, reduced regulations on small businesses and families so that they could put more affordable food on the table. They passed a lot of provisions that were incredibly important for our agriculture industry which is our number one industry in the state. The trade agreements that were reached were incredibly important. He kept his word on his relationship with Israel and moving the embassy to Jerusalem. There were so many things that he said he would do that he campaigned on in 2016 that he followed through on and I appreciate those policies. And if I could just, his role in contesting the outcome of the election and the mob that ended up breaking up into the capitol, do you think he had responsibility or a role to play in that? Well what happened in January 6th was horrible and should never happen again in this country. What I want to do is look forward and make sure that we continue to have fair and transparent elections that people can trust. Yeah governor, in the state of the state you did not talk about marijuana. Marijuana? Yeah. Okay. So one, I'd like to hear your views on that issue and then secondly, you're fighting the constitutionality of the recreational marijuana amendment. So I'd like to hear your views on that as well. Well there is ongoing litigation in regards to marijuana and the implementation in the state of South Dakota but we're still doing work to be prepared. So our department of revenue, our department of health and other agencies are working to make sure that when this comes to be and the medical marijuana is in force and statute and if the recreational comes through the court system and is implemented that we're ready to go. Our public safety department has been heavily involved in making sure that we're prepared for what we might see from other consequences and effects of the law that was passed. But this litigation has some valid points going forward. It will not be resolved before session is over so that's why we're working with legislators to make sure that we're adequately prepared and that the planning is there to implement responsibly if necessary. Austin Goss, Dakota News Now. Governor, I want to circle back to the telehealth care reform and you know being able the licensure with doctors. It seems like a lot of your policy proposals coming to this legislative session were lessons learned from COVID. Can you talk a little bit about that? Maybe what you've learned from COVID and some of those legislative priorities outside of those two that would come from COVID? Well because of COVID-19 we did several executive orders over the last year to streamline a lot of what government does and how we take care of people and also to make things more flexible to allow for social distancing and people to stay home but still get their work done. What I told my staff to do and my policy experts was to go back and look at all those executive orders and see which ones make sense to keep and then codify them and put them in statute. And so that's really what we're doing by allowing our health care workers to come into the state and get to work immediately meets not just a short-term goal that we've had this last year but long-term it makes sense to make sure that they can contribute to that workforce. Arielle, I'm going to go to Abby quick and then I'm going to come to you. Thanks. So I just want to kind of circle back to civics and history. You said you want to have a specific focus on South Dakota's history. What sort of like historical events or principles do you want to sort of like bring to the forefront with that? Well to determine what that curriculum is or what events are told is not something that I will decide. That is something that will be put forward by historians to tell all events of South Dakota's history and I think it's incredibly important though that our kids and our grad kids understand American history, South Dakota history, and that they're well-rounded in their background to have the debate and the policy proposals going forward for generations to come. Arielle? Yes, am I unmuted? Yep, you are. Go ahead. Okay, great. My question is I have two questions but one is what is your reaction to Biden canceling the presidential permit for Keystone XL but also what steps are you going to take to try to you know change his mind or you know is it going to be to sue? Is it going to be to wait for the next admin? What's your strategy? Well I'm very disappointed. Yeah, I'm very disappointed that President Biden has used his executive order privilege to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline. I think it's the wrong policy on energy, it's the wrong policy on the environment, and it's the wrong policy on safety. Over the years we've debated this pipeline and vetted it on all of those elements and this pipeline is not only just creating jobs and helps us secure an affordable energy supply, it also is safer for our environment. That has been proven over and over that it is safer for people and the towns that these trains and trucks are passing through with our energy supply versus a pipeline and it also is something that's incredibly important to make sure that we have our soil and water protected as well. There's those history has proven over and over again that the way we are transporting our energy supply today is compromised in many areas and it would be safer through this pipeline. And the second part of that is what's going to be your strategy to try to get it built? Well we'll continue to have conversations with the administration and I'm not certain if we have other options at this point. It still continues to remain a priority for me but I'm certainly focused on what I can do here in South Dakota. Patrick did you have a question? South Dakota broadcasters, we've seen a leadership change in both chambers of the legislature this year and we we have a lot of incoming freshmen. Can you just describe the tone, your working relationship, how that early first two weeks has gone? Yeah I think it's gone great. You know the first beginning weeks of session are always a little slower. People are still introducing their bills but debate is being had and we're talking about priorities and I think the leadership teams have been doing a fantastic job making sure that they're tackling the state's work. Jonathan I'm going to go to Lee in the room and then I'll come to you. Do you think the fireworks at Mount Rushmore will continue and will you invite President Biden to that? Yes absolutely. I'd love to have President Biden at Mount Rushmore on July 3rd with the fireworks as well. I'm hopeful we'll be able to keep them. I think we proved last year that we can have an event that focuses on our independence as a nation and that also can be celebrated safely and protect our forests and people can attend and also protect our water supply and soil. Go ahead Jonathan. Thanks Governor. Hey a month ago you said that it was a quote disservice that the investigation in the Attorney General's accident wasn't completed. We're a month past that now. Has your office been apprised of what's going on? Why that investigation is hung up and what would you call it today? I'll continue to call it a grave disservice to the family. I'm disappointed that we haven't seen some action taken by the state's attorneys involved and hope that certainly soon that they will. We make inquiries on a regular basis and have gotten no answers. This is Mark with the Pioneer. Go ahead Mark. Today is the annual tourism conference awards. In light of the pandemic this year, was there a group of a person who rose to the top of that list as being deservative of an award? Oh my goodness. I'd hate to single out any one person and we're certainly going to be recognizing individuals at this banquet. So I'd love to visit with you after this but again I'm going to focus in light of the fact that we faced a pandemic that was unprecedented. Our Secretary of Health, Kim Malsom, rised and did a fantastic job coordinating with every agency and department and industry to help them continue to operate while protecting the people that were involved. Last week in the schedule you had an op that ran calling the two newly elected senators in Georgia communists. Do you regret those remarks? I think that when we look at that situation with those two individuals we need to look at their history and what they have said and what they've chosen not to say in the past and examine them and their belief system and see if that lines up with America's values. Any further questions? Steven go ahead. Thank you. You mentioned a piece of legislation protecting privacy rights for donors. Can you tell me what the problem was that you were trying to address with that and if you're concerned that that would affect transparency which was a key initiative of your administration? Well to clarify it is a piece of legislation that would protect identities of those giving to charitable organizations not donors and nobody involved with politics or government and a press release will be coming out in a little bit for you that you'll be able to look at that will answer those questions. Have a good day. Thank you.