Dusty Johnson on China, challengers and continuing compromise

Despite the mounting chaos of an election year and the recent frenzy to fund the federal government, South Dakota's lone Rep. Dusty Johnson says he has continued to focus on some big priorities — like China and the southern border.

It took six months of delays and four stopgap measures, but as of early Saturday morning, the U.S. government is fully funded — at least until September.

South Dakota's all-Republican congressional delegation — Sens. John Thune and Mike Rounds, along with Rep. Johnson — all voted in support.

The $1.2 trillion funding bill passed the House Friday morning with a 268-to-134 vote before heading to the Senate, where it passed 74-to-24 just after the midnight shutdown deadline. This second round of legislation funds departments like State, Defense and Homeland Security. Combined with the $459 billion partial-appropriations bill passed March 8, total spending for the fiscal year comes to about $1.65 trillion.

Johnson was cautiously optimistic, saying Congress won't be able to right-side federal government spending all in one take, but should work to make progress each year.

"The spending bills cut $2 trillion over the course of the next five years. We are finally getting back into a situation where we are reducing non-defense, non-V.A. spending," Johnson said. "It's been...I can't even remember the last time government in D.C. cut defense spending. But we did it."

Funding for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan was not part of the legislation. The $95 billion, Senate-passed national security bill that would provide funding to those allies has yet to be considered in the House.

Johnson said there is broad bipartisan support to provide "lethal aid" to American allies, but funding for their governmental operations is harder to shore up support for.

"When it comes to helping Ukraine, Taiwan, Israel defend their borders with ammunition — with bullets and missiles? That is still broadly supported in D.C.," he said. "I have every expectation that Congress is going to provide lethal aid — bullets and missiles — for our allies here in the next few weeks."

Defending borders is a top priority for Johnson and many of his House colleagues.

Johnson has repeatedly called the U.S. southern border situation an "abject disaster," all while recognizing Republicans aren't likely to get "the perfect solution."

H.R. 2, the most comprehensive and conservative border policy to pass a chamber of Congress, Johnson said, is that solution.

It passed the House in 2023 without any Democratic support and features provisions like requiring the use of an E-Verify system for employers to confirm the legal status of their employees, changing the process to seek asylum and building a 900-mile section of border wall while providing funding to border forces being set up in states like Texas.

"We do have to figure out a way to work with the Senate to be able to get something done," said Johnson, who helped author the legislation. "I mean, we have an absolute crisis at the southern border, and shame on us if we don't figure out a way to stop the insanity down there."

The House voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in February, with Johnson voting twice in favor of impeachment. At the time, Johnson told the Journal Mayorkas had "disregarded his duty," adding his belief that "our country has been less safe because of the decisions of Secretary Mayorkas."

Mayorkas' articles of impeachment are set to go to the Senate for a trial; reporting by The New York Times said House Republicans have waited to deliver those articles until the government funding bills were resolved.

While government funding may be out of minds and headlines at least for a while, the House still has immediate issues to address.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-G.A.), an outspoken and hardline conservative, filed a motion to vacate against House Speaker Mike Johnson following Friday's vote, which required significant cooperation with Democratic colleagues.

Mike Johnson, the Louisiana Republican elected to succeed Kevin McCarthy after his own ouster last October, will likely have to deepen that bipartisan cooperation going forward, as two departures — Ken Buck of Colorado and Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin — will whittle the Republican majority to 217-213.

That razor thin line would mean the Speaker could only afford to lose a single Republican vote in any legislation Democrats unite against.

Dusty Johnson called McCarthy's ouster "a giant waste of America's time," and slammed his House contemporaries for distracting from their priorities. When asked to take the temperature of another ouster, Johnson seemed skeptical, saying the motion to vacate "isn't all that different" from what his colleagues do on a regular basis.

"In any given day, you've got plenty of members of Congress who are trying to make a point," Johnson said. "And Marjorie (Taylor-Greene) has certainly been comfortable making points, whether it's at the State of the Union address, or by filing legislation, or by filing this motion to vacate."

He hasn't read the motion, but said another ouster would again throw the House into chaos and handicap their ability to pass meaningful legislation.

"We've got real big boy, big girl work to do," Johnson said. "I think we need to stay focused on securing the border."

Countering China

Johnson, who sits on the Select Committee on China, has made corralling the Chinese Community Party a hallmark in his congressional career. He introduced the Block the Tok Act in Sept. 2022, which would have prohibited the app from accessing U.S. user's data from within China, and expressed support for Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley's No TikTok on Government Devices Act, banning the download or use of the app on government-issued devices.

