Senate Aide’s Lobbying Side Gig Raises Ethics Questions

A senior staffer for Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) has quietly worked as a lobbyist for Meta and other high-profile clients — an unusual agreement that experts say raises questions about ethics and possible conflicts of interest.

Robert Skjonsberg, who has worked for Rounds for over a decade, is registered to lobby the South Dakota Legislature on behalf of more than a dozen clients, according to previously unreported state records reviewed by POLITICO. He’s also listed as a “co-owner” and “founding member” on the website of 605 Strategies, a South Dakota-based government affairs firm founded in 2012, though the firm is not listed on the records. 605 Strategies did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In addition to Meta, Skjonsberg is also listed as an “active” registered lobbyist for tobacco giant Altria, conservative think tank the Freedom Foundation, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers and several agriculture trade groups like the South Dakota Dairy Producers and South Dakota Pork Producers.

Rounds has introduced several bills related to AI since Skjonsberg registered to represent Meta last year, including one that would establish a commission to study the impacts of AI on the workforce. Rounds, who sits on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, has also worked on legislation that could impact the ag trade groups that Skjonsberg lobbies for in South Dakota. He introduced legislation this year to create new grazing land for the cattle industry and restrict individuals and entities controlled by foreign adversaries from purchasing agricultural land and businesses in the U.S., for example.

Rounds spokesperson Dezmond Ward told POLITICO his office’s general counsel “consulted with the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics, which provided guidance to make certain there was and is no conflict of interest.” “Senate Ethics guidance continues to be followed today,” he said in a statement. Skjonsberg did not respond to POLITICO’s questions about the scope of his work for Meta and other clients and his work for Rounds. A senior staffer for the ethics panel also did not respond to a request for comment.

According to Senate ethics rules, staffers earning an annual salary higher than $25,000 and employed for more than 90 days in a calendar year may not “affiliate with a firm, partnership, association, corporation, or other entity for the purpose of providing professional services for compensation.” The rules also bar such staffers from allowing any firm or corporation to use their name and from performing paid outside work during regular office hours in the Senate office they work for.

Staffers making more than $151,661 per calendar year may not “receive compensation for practicing a profession which involves a fiduciary relationship” or be paid for affiliating with a firm or company “which provides professional services involving a fiduciary relationship,” per Senate ethics rules. Rounds’ office paid Skjonsberg more than $153,000 in the last 12 months on record, according to Senate records reviewed by PI, but he didn’t meet the threshold that would make him subject to those restrictions in calendar year 2025.

Skjonsberg, who managed Rounds’ first Senate campaign in 2014, served as the South Dakota Republican’s chief of staff from 2015 to 2022 before transitioning to the role of “senior advisor.” State records show he has been a registered lobbyist in South Dakota since 2023.

“It’s wholly inappropriate for somebody who’s working as a Senate staffer to be lobbying, [even if] it’s only at the state level, because you can’t draw this line or wall between all the kinds of information you gain,” said Meredith McGehee, an independent expert on congressional ethics who previously led nonprofit watchdog group Issue One. “To me, this is pretty much a no-go, and it’s an outside employment that should not be permitted.”

AEM told POLITICO in an email that it has not worked with Skjonsberg since March 2026, and Meta spokesperson Andy Stone likewise said Skjonsberg’s contract with the company ended after the statehouse wrapped up its 2026 legislative session in March. A spokesperson for Altria did not respond to POLITICO’s request for comment; nor did spokespersons for the South Dakota Dairy Producers and South Dakota Pork Producers. The Freedom Foundation declined to comment.

“It poses the most obvious conflict of interest I can imagine,” said Craig Holman, a lobbyist at left-leaning nonprofit advocacy group Public Citizen. “Serving a public official, you’re supposed to be working on the public’s behalf, but then simultaneously working as a hired lobbyist, you’re now working also on some private special interest’s behalf and getting directly paid for it.”

Andrew Howard contributed to this report.