Legislative Report: N.D. House January 23, 2023

The second week of the 68th Legislative session is coming to a close today with a number of bills beginning to hit the floor for final action. As of this morning 376 House bills have been filed. This is a similar number to the previous session. In the House, we have until next Wednesday to introduce bills for this session. The Senate does have an additional week to introduce bills in their chamber.

We broke into section in the Appropriations Committee this week and we just completed an overview of the Agency budgets we will hear in the first half of the session. A common theme in every overview is the lack of workforce in our state in every area of employment. I believe this is one of our most serious issues to address and to begin to make progress in developing and retaining workforce will depend on our ability to address the issue in a comprehensive fashion. Included in this will be academic and career technical training, licensing reforms and less burdensome regulations in that area, competent salaries, and childcare options for working parents.

In the overview of the Public Health division of the Health and Human Services budget, a request for a new State Laboratory is included at a cost of $55 million. The current lab is in a state of disrepair and with the work that is done at the lab with analysis of the work of the Health Division as well as the environmental testing that is required by the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), we will be challenged to consider this request. We are very fortunate in N.D. that the DEQ has primacy in the regulatory responsibility of air quality in the energy sector of the state. If they did not have that authority, federal EPA would be responsible for that authority and limit the excellent working relationship that DEQ has with the industry to responsibly monitor the oil and gas production in our state.

In the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DOCR) they are requesting a new women's prison on the grounds of the YCC in Mandan. With that addition, addiction and behavior health treatment would be increased with partnerships from the Penitentiary staff as well as access to more providers in the Bismarck-Mandan area than that in New England. Access to healthcare would be improved as well. The population in the current facility is at the maximum level at 126 beds and projections are that a significant growth is continuing to take place. Our committee will study the need for this new facility proposal and try to balance the need and the cost to make a recommendation to the full legislature to consider.

Beginning next Monday, we will begin the process of detailing the budget of the Public Health Division and will be in committee most of the week in that process. We plan to have public testimony on Thursday for citizens of the state to comment on programs in this budget. I invite those of you that have interest to follow us in our committee work or in the public testimony part to give your thoughts or suggestions in our deliberations of the process. We will take testimony on a virtual basis for public testimony so I invite you to participate.

Until next week, if you have any thoughts, ideas, or suggestions, please contact me at [email protected]. Have a great week.