{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://noem.house.gov/index.cfm/in-the-news?ContentRecord_id=F70CD0DE-AEC6-4674-BA2B-FF144B538140", "Argus Leader: $633B defense bill protects South Dakota interests", "2013-12-20", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "SD", "Kristi Noem", "N000184", "noem.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Lawmakers say a comprehensive, nearly $633 billion defense bill that cleared the Senate on Thursday will protect South Dakota priorities, including the long-term future of Ellsworth Air Force Base.\r\nThe Senate approved the defense policy bill late Thursday, a week after the House passed the same measure. It now goes to President Barack Obama.\r\nThe bill deals with several policy issues that South Dakota\u2019s congressional members have worked on, including covering the costs of combat pay for members of the military, funding for equipment and efforts to stop the epidemic of military sexual assaults.\r\nAll of South Dakota\u2019s delegation \u2014 Sens. John Thune, a Republican, and Tim Johnson, a Democrat, as well as GOP Rep. Kristi Noem \u2014 supported the sweeping legislation.\r\nThune said the bill will have a broad impact on South Dakota because it has a large military and retired military population.\r\n\u201cI\u2019ve always described South Dakota as punching above its weight for military service,\u201d Thune said. \u201cFor a small state, we have a pretty big impact on military readiness.\u201d\r\nThe most important element of the bill for South Dakota, he said, was including language that expresses Congress\u2019 support for building long-range bomber aircraft in the future. He said that is critical because it\u2019s a part of Ellsworth\u2019s core mission.\r\n\u201cThere are so many different weapons systems and priorities that people have when it comes to a defense bill,\u201d Thune said. \u201cThe capability for a long-range strike is something we think will be critical with the threats that are over the horizon.\u201d\r\nThe bill doesn\u2019t authorize funding for new bombers, but Thune said an expression of congressional support will send an important message.\r\nJohnson has said he supports the bill for much the same reasons. Johnson said the long-range bomber program is crucial for South Dakota and the country\u2019s strategic defense.\r\nFor Noem, the defense bill contains a personal legislative victory: She worked on language included in the final bill that addresses military sexual assaults, one of the most important pieces of the legislation.\r\nNoem drafted provisions that would strengthen investigations when they deal with sexual offenses, require a review of training on preventing sexual assaults and require defense officials to develop and define qualifications for people who are working internally on preventing sexual assault.\r\nThey are included in the final bill.\r\nNoem said she was troubled by the military\u2019s inability to deal with sexual assaults, and said she hoped the new defense bill would take important steps toward slowing the epidemic.\r\n\u201cThe women and men who voluntarily serve in our Armed Forces understand that they may be called to serve in dangerous places, but they should never face the threat of harm from their fellow service members,\u201d Noem said. \u201cThe sexual assault provisions included in the National Defense Authorization Act are not the silver bullet, but they do move us a few steps closer to winning the war against sexual assault in the military.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://noem.house.gov/index.cfm/in-the-news?ContentRecord_id=F70CD0DE-AEC6-4674-BA2B-FF144B538140"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.924915075302124, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}