N.D. House Update for Feb. 18, 2019

The 66th Legislative Session has moved into the stage where we are spending longer periods of time on the floor, as we complete our work by crossover. We expect some evening work this week or next. Committees are also extremely busy finishing their bills. Several pieces of legislation in every committee have been in sub-committee as we try to work out our differences. All bills that have a hearing in a committee must be voted on by the full House during a floor session.

The Appropriations Committee will continue to meet for extended hours as they work on the bills coming from the policy committees. As they have been throughout the first half of the session, they continue to deal with the budget bills that are in the House. The budget bills passed by the Senate will be in the House in the second half and the ones we have dealt with will go to the Senate.

The House Human Services Committee completed their work on several medical marijuana bills. Because they are amending an initiated measure in the first seven years, they will take a 2/3 vote by members of Legislature to pass any of them.

The committee combined the language in different bills to expand the medical conditions that would allow patients to use medical marijuana. Some of the thirteen new conditions covered included opioid withdrawal, anxiety disorder, migraines, rheumatoid arthritis, autism spectrum disorder and several others. If the bill goes through both chambers and is signed by the Governor, nearly 30 medical conditions will be covered in North Dakota.

The committee also approved the use of edible products. They provided the Health Council with the authority to regulate the form, packaging and marketing of a cannabinoid edible product to limit any products that we packaged to look like products that might be attracted to children like gummy bears or similar products. They also directed the council to prohibit the marketing of a cannabinoid edible product to a minor.

The committee changed the way medical providers tend to medical marijuana patients. The legislation still requires a strong medical provider-patient relationship. The provider must still certify that the patient has one of the conditions allowed to be covered under the law, but they no longer must certify that the patient may be helped by medical marijuana. Some providers were very reluctant to certify the patient's condition may be helped by the product, when there were no medical studies to rely on when making that recommendation. Medical providers allowed to certify use, subject to their scope of practice are medical doctors, physician assistants and nurse practitioners.

Another bill of interest expanded the list of places that an abandoned infant can be dropped off, with no legal ramifications, in a community, subject to approval by the local board of commissioners. Among the places listed in HB 1285 are hospitals, certain law enforcement agencies and county social service offices.

The Government Affairs Division of Appropriations continues there work on various budget bills. HB 1012 is the agency funding bill for the Department of Transportation. The recommended appropriation for the 19-21 biennium is $1.43 billion of which 52 percent are federal dollars and 48 percent are special funds. There are no general funds requested in this budget. The special funds are mainly comprised of income from fuel taxes, motor vehicle registrations, and driver’s license fees. NDDOT is reducing their employee count by 42 as this bill is passed over to the Senate. This will be their lowest FTE count in many biennia. There are 106,978 miles of roadway in the state so being able to have enough funding to meet the required federal match is critical. It is estimated that $739 million federal dollars are available. There are several state highway projects slated for the District 23 region over the next two years.

HB 1021 is the most complex agency bill that the Government Operations Section of the House Appropriations Committee is working on during the first half of the session. The executive recommendation is for many information technology employees throughout state government to be unified within the Information Technology Department (ITD). HB1021 is the budget bill for ITD. Currently, most state agencies house their own technology department, 145 employees would be transferred to ITD under this plan. As mentioned in a previous column, the development of the statewide interoperable radio network (SIRN) is also being managed by ITD. North Dakota’s StageNet technology information network is akin to a Fortune 30 company with over 225,000 users over state government, political subdivisions, K-12 schools and the university system. Thus, cybersecurity is a main emphasis within their budget request, citing the need for additional FTEs and funding.

The Energy and Natural Resources Committee is completing their work on various bills. They gave a do pass recommendation to HB 1320 which will allow municipal water systems to purchase water from the Red River Valley Water Project, when it is completed, in the emergency type situations.

The committee continues work on HB 1366 which will allow the use of a telescopic sight on a crossbow to any individual who is blind, is a paraplegic or has the lost the use of one or both arms.

They also passed HB 1412 which will give landowners and people that lease the land some additional options for using newer electronic equipment to control predators at night on their land.

Friday morning the committee gave final approval to HB 1462 which will allow youth with life-threatening illnesses to hunt specific big game with certain nonprofit organizations which receive a special license. The youth will be able to use any weapon approved for the species in any season. Under the law they could use a gun in an archery season, but only on private land with written permission.

The committee also continues to work on HB 1192 which will put definition of the ordinary high-water mark along navigable bodies of water in the century code instead of administrative rules. The feeling of the bill sponsors is that it needs to be in code to provide certainty to landowners, mineral rights owners and others dealing with land along the waterways.

District 23 residents who still wish to contact us with legislative ideas or comments on what is being discussed or proposed can email us at: [email protected] and [email protected]. Mail can be sent to us in Bismarck; c/o North Dakota House of Representatives, State Capital, 600 East Boulevard, Bismarck, ND 58505.

During the session constituents that wish to leave a message for us may call 1-888-635-3447.