The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, legislation Johnson co-sponsored, would remove the app from U.S. stores and web services unless its owners divest from parent company ByteDance, which is owned by the CCP.

It isn't a ban, Johnson clarified, saying it's more about control and malign influence rather than the app's content.

"During the height of the Cold War, we never would have allowed the Soviets to purchase the Rapid City Journal, the CBS Evening News, KOTA and the L.A. Times," Johnson said. "We just would have understood how wrong it would be to give a foreign adversary that kind of control over the American public square."

Johnson even went so far as to say he hopes and expects TikTok will continue as a platform — just not under the control of the Chinese Communist Party. That sentiment is a shift from earlier this month, when he wrote in a column, "TikTok is a bad app, and many agree with me that it is malware from the Chinese Communist Party."

Thirty-nine states have enacted legislation restricting TikTok on government devices to some degree, including South Dakota.

In Nov. 2022, Governor Kristi Noem issued an executive order banning the app on state-owned devices, writing at the time on X, "South Dakota will have no part in the intelligence gathering operations of the Chinese Communist Party."

Noem, Johnson and the rest of South Dakota's congressional delegation have been regularly outspoken about Chinese influence, not only in terms of data-gathering but in land ownership and global shipping markets as well.

Last week, Noem testified in front of the House Ag Committee regarding the danger Chinese influence poses in American agriculture. She had harsh words for the CCP, reiterating they are neither friends nor allies, instead a "rapidly expanding national security threat."

According to reporting by South Dakota News Watch, China spent roughly $1.4 billion a year to purchase soybeans, dairy products and meat raised in the state in 2022.

"Let me be clear. China is buying up our entire food supply chain. When America can’t feed itself and relies on another country to feed us, it becomes a national security issue," the governor testified. "The country that feeds us controls us."

Johnson highlighted his working relationship with the governor, saying, "I think governing your country has to be a team sport." Noem and Johnson worked together in 2023, with the governor endorsing Johnson's PRC Accountability and Divestment Act, legislation that would give state governments the ability to divest taxpayer funds from China.

Beyond apps and ag, Johnson has looked to the sea to counter Chinese influence.

His Ocean Shipping Reform Act became law in June 2022, providing for more transparency in Federal Maritime Commission operations and protecting U.S. shippers from discrimination in cargo space accommodations.

The Ocean Shipping Reform Implementation Act — or Ocean Shipping Reform 2.0 — was introduced last spring and builds upon OSRA's foundation. It passed the House last week with a vote of 393-to-24.

The bill prohibits U.S. ports from using Chinese state-sponsored LOGINK software and allows the FMC to investigate foreign shipping exchanges like the Shanghai Shipping Exchange to preempt improper business practices.

Americans need to be smarter about how we use data and protect it, Johnson said about the Chinese push to implement LOGINK software worldwide.

"Once American shippers and ocean carriers are on this data system, all that data is collected. I mean all of the information about cargo — where it's going, when it's delivered, who the customers are," Johnson said. "It is an incredible amount of information that we would be turning over to the Chinese Communist Party."

Despite being land-locked, South Dakota is deeply invested in international shipping. The Rushmore State exports about $6.7 billion worth of goods and services to foreign countries each year, the overwhelming majority from agricultural products, according to reporting by South Dakota News Watch.

Johnson vs. Johnson

A Sioux Falls Democrat announced her intention to run against Johnson for his lone House seat this year.

Sheryl Johnson, the Democrat Chair of District 11 and a former area educator, cited the "do-nothing" nature of Congress in her March 6 announcement. She also lamented a lack of decisive action on immigration issues and attacks on women's reproductive rights.

In addressing the incumbent, Johnson said she believes the Congressman has stopped listening to his constituents and is instead parroting the Republican Party line.

Rather than directly address her remarks, the third-term Representative said he'd prefer to let his record speak for itself — voting 72 times to secure the border, voting against $13 trillion in unnecessary spending and voting "hundreds of times to rollback this ridiculous regulatory state," he said.

"I think you see from Sheryl Johnson's announcement that she is interested in having a federal government that is more and more involved in people's life. That's what I've been fighting against," Johnson said. "I think we've got too much federal government. And I think voters in South Dakota are going to have an opportunity to decide what worldview they are more comfortable with."

Sheryl Johnson is the only Democrat to announce for the race. So far, Dusty Johnson is the only Republican to announce a run for House.

South Dakota's primary is June 4. The U.S. general election is Nov. 5.

The U.S. House of Representatives will reconvene April 9.