South Dakota Senate approves longer wait for officials turning state jobs into private employment

Sen. Tim Reed, R-Brookings, speaks in the South Dakota Senate on Jan. 28, 2026, at the Capitol in Pierre. (Photo by Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight)

PIERRE — The South Dakota Senate approved a bill Wednesday that would make state officials involved in a big contract with a company wait longer before accepting a job with that company.

The 34-0 vote sends the bill to the state House of Representatives.

Under current law, state officers and employees involved in awarding or overseeing a contract with a company must wait one year after leaving government before taking a job with the company.  

The bill would extend the waiting period to two years for contracts worth more than $5 million, after it was amended by the Senate. The bill originally proposed a two-year wait for contracts over $1 million. 

Company that hired state’s former head of economic development benefits from $69 million in aid

Bill sponsor Sen. Tim Reed, R-Brookings, said the amendment was necessary because the state handles many million-dollar contracts, and he did not want the extended wait to apply to routine matters.

The amendment also adds a waiver process allowing a governing body to authorize earlier employment in limited cases, requiring written authorization that becomes a public record and is filed with the state for review. 

Reed filed the bill in response to South Dakota Searchlight reporting about former state economic development commissioner Steve Westra. A year after leaving state government, Westra took a job with CJ Schwan’s. While working for the state, Westra had signed the first pledge of state aid benefiting construction of the company’s $550 million, 650-employee food production plant in northern Sioux Falls. State aid benefiting the project now totals $69 million worth of tax rebates, loans and grants. 

Reed has said repeatedly that Westra followed the law as it stands currently.

“The bill does not allege wrongdoing by any individual in the past,” Reed said Wednesday. 

Reed also said the bill is not meant to slow or second-guess economic development efforts.