N.D. House Update: February 15, 2021

Members of the North Dakota House of Representatives in the 67th Legislative Assembly continue to complete work in the policy committees, refer bills to appropriations or take final action on the House floor. There is a lot of work to be completed before cross-over, so there will be some very long floor sessions before we finish the first half.

The House of Representatives dealt with three major issues on Friday. They passed HB 1175 by a 77-17 margin. The bill will provide COVID-19 Liability Protection. It provides protection for business owners, property owners and tenants from frivolous civil liability lawsuits when they have acted in good faith. It also provides protection for health care facilities and providers. The bill provides a safe harbor for businesses to operate in order to serve their customers, employ their workforce and contribute to our economy.

The House also passed HB 1118 by an 88-6 margin. The bill will bring the legislature back into the mix when the governor issues an emergency declaration. The bill will stop governors from keeping Emergency orders in place for a lengthy time without involvement from the legislature. If Legislative Management decides the legislature should come back into session to act on the emergency declarations, the bill sets out requirements for the Governor to call the legislature back into session. If they do not call the legislature back into session, the state of emergency declaration ends 30 days after the request from legislative management was received by the Governor. If the Governor does call the legislature back into a special session, it must be held within 15 days of the Governor’s call for a special session. Many other states have a process to limit the time emergency declarations can be in effect without legislative involvement and the North Dakota House of Representatives believes it is time for our state to do the same. The bill now goes to the Senate for their consideration.

In other action they defeated HCR 3007 which would have terminated the present state of emergency in North Dakota declared by the governor nearly 11 months ago. Opponents said that most of the orders put in place have now been lifted. The resolution threatened federal funding of some programs, including enhanced food stamps, which could have meant a loss of nearly $14,000,000 thru June of this year, according to opponents of the measure.

Last Monday the House rejected HB 1500 which would have extended the length of time a person has to redeem their home being sold for taxes from two years to five years. Testimony indicated there was not a real problem with this issue in the state and the finance and tax committee gave the bill a do-not-pass recommendation and the whole house concurred.

House members also rejected HB 1108 which would have taken the list of expenditures for city and county governments from the minutes in the local newspaper and placed them on a government website.

On Tuesday the House defeated a bill that would have eliminated the state’s seatbelt requirements for most residents. HB 1257 was defeated by a 66-28 vote. Supporters said the government shouldn’t be tasking residents from themselves. Opponents said that seat belts save lives. The state senate passed a bill earlier this session to make failing to wear a seatbelt a primary offense instead of a secondary one, as the law stands now. The House will look at that bill after crossover.

HB 1351, which will provide a sale and use tax exemption for sales to senior citizens organizations if they meet specific criteria, was also approved by the House.

Wednesday the House gave their approval to HB 1129 which will continue the legislature’s efforts to eliminate state income tax on Social Security benefits. The legislature started the effort last session. HB1129 will eliminate the amount of social security benefits taxed for taxpayers with an adjusted gross income of $75,000 or less, $150,000 or less if filing jointly, effective with the 2021 tax year. The bill now goes to the Senate.

The Government Operations Division of Appropriations continues its review of various state agencies and their respective budgets. The Public Service Commission is a constitutional agency with statutory authority over the following: coal mining and reclamation; abandoned mine lands; energy conversion, transmission and generation siting; pipeline safety; electric, gas and telephone public utility regulation; enforcement of the One-Call law; commercial scales and measuring devices; railroad safety; auctioneers. HB 1008 is the appropriation bill for the PSC. The governor’s recommended budget is $20 million with $6.6 million being general funds. The remaining funds are federal funds and other income. The PSC has 43 employees. Biennium to date, they have sited 95 miles of pipelines, 41 miles of electric transmission lines, 200 megawatts of wind generation, 250 MCFD of gas processing capacity and 20,000 barrels/day of oil processing capacity. The Commission also licenses 331 auctioneers and tests more than 3700 commercial weighing stations. The Rail Safety Program inspectors completed more than 1500 inspections finding 10,903 defects and 126 violations.

HB 1010 is the agency funding bill for the Insurance Commissioner. The department primarily serves as a consumer protection agency for North Dakota citizens. The Insurance Regulatory Trust Fund funds the Insurance Department through all fees and fines paid by insurance companies and agents operating in the state. The department contributed $60.4 million in premium tax revenue to the state’s general fund in the last fiscal year. The budget request for the 21-23 biennium is $31.6 million and for 38 employees. The product filing division plays an important role for the state’s citizens. It reviews policy forms and rate requests to ensure policy language complies with all the laws of the state, properly reflects the benefits provided by the policy and is not deceptive or misleading. For most types of insurance, this division evaluates the premium rates companies propose to charge to ensure that the premiums are not excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory. Funding for fire departments and fire districts receive funding from the Insurance Premium Tax. This tax is collected from premiums on certain lines of insurance for fire coverage. In the current biennium, nearly $18 million was paid out to fire departments and districts and $828,525.00 was paid to the North Dakota Firefighter Association.

The Securities Department has 10 employees and has a budget request of $2.8 million in HB 1011. The primary regulatory policy objectives of the department are investor protection and the support of legitimate capital formation. Investment industry registrations include broker-dealer and investment adviser firms and their registered professionals. At year’s end, there were 1,119 broker-dealer firms, 94,935 broker-dealer agents, 791 investment adviser firms and 1,665 investment adviser representatives doing business in North Dakota. The securities department is entirely funded by the registration fees paid by these firms and agents. The department now has a team member in place responsible for conducting research, examination and investigation functions related to emerging regulatory issues driven by evolving financial technology innovations, including robo-advisers, crowdfunding, crypto assets, initial coin offerings and regulatory sandbox initiatives.

The House Human Services Committee heard HB 1415 Monday. It would allow a person to end their life, with the help of a medical provider, when terminal illness had occurred and threatens the patient’s ability to live out their life in a humane and dignified manner. The bill drew extensive opposition from the Catholic Conference and several right-to-life groups. The committee will continue to work on the legislation.

On Tuesday they also heard HB 1314 which establishes a commission on guardianship in the state to help families and others dealing with a person being placed in guardianship. Sponsors and advocates said the bill is an important first step to provide a more organized and comprehensive system to help vulnerable adults in dealing with guardianship services. Opponents believe that the programs to fix the problems are already in place and growing government is not the answer.

On Wednesday, the committee held their first hearing on HB 1420 which would legalize the use of small amounts of marijuana in the state. There was extensive testimony in support from people believing it is a personal freedom and opposition from law enforcement, the business community and some in the transportation industry. The product is still illegal under federal law and opponents pointed to several issues where they would have conflicts in dealing with federal regulations when the state had a law different than federal requirements.

The House Energy and Natural Resources Committee supported two resolutions that will be sent to the President of the United States, members of his administration and the North Dakota Congressional Delegation. HCR 3027 urges President Biden to continue oil development on federal land and on federal minerals. HCR 3025 urges the federal government to refrain from enacting regulations that threaten the reliability and affordability of electric power in North Dakota and to increase support for research, development and development for carbon-based energy generation.

The Committee reviewed and amended bill HB 1455 to provide a process for owners of electrical generation facilities to follow upon the decision of retirement of an electrical energy conversion facility. It involves the Public Service Commission in the 10-year process, so the state has some input to the plans instead of leaving everything to out-of-state boards and others. Local energy leaders, county officials and families all testified in favor of the bill and there was no opposition.

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. If you wish to watch videos of the floor session and committee hearings you can access that at legis.nd.gov .