Up until now, the Legislature has used the Office of Management and Budget bill as a “catch-all,” where technical corrections could be made to already-passed legislation, as well as ideas rejected earlier in the session could be revisited.
The state Supreme Court found the OMB bill — SB 2015, passed in the 2023 regular session — unconstitutional, for violating the "one subject per bill" clause.
That cause the October special session, where the OMB measure was split into 14 bills — seven appropriations, seven policy.
Now, Legislative leaders are looking at what might happen in future Legislative sessions.
"We go pretty fast during a regular Legislative session," said Senate Majority Leader David Hogue (R-Minot). "And we make mistakes, because we're human."
Hogue said the leaders are looking at how to correct those mistakes, within that Constitutional framework.
"There will have to be a bill, where there will be technical corrections," Hogue said. "I don't know how else you deal with that."
Hogue said calling a special session to correct mistakes lawmakers realize during the regular session isn't ideal.
House Majority Leader Mike Lefor (R-Dickinson) said it this could lead to more “delayed bills," which have to be approved by committee, or by a two-thirds floor vote, to be introduced.
