Mark Jorritsma 5/19/25 Mark Jorritsma 5/19/25

Thank you for your support!

We are so grateful to everyone who supported our 2025 Faith, Family, and Freedom Dessert Gala with Dr. Ben Carson and The Craguns this past Tuesday evening at the Fargodome. It was a fantastic night celebrating God’s gift of the family and our unique and incomparable nation! We were blessed by Dr. Carson’s inspiring message filled with hope, faith, and humor. The Craguns’ moving patriotic harmonies evoked emotional responses from many in the crowd. It was truly a gift to share such a special evening with nearly 600 of NDFA’s dear friends!

Perhaps the most inspiring part of the evening was seeing so many of you folks there to support our mission. During the Legislative Session, it can be hard to remember why we do what we do when we are in the heat of the battle. As I spoke, I looked out into the crowd and couldn’t help but be moved. There were generations in the audience: babies, young kids, teenagers, parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents. As I saw all of you, I remembered that we do this for you, so that God’s people who believe in truth and love have a voice.

I want to thank all of you once again for your prayers, responses to our calls for action, and financial support this past year and as we move forward. We exist to defend and advance your values, and we are honored you entrust us with this important mission.

Mark Jorritsma 5/4/25 Mark Jorritsma 5/4/25

Weekly Legislative Update #16

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 past week marked the end of the 2025 Legislative Session. It has been a long four months for legislators and everyone else involved in the process, but a lot of good legislation has made it into the Century Code. Some obviously didn’t make it all the way, but we’ll do a full wrap-up in the near future to summarize the key results and our perspective on the whole session. In the meantime, there were plenty of last-minute activities going on at the Capitol.

At this stage in the process, all bills were either in conference committees to iron out the differences between the versions passed in each chamber or had been sent on to Governor Armstrong for his signature. A couple of key bills were signed into law this past week, which included SB 2200, funding a 988 crisis hotline, and HB 1144, which ensured that transgender students would have to use the bathroom of their biological sex. The bill also provided a mechanism for parents and the Attorney General to act on the issue if the school did not comply with the law.

House Bill 1003 passed in both chambers and will be sent on to Governor Armstrong. It represents the Attorney General’s budget, something we don’t typically get involved in, but funds were earmarked for human trafficking, so we were pleased that it made it to the Governor’s desk.

One of our other key bills, SB 2330, which would provide human trafficking education for students, is still with the Governor, so we will have to watch and see how that is decided. The good news is that even if he chooses to veto it, it passed both chambers with virtually unanimous votes, so the veto would likely be overturned.

Next Week

Next week, the spotlight will be on Governor Armstrong and whether or not he signs or vetoes bills. A lot of bills will be coming across his desk, so please pray that he makes the right decisions that will uphold biblical values here in ND. We will let you know if any action will be needed on your part to help us with bills, although it’s unlikely.

Current Status

The most recent status for each bill that is still alive after crossover is shown in the following table. 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

The final action to be taken on virtually all bills is to contact Governor Armstrong and let him know how you feel about a particular bill. You can do that via this link. Contact Governor Armstrong. Please remember to be respectful in all communications, and feel free to contact us with any legislative questions.

Mark Jorritsma 4/27/25 Mark Jorritsma 4/27/25

Weekly Legislative Update #15

HB 1247 - Protection of a student victim of sexual assault (signed on 4/23)
SB 2241 - Authorization and administration of public charter schools (signed on 4/21)
SB 2230 - Secretary of State distribution of information on ballot measures (signed on 4/22)
HB 1351 - Prohibition of sexually explicit deep fake videos and images (signed on 4/21)
HB 1181 - Gender usage in the North Dakota Century Code (signed on 4/23)
SB 2380 - 18+ verification for pornographic websites (signed on 4/21)
HB 1386 - Prohibition of sexually explicit, computer-generated images of minors (signed on 4/21)

Next Week

This coming week will likely prove to be one of the most hectic of the entire session. The Legislature is planning to finish meeting for the session on Wednesday, the 30th. The race to the finish is on! There will also be a National Day of Prayer gathering in the Capitol on Thursday at noon, which we are hosting. There is no shortage of work to be done, so we certainly appreciate your prayers!

We do not know which bills are coming up for floor votes next week and/or which will be sent to Governor Armstrong for his signature – these are constant unknowns at this point in the session. However, you can count on us emailing Call-to-Action (CTA) Alerts next week on key bills we need to make into law. We ask that you take a few minutes out of your day and respond to our Call-to-Action emails as soon as possible. YOU can make the difference on whether or not legislation based on biblical values makes it into law!

Current Status

The most recent status for each bill that is still alive after crossover is shown in the following table. 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 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.

2.) 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.

