Mike Rounds

Of 3D-printed weapons, Rounds has said, “This is a new technology which you’re not going to put back into the bottle. It is there.” He has suggested creating and using new technologies, such as metal detectors that can also recognize plastic, in schools, airports and other public places.

In February 2019, Rounds was one of 20 senators to sponsor the Employer Participation in Repayment Act, enabling employers to contribute up to $5,250 to their employees' student loans as a means of granting them relief and incentivizing people to apply for jobs with employers who implement the policy.

Rounds opposes the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), and has voted to repeal it. In 2019, he said he supported lawsuits seeking to overturn it.

Rounds opposed the FIRST STEP Act, a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill that Trump signed into law. The bill passed 87–12 on December 18, 2018.

In March 2018, Rounds co-sponsored the Israel Anti-Boycott Act (s. 720), which would make it a federal crime for Americans to encourage or participate in boycotts against Israel and Israeli settlements in the West Bank if protesting actions by the Israeli government.

In 2017, Rounds was one of 22 senators to sign a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Rounds has received over $200,000 from oil, gas and coal interests since 2012. Rounds supported embattled Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, who had come under scrutiny because of extraordinary expenditures for personal security and luxury travel, and the appearances of ethical conflicts, defending him on Meet the Press. Calling the criticism "nitpicking," he said, “I don’t know how much of it is overblown and how much of it is accurate, to be honest.”

In 2014, he was elected to the United States Senate, succeeding retiring Democrat Tim Johnson.

State officials misused funds to pay for their salaries, did not disclose that they owned companies which they gave contracts to, directed money to companies that went bankrupt and arranged for loans from unknown sources from shell companies located in tax havens. In October 2014, Rounds admitted that he had approved a $1 million state loan to beef packing plant Northern Beef shortly after learning that Secretary of Tourism and State Development Richard Benda had agreed to join the company, with Benda then getting another $600,000 in state loans that was ultimately used to pay his own salary. Benda committed suicide in October 2013, days before a possible indictment over embezzlement and grand theft charges.

On November 29, 2012, Rounds launched a campaign for the seat being vacated by Johnson's retirement. He won the June 2014 Republican primary, defeating four other candidates. Early polls showed Rounds leading by a 2–1 margin against Democratic opponent Rick Weiland. October 2014 polls showed a closer three-way race between Rounds, Weiland, and independent former Senator Larry Pressler. Independent conservative former state legislator Gordon Howie was also in the race.

In May 2011, Rounds's alma mater, South Dakota State University, gave him an honorary doctorate for public service.

Rounds's 2010 Initiative established ten research centers at state-supported universities. In the program's first four years, the state's first five research centers generated an estimated $59 million in federal and private funding, with an estimated $110 million economic impact.

Rounds served as a member of the Governors' Council at the Bipartisan Policy Center. He was the 2008 Chair of the Midwestern Governors Association.

Speculation persisted that in 2008 Rounds would seek the United States Senate seat held by Tim Johnson, a Democrat who had served since 1997, but he passed.

The Rounds/Daugaard ticket was reelected on November 7, 2006. The results were as follows:

On February 22, 2006, the state legislature of South Dakota passed an act banning all medical abortions except those necessary to save the mother's life. Rounds signed the act on March 6 and the ban was to have taken effect on July 1, 2006, but did not, because of a court challenge. A referendum on repealing H.B. 1215 was placed on the ballot for the November 2006 statewide election due to a petition. On May 30, over 38,000 signatures were filed, more than twice the 17,000 required to qualify. Voters repealed the law on November 7, 2006, the day of Rounds's reelection.

According to a January 2006 Survey USA poll, Rounds had an approval rating of 73% and a net approval rating of +52%, which placed him among the five most popular governors. Following the abortion ban, again according to a SurveyUSA poll, his approval rating dropped to 58%; after the ban was repealed, his approval rebounded to 70%.

As the 2002 race for governor took shape, media and political observers largely dismissed Rounds as an extreme long shot. Until late 2001, then-Congressman John Thune was the front-runner for the nomination. When Thune passed on the race to challenge Senator Tim Johnson, state Attorney General Mark Barnett and former Lieutenant Governor Steve T. Kirby quickly became candidates.

Rounds was elected governor on November 5, 2002. The results were as follows:

Rounds represented Hughes, Lyman, Stanley, and Sully counties. In 1993, he became Senate Minority Whip. In 1995, his peers selected him to be Senate Majority Leader.

Rounds represented District 24, which was based in Pierre. In 1990, he defeated incumbent state Senator Jacqueline Kelley, 53%–47%. He was reelected in 1992 (60%), 1994 (77%), 1996 (66%), and 1998 (75%). Rounds had to leave the Senate in 2000 because of legislative term limits South Dakota voters had passed in 1994.

During Rounds's administration, South Dakota offered green cards to foreign investors in exchange for investments in a new South Dakota beef packing plant and other economic investments through the EB-5 visa program the federal government established in 1990. After the beef packing plant went bankrupt, questions emerged about the nature of the investments and the foreign investors. Some investors received neither their EB-5 visas nor the money back from their failed investments, with no indication as to where their money went.

While attending South Dakota State University, Rounds met his wife, Jean, formerly of Lake Preston, South Dakota. They were married in 1978 and have four children. He is the older brother of Tim Rounds.

Marion Michael Rounds (born October 24, 1954) is an American businessman and politician serving as the junior United States Senator from South Dakota since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 31st governor of South Dakota from 2003 to 2011, and in the South Dakota Senate from 1991 to 2001.