It’s day 35, and we are just returning from crossover, when all Senate bills must be heard, voted on, and sent to the House. It’s the same procedure for the House bills. The Senate will be passing 307 bills over to the House this session compared to the last session when we sent 252 bills to the House. The House is sending us 315 this session compared to 242 last session.
I did sponsor a variety of bills that are now in the House with hearings scheduled. One deals with the cost of audits for our commodity groups. The prices of the audit had recently gotten expensive. Working with the auditor, we came up with a good compromise to save those groups money but still get the audit done to provide the transparency necessary for our producers.
Another idea brought to me for introduction is an attempt to provide healthcare savings through nonprofit agricultural membership organizations. The idea isn’t new, and Tennessee, Iowa, Kansas, and now South Dakota have programs started. In checking with our Insurance Commissioner, he has not found any issues in those states with the program. This isn’t something that will be available tomorrow as much work needs to be done to implement the program to ensure it is viable.
I have mentioned that SB 2146 will designate Highway 91 as North Dakota’s shortest highway. The highway is on the west side of Harvey, totaling .284 miles, and I thought it interesting that the only way to get state designation is through the legislative process.
Senate Bill 2365 is also a study regarding township participation in the national flood insurance program. The Insurance Commissioner is working with me on this issue, so everyone with flood insurance knows they are covered.
We are off to a busy start. Thanks for all your messages.
Stay tuned.