Mark Jorritsma 4/19/25 Mark Jorritsma 4/19/25

Weekly Legislative Update #14

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 past week was a busy one! We sent out several CTA's and would like to thank each of you who responded and let the legislature and the Governor know your values on these crucial issues. You made your voice heard, and the legislators responded. You've effected positive change for our values on some key bills!

SB 2307, making sexually explicit material inaccessible to minors in libraries, passed 49-45 in the House and resisted a motion to overturn the vote the next day! HB 1540, regarding the development of an Education Savings Account for private school students, passed the Senate by a vote of 27-20. Those of you who responded to our CTA's contributed to each of these bills passing! Keep up the good work!

Some other bills that passed this week were SB 2224, related to the regulation of gaming, and SB 2230, regarding the distribution of information related to ballot measures. HB 1511, continuing education for our OBGYNs on abortion law, HB 1479, creating a ND Constitution Day, and HB 1410, providing for a Legislative Management study on criminal conduct against children, were all signed by the Governor earlier this week as well. Finally, HCR 3028, relating to a legislative study on the re-entry of human trafficking victims into society, was filed with the Secretary of State, meaning it has fully passed.

We spent much of this week taking part in discussions on several bills related to human trafficking education, and at this point, SB 2330 has been restored to its original purpose of requiring annual education for certain grade levels in schools relating to human trafficking prevention and awareness. Be sure to be on the lookout for a few CTA's on this subject in the near future.

Next Week

Formal testimony is over for our 62 bills, but we nevertheless are still engaging on them. We sit in on committee meetings as they discuss the bills, and at times are asked for our opinions and input on the bill being discussed. We also work behind the scenes trying to advance bills and ensure legislators will commit to voting with your values on important legislation.

We do not know which bills are coming up for floor votes next week and/or which will be sent to Governor Armstrong for his signature – these are constant unknowns at this point in the session. However, you can count on us emailing Call-to-Action (CTA) Alerts next week on key bills we need to make into law. We ask that you take a few minutes out of your day and respond to our Call-to-Action emails as soon as possible. YOU can make the difference on whether or not legislation based on biblical values makes it into law!

Current Status

The most recent status for each bill that is still alive after crossover is shown in the following table. 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 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.

2.) 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.

Mark Jorritsma 4/12/25 Mark Jorritsma 4/12/25

Weekly Legislative Update #13

1247 – Protecting Student Victims of Sexual Assault (Passed Senate unanimously on 4/7)
1479 – Establishing ND Constitution Day (Passed Senate 45-1 on 4/8)
2241 - Charter Schools (Passed House 64-29 on 4/8)
1003 – Additional Funding to AG Office for Human Trafficking Grants (Passed Senate 41-5 on 4/8)
3028 – Human Trafficking Victim Re-entry Study (Passed Senate with a voice vote on 4/9)
1410 - Study on Crimes Against Children (Passed Senate unanimously on 4/9)
2230 – Clarifying Information on Election Measures (Passed House 87-5 on 4/10)
1181 – “Gender” Means Biological Sex in Century Code (Passed Senate 41-6 on 4/10)
1144 - Transgender Student Accommodations Penalty (Passed Senate 40-7 on 4/10)
1527 - Mandatory Holocaust Education in schools (Failed Senate 22-24 on 4/11)

Note that we testified in favor of and worked on all these bills on your behalf. In other words, these that passed are nine more bills to help ensure our ND laws are based upon biblical principles. You might also note that most passed their chamber votes by sizable margins, which is very helpful. All of these bills need more work to be done on them before ultimately making it into the Century Code, but we are very happy with these wins!

Aside from floor votes, two bills that we've been working on were signed by Governor Armstrong: HB 1205, which approves Safe Haven Baby Boxes, as well as HB 1561, which prevents minors' access to pornographic websites. Also, a number of our bills are in conference committees where differences between the versions passed by the chambers are being ironed out, but none emerged from this committee work in the past week.

Next Week

Formal testimony is over for our 62 bills, but we nevertheless are still engaging on them. We sit in on committee meetings as they discuss the bills, and at times are asked for our opinions and input on the bill being discussed. We also work behind the scenes trying to advance bills and ensure legislators will commit to voting with your values on important legislation.

We do not know which bills are coming up for floor votes next week and/or which will be sent to Governor Armstrong for his signature – these are constant unknowns at this point in the session. However, you can count on us emailing Call-to-Action (CTA) Alerts next week on key bills we need to make into law. We ask that you take a few minutes out of your day and respond to our Call-to-Action emails as soon as possible. YOU can make the difference on whether or not legislation based on biblical values makes it into law!

Current Status

The most recent status for each bill that is still alive after crossover is shown in the following table. 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 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.

2.) 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.

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.