N.D. House Update: January 18, 2021

Members of the upcoming 67th Legislative Assembly officially convened on January 5, 2021 at the state capital in Bismarck for the start of the session.

After members of the 67th Legislature heard from Governor Doug Burgum, Tribal Chairman Mark Fox and Chief justice John Jensen on Tuesday, they started the process of hearing the bills and budgets we will have before us this year.

The House Human services Committee had a number of bills on Wednesday. HB 1044 will allow the state to join in a compact with other states to allow Advance Practice Nurses move more easily between states who are in the compact. They would be able to get multi-state licenses which allows much more flexibility in working in different states. The committee gave the bill a do pass recommendation and the whole house approved it Friday.

The committee heard HB1103 dealing with campground and mobile home park license renewals but took no action. The committee also heard HB 1033 dealing with prescribing biosimilar drugs and HB1032 which deals with prescription drug transparency but took no action on either bill.

The House Energy and Natural Resources Committee heard several overviews of departments and agencies. On Thursday the committee heard the EERC Overview, reviewed the Pipeline Authority’s progress in helping to meet the needs of the state. They also had a report from the Department of Commerce on the EmPower ND plan. A report by the Transmission Authority explained some of the potential bottlenecks in exporting energy out of state.

On Friday they had an overview of the Parks and Recreation Department, the State Water Commission and the Game and Fish Department. The reports provide invaluable information that the committee will use as they make decisions on bills and resolutions during this session.

The House Appropriations Committee heard overviews from some of the largest agencies in state government last week. The Department of Human Services, the Department of Public Instruction, the Department of Natural Resources, and the State Water Commission all presented a high-level view of their budget requests for the next biennium. Each of these departments will work with one of the three divisions within House Appropriations to provide in-depth detail necessary to finalize their budgets.

The Government Operations Division of House Appropriations, chaired by Rep. Vigesaa, had their first hearings of the session on Friday. The Department of Labor and Human Rights and the Securities Department presented their budget requests to the committee. These are the first of fourteen department budgets that the GO Division is responsible for in the first half of this session. The budget for the newly formed Ethics Commission is included in the workload for the GO Division.

As we have said before, this is going to be a very different legislative session for all of us. Those of you that wish to watch videos of the floor session and committee hearings can access that at legis.nd.gov .

A legislative bill tracking system is also available on that website. The bill tracking system will allow users to follow individual bills; the legislative branch video will allow users to watch live video of committee hearings and floor sessions as well as archived and indexed committee meetings and floor sessions.

District 23 residents who wish to contact us with legislative ideas or comments on what is being discussed or proposed can e-mail us at: [email protected] and [email protected]. During the session, mail can be sent to us at: ND House of Representatives, 600 East Boulevard, Bismarck, ND 58505-0360.

If you want to leave a phone message you can call the incoming toll-free number 1-888-NDLEGIS (1-888-635-3447). For hearing-impaired individuals, the TTY toll-free number is 1-800-366-6888 to reach a relay operator.

We will also be providing weekly columns during the session. We wish to thank the weekly newspaper publishers in our District, who provide space for our columns free of charge, for making that happen.