Weekly Legislative Update #12
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
This Friday, the legislature finished their 55th official legislative day. Considering that they only get 80 total days, and the fact that they want to preserve a few days for potential between-session work, that means that the 2025 ND legislative session is exactly 3/4 of the way completed. It has been a lot of work for everyone involved in the process, including our organization, but it is more than worth it if the result is great legislation that benefits North Dakotans.
Committee work is still being done on many bills, but the number hitting the chamber floors is accelerating. One floor vote happened this week on a key bill. HB 1361, establishing mandatory minimum sentences for human trafficking offenders, passed the Senate with a 45-1 vote on Tuesday. We thank God that this important piece of legislation has now made it through both chambers. Once Senate amendments are ironed out with the House, it goes to Governor Armstrong for his signature. A second bill receiving a floor vote was SB 2104, which would have enforced that schools need to comply with ND laws, but failed in the House by a 44-47 vote. Some other bills that came up for vote this week are listed below.
2380 - Restricting minors' access to pornography websites - House floor vote passed unanimously (3/31)
2244 - Parental rights in education and medical decisions - House floor vote failed 41-49 (3/31)
1511 - Continuing education for OBGYNs on abortion law - Senate floor vote passed 41-5 (4/1)
1561 - Restricting minors' access to pornography websites - Senate floor vote passed unanimously (4/1)
1386 - Prohibiting sexually explicit computer-generated images of a minor - Senate floor vote passed unanimously (4/1)
None of the remaining bills on which we have engaged were signed by Governor Armstrong this week. While that means it was a relatively slower week, we have no doubt that a wave of floor votes will be upon us shortly. We greatly appreciate your prayers as we strive to get these bills across the finish line!
Next Week
We intend to testify on two bills next week: a resolution that recommends we study human trafficking in ND (HCR 3028), and a bill to consider studying state laws relating to criminal conduct against children, such as child sexual offences, neglect, and human trafficking (HB 1410). While both these pieces of legislation are helpful, insofar as they seek to further the goal of protecting children, and eliminate human trafficking in particular, we believe that the state already has ample information that human trafficking is a serious issue (Human Trafficking in ND) and that we instead need bills that actually help stop human trafficking.
As we explained last week, we do not know which bills are coming up for floor votes soon (we only find out a day or two in advance, at most) and/or which will be sent to Governor Armstrong for his signature. This is the point in the process where we need your help most.
We have shepherded these 62 bills for the past three months, and now we need you to be ready to make your voices heard like never before! We will be emailing a number of Call-to-Action (CTA) Alerts in the next few weeks on key bills we need to make into law. This could be for an upcoming floor vote or possibly even related to Governor Armstrong signing them. We ask that you take 5 minutes out of your day and respond to our Call-to-Action emails as soon as possible. YOU can make the difference in whether or not legislation based on biblical values makes it into law. Last session, all of you sent over 45,000 individual emails to legislators through our CTA system; trust us, it makes a difference!
Current Status
Each bill’s most recent status and future actions are shown in the following table. Pay attention to the "Current Status" column in the coming weeks, as we will be updating this at the very top with bills that have made it entirely through the legislative process. The table is current as of the end of this week, but things can change quickly. 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 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”. If you 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.
