Reporting this week: Sen. Jerry Klein

The 66th Legislative Session is off and running. We have had the presentations from the Tribes and the Judiciary, and the Governor provided his vision in the State of the State.

The first few weeks are generally a fury of activity with the legislature up against a number of deadlines for bill introduction. The final deadline for introduction is January 21st.

North Dakota is a bit unique as every bill that is introduced has a hearing and eventually a vote on the chamber of introduction floor. Many bills are ideas or concerns brought to us by citizens from our various districts. As these bills are heard in committee, the committee needs to determine how it will impact the state. Is it constitutional? How much will it cost? How does it affect our current statutes? There are many questions that get asked before the committee provides a recommendation and sends it on where the entire Senate or House body will vote on the bill. It’s a great process that gives every citizen a chance to voice their opinion.

As for how many bills are currently introduced, at the time of this writing, the Senate has 166 bills introduced this session as compared to 143 bills in 2017. If you take a look over in the House, they have 332 bills introduced this session compared to 172 in 2017. It seems we are quite a bit ahead of last session, but we need to see how it all shakes out.

Things happen quickly around here, so if you have any questions, let me know.

Sen. Jerry Klein