Legislative Report: Jan. 16, 2023

The 68th Legislative Session began on January 3, 2023. The first day of the session began with the State of the Tribes Address. Each session, the Tribal Chairman of one of the 5 recognized Tribes addresses the joint session of the legislature. This year we were fortunate to have Chairman Jamie Azure from the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewas address us.

Following that, Chief Justice Jon Jensen gave the State of the Judiciary Address. In his remarks, he spoke of the need for salary increases for our 52 District Judges across the state, their desire to unify the Clerk of Courts offices into the State system, and begin the process of moving the Judicial Wing from the State Capitol to the Liberty Memorial Building.

The first day concluded with Governor Burgum’s State of the State Address. In his remarks, he set out his vision of the 2023-25 biennium and the policies that we will be leading in this legislative session.

I will be returning to the House Appropriations Committee and will Chair the Human Resource Section again this session. We thoroughly review and send out recommendations to the full assembly agency budgets that are in our portfolio. In the first half of the session we will hear the budgets of: the Department of Health, Indian Affairs Commission, Veterans Home, Council on the Arts, Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Office of Administrative Hearings, Department of Environmental Quality, and the Department of Veteran Affairs.

As I write this report on Friday morning, we have heard overviews of some of the major budgets in full committee the past two days and will be in section for the first time today. In the overview presentations we heard from Lynn Helms from the Department of Mineral Resources regarding the prospects for oil and gas development for the next two years. Workforce issues as well as the inability to capture enough natural gas are the main two obstructions to increasing the drilling of more wells and developing fully those wells that are not in production currently. The economic threshold for industry in the current economic climate is in the $65/barrel range so it is profitable at current prices to develop more oil in the state.

We also heard from the Department of Transportation regarding their budget request. They laid out a very aggressive plan for continuing construction and repair of highways and bridges in the state for the next two years.

I mention these two agencies because our section will not hear these budgets again until we go into full committee prior to crossover, which is scheduled for February 25.

We will begin in earnest to work in section next week on the budgets that I mentioned earlier. Please feel free to follow us in committee or on the floor through the N.D. Legislature website. You can also contact me at [email protected] with any questions, recommendations, or concerns.

I look forward to staying in touch throughout the session and reporting back again next week.