Rounds says around 500 people in South Dakota have reached out over DOGE cuts

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – Senator Mike Rounds says his office has been looking into recent DOGE cuts in the state and in some cases working to reverse the cuts.

Rounds said Monday about 500 people in South Dakota have reached out about federal program cuts. The senator says he’s following up on each case independently, going directly to cabinet members and finding out if the cuts should be reinstated. Rounds says he’s had success in getting a number of cuts reversed.

“As we find something that was broken, we go back in, and we say, ‘look, are you aware that this particular office is closed? An FSA office, perhaps, or are you aware that you’ve shut down an office for one of our tribes and it’s the only office that you’ve got for that tribe., And in those cases, they’ve come back and say ‘oh no, we don’t realize that, that’s probably something that we need to address,’” explained Rounds.

Rounds also pointed to National Institute of Health websites that were reinstated after nurses reached out to his office. Overall, Rounds expressed support for the goal behind DOGE and cutting the size of the federal government, but the senator said he wants to make sure mistakes aren’t made along the way.

The senator was asked what his message to President Trump would be so that mistakes would not be made to begin with.

“He made it pretty clear himself, that he wanted DOGE to take a more surgical approach. We’re hoping that they’ve heeded his recommendation and his advice,” said Rounds.

Dan Ahlers, executive director of the South Dakota Democratic Party, criticized the cuts, saying the cuts have been disorganized and are not surgical.

“You can try and undo some of these cuts, but it’s not flipping a light switch. You just can’t shut it off and turn it back on. For those people that they just let go, are you going to want to come back to a job that you don’t know you have any security?” explained Ahlers.

Ahlers says he wants to see South Dakota’s federal delegation meet with all South Dakotans.

“You’re talking to people that might support you or won’t cause you any problems or won’t question what’s happening. You can sing all you want to the choir, but we really need to be listening to all South Dakotans. We really need to be focused on those people that have been impacted by these cuts,” said Ahlers.

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.

Copyright 2025 KOTA. All rights reserved.