Weekly Legislative Update #10
We want to provide you with our most recent update on what happened at the Capitol this past week, each bill’s current status, and what to expect next week. As mentioned before, if you ever have questions about a particular bill, feel free to email us at mark@ndfamilyalliance.org or call 701-355-6425.
Last Week
As expected, this week was a bit slower than last week, with testimony on 10 bills. However, all these bills were packed into Monday and Tuesday, so that still meant a spike of work for us at the beginning of the week.
It worked out that the main focus of many bills this week was pornography. In particular, we testified on bills and resolutions that would: declare pornography a public health hazard (SCR 4017), ensure that children are not exposed to inappropriate books in public and school libraries (SB 2307), prohibit a commercial entity from publishing material harmful to a minor (HB 1561), and prohibit sexually explicit deepfake videos. (HB 1351).
Other key bills for which we provided testimony included major education funding bills (HB 1540 and SB 2400), a bill for mandatory minimum sentencing for human trafficking offenders (HB 1361), one to provide guidance for OB/GYNs on abortion laws (HB 1511), and SB 2200, which would fund a 988 mental health hotline.
HB 1205, a bill to allow Safe Haven Baby Boxes passed its second chamber and awaits concurrence on final amendments in the House. After that, it will be sent to Governor Armstrong's desk for signature.
Next Week
Next week is looking like a slightly slower version of this week, with a number of bills packed into the first part of the week. Some of these include gender usage in the Century Code (HB 1181), a transgender bathroom bill (HB 1144 ), and the bill to teach students about the Holocaust (HB 1527). In addition to these, our ND “trigger law” which has been in court since the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022, will be heard in the ND Supreme Court on Tuesday, March 25th at 10 am. You can attend in person at the Capitol on the 1st floor of the Judicial Wing (same level as Memorial Hall) in the Supreme Court chambers, or stream it live at this link. Please pray that the court may side with the thousands of us who want to protect the unborn here in North Dakota!
Current Status
Each bill’s upcoming actions are shown in the following table. NOTE THAT THE STATUS OF EACH BILL CAN CHANGE MULTIPLE TIMES, IN EVEN A SINGLE DAY. To double-check the most current status of any bill, you can go to this page, type the bill number into the upper right box (just need the number, not the HB or SB), and click the search button. Once you are on the bill’s page, click on the tab entitled “Actions”. This will indicate where the bill is at in the process. If you want to testify on a bill or have a question, you are always welcome to reach out to us (mark@ndfamilyalliance.org) and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
How to Take Action
1.) If a bill hearing has been scheduled, but not yet held, the table shows the date, time, and location of the hearing. If you want to testify, you need to write your comments about the bill into a PDF or txt file. This can be a paragraph or longer, but keep to the point. Once that is written, you can go to this page, type the bill number into the upper right box (just need the number, not the HB or SB), and click the search button. Once you are on the bill’s page, click on the tab entitled “Hearings”, identify the hearing, and click the link on the right where it says, “Submit Testimony”. Just follow the instructions after that. Note that there will be a deadline to submit testimony for bills, often early in the morning on the hearing day (this will show once you click on the “Submit Testimony” link). If you have questions about any of this, prepare your testimony document and then call us at 701-355-6425 and we can walk you through it.
2.) If the bill hearing is over, but it still needs to be voted on in a chamber, you can contact your appropriate legislator(s) and give them feedback. If you do not know who your legislators are or how to contact them, click here and then go to the top right corner and click on “Find my legislator.” Type your house number and zip code into the boxes and click the search button. From there, you should be able to find your Senator and Representatives and all their contact information such as phone numbers and email addresses.
3.) If the bill has passed both chambers and has been sent to Gov. Armstrong, you can contact the Governor via this link and provide input on the bill. Contact Governor Armstrong
Please remember to be respectful in all communications to our legislators and the Governor, and feel free to contact us with any legislative questions.
