Weekly Legislative Update #1
This is the first of many weekly updates we will be providing to you, our ministry partners, about what’s going on in the halls of Bismarck during the 2025 Legislative Session, and how we are defending your deeply held values every day. If you ever have questions about a particular bill, feel free to email us at mark@ndfamilyalliance.org or call 701-355-6425. It may take a bit before you hear back from us, but we promise to get back to you. Now on to the good stuff.
The first full week of the session is over. What a week it was! Last week started a bit slowly, with Legislative Council (the State agency that drafts the final bills) releasing bills in groups, instead of doing a “dump” of 1,000 bills all at once, which usually happens. As I write this, they have released roughly 700 bills, and the bills are being assigned to committees. If some behind- the-scenes discussions are correct, there could be as many as 1,200 bills this session – definitely higher than the 986 bills last session.
The first thing we do when a group of bills is released into the wild is review them 3 times to spot any possible pro-life or pro-family bills. We don’t want to miss anything! We then read every bill and determine whether we should engage on it in some way. This can be everything from formal testimony at a hearing, to simply written testimony, or even just talking to legislators before a floor vote. Or all of these, and more. Of the 700 bills released so far, we’ve identified about 30 on which we will engage in some manner.
This week, our work started with providing supporting testimony for the Attorney General’s office in their critical work of enforcing our laws. This was followed by bills related to sports betting, blue laws, military appreciation month, and a number of other topics. In all, we provided testimony on 7 bills and resolutions during the week. Next week looks pretty busy with testimony planned for as many as 15 bills, as well as hosting our 2025 Pro-Life Conference on Wednesday, so please keep us in your prayers.
Below is the list of bills on which we will engage and their current status, as of COB today. This list will undoubtedly grow as more bills are released. If you are interested in more information any of these bills, go to ndlegis.gov and type the 4-digit bill number in the search bar in the top right corner, and you will be taken to the menu for that particular bill.
