Legislature

North Dakota's Senate Majority Leader believes the number of Legislative districts should remain at 47.

A special committee on redistricting will start its work later this summer, and will redraw the lines based on Census data that will become available in August. The committee will also discuss the number of districts.

Sen. Rich Wardner (R-Dickinson) said he believes 47 has worked very well for Legislative districts. Wardner also said at 47, some rural districts will be lost, and areas with growing population will see districts added.

North Dakota’s Legislative Management Committee has chosen the issues lawmakers will study over the 2021-2022 interim.

"We have 50 studies that were approved for this upcoming biennium," said Sen. Raymon Holmberg (R-Grand Forks), the committee's chairman. "Last biennium, we had 47. So there wasn't much of a change in that regard."

Holmberg said there will be 25 or 26 interim committees. But he said there are some committees established in the past that won’t be around this time.

The Legislature has approved the budget bill for the state Commerce Department, after lawmakers rejected a proposal for a one-time $5 million grant for a proposed amusement park in Jamestown.

The $5 million would have to be matched, and the developer could then approach the state Investment Board for further money, through loans or grants. It would be built on state owned land near the National Buffalo Museum.

An attempt to introduce a delayed bill by bringing it to the House floor failed.

It required a two-thirds vote of the House.

Rep. Sebastian Ertelt (R-Lisbon) made the motion for the delayed bill, which was not discussed in a delayed bills committee. The bill would have prohibited employers from requiring so-called “vaccine passports” of their employees.

A day earlier, the House passed a so-called “hog house” bill that would have prohibited state or local governments from requiring businesses to mandate those vaccine passports.

The budget bill for higher education is normally one of the last bills the Legislature acts on before adjournment.

But not this time.

Sen. Ray Holmberg (R-Grand Forks) told the Senate that in presenting the bill, as the House amended it, he was channeling Julius Caesar.

"Veni, vidi, vici," Holmberg said. "To use my vernacular -- we came, we saw, we concurred."

The comment drew laughter from the Senate chamber.

The Senate had earlier passed the bill unanimously.

A bill designed to allow the Legislature to nullify federal laws has itself been nullified.

The measure would have allowed the appointment of a Legislative interim committee to review new and existing federal laws, and recommend to the Legislature that they not be followed.

Rep. Lawrence Klemin (R-Bismarck) chairs the House Judiciary Committee. Klemin told the House he believes the bill –HB 1282 – is itself unconstitutional.

A bill to change the time in North Dakota has run out of time.

The House rejected HB 1371. It would have put the entire state on year-round Daylight Saving Time. It would be dependent on Congress okaying it, and if Minnesota, Montana and South Dakota did the same.

The bill’s main sponsor – Rep. Bill Devlin (R-Finley)  – didn’t like the amended version.

"I never expected a leader like the state of North Dakota would have to wait for three other states to do something before we could do it," Devlin said on the House floor.

North Dakota lawmakers may be coming back to Bismarck this summer for a special session, dealing only with how to spend federal money coming from the America Recovers Act.

The state will be receiving more than $1 billion.  The question is: How can the state spend those funds?