Weekly Legislative Update #3
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
Last week was another busy time for us, testifying on a total of 9 bills. One of them was SB 2220, our bill related to additional training for law enforcement to deal with cases of human trafficking. Unfortunately, it came out of the Senate Judiciary Committee with a 6-1 “DO NOT PASS” recommendation, and the Senate floor voted along the same lines, defeating the bill with a 10-36 vote. We were obviously disappointed with the results, but other human trafficking bills are still in play and doing better. On that side of things, HB 1361, the bill to establish mandatory minimum sentences for human traffickers, passed the House by a wide margin of 70-23, so we were very pleased with that result.
Last week we also testified on bills concerning transgender restrooms, the relinquishment of adoptive parents’ rights, free speech, parental rights in education, oversight of charitable gaming, and more. We are starting to see more education-related bills, and there are also quite a few gaming bills that will have hearings in the near future.
Next Week
Next week promises to possibly be the busiest of the session, certainly when it comes to hearings. On top of that, some key bills of the session will be heard. Over the course of Monday-Wednesday, we will be testifying on bills related to criminalizing mothers for abortions, human trafficking education for students, education savings accounts, and the Pledge of Allegiance. In all, we will be testifying on 13 bills in less than three days. Even with three lobbyists at the Capitol, this will be a stretch, so we appreciate your prayers. You will also very likely be getting more Call-to-Action emails. We really appreciate your engagement on these – the emails sent through our system definitely make a difference.
Current Status
Each bill’s most recent status and future actions are shown in the following table. We only show “alive” bills in this table (i.e., those that have not been defeated in a chamber, not combined with another bill, etc.), since those are the ones on which you can still take some action. 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 in the process.
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.
Here is a map of the Capitol, so you can find the indicated rooms. Please let us know if you have any questions.