2023-10-20 15:30:38
MINOT — I wrote earlier this week that
it would be inappropriate for state lawmakers to consider new policy and spending proposals
during next week’s special session.
The session was necessitated by a state Supreme Court ruling
striking down an omnibus spending and policy bill
passed at the end of the regular session. Lawmakers must pass that bill once more, only broken down into separate bills so as to not violate state Constitution’s prohibition on multi-issue bills.
Clearly, many lawmakers didn’t agree with me, because, in addition to the 14 bills that make up the deconstructed omnibus bill, the Legislative Management Committee will consider 27 additional bills covering everything from
raw milk
to student loans to support for Israel.
My argument regarding the appropriateness of this stands.
In his order calling lawmakers back into special session,
Gov. Doug Burgum
put a limit on it of five days. He doesn’t have that authority, but it was a clear communication of his expectations. House Majority Leader Mike Lefor has said he expects the session to take three to five days.
That would be appropriate if the session were only going to cover what was in the bill the court struck down. Those elements have already been through the rigors of a regular legislative session, with its hearings, committee work and floor debates. Lawmakers are familiar with them.
These new proposals will not get that scrutiny. They represent millions in spending, a very consequential policy, made in a rush with little scrutiny from the public or even from the lawmakers themselves.
These people are human beings, following all. Can we really expect them to make wise decisions on these questions with just days to prepare?
“Depending on how many additional bills they approve, the special session might go into a second week pretty easily,” one Republican lawmaker told me.
Among the proposals not related to the original cause of the special session is one legislative leadership has pushed.
is attributed to Senate Majority Leader David Hogue, but I’m told that Lefor has told his caucus it’s a priority as well.
It authorizes an $8.5 million appropriation and a $40 million bond for capital projects at Bismarck State College, and buried in the final section is an authorization for the State Board of Higher Education to transfer 24 acres of land on the University of North Dakota campus.
“They are selling this as an OK thing to do because there’s no capital outlay, just permission to sell the land,” one lawmaker concerned by the proposal told me.
It’s hard to blame rank-and-file members of the legislature for trying to get their pet projects jammed into the special session when the legislative leaders, even as they call for focus, are putting in special projects of their own.
It’s already a bad look for the Legislature to be in a special session following flagrantly violating the constitution’s single-issue bill requirement. Using the opportunity to jam through more spending and more policy changes, with little in the way of transparency or process, is an even worse one.
Rob Port is a news reporter, columnist, and podcast host for the Forum News Service with an extensive background in investigations and public records. He covers politics and government in North Dakota and the upper Midwest. Reach him at [email protected]. Click here to subscribe to his Plain Talk podcast.
1697819584
#North #Dakota #special #session #kicks #lawmakers #submit #dozens #bills
