March 17, St. Patrick’s Day, was our 46th legislative day. Due to the weather on Friday several of us legislators, mostly from the eastern part of the state, decided to stay in Bismarck and wait until Saturday to head home.
When they didn’t open Interstate 94 until almost noon, most of us opted to stay here.
If it would do any good, I’m sure we could easily pass a bill with an emergency clause and I’m sure the governor would sign it declaring an end to winter.
We have two education bills to hear this week. Both of them deal with studying the North Dakota High School Activities Association.
One looks at its impact on students and the other seeks to clarify the roles of the NDHSAA and the Department of Public Instruction as they relate to proper spectator conduct and promotion of good sportsmanship and citizenship.
We also have 11 bills to work on that we have already heard testimony on and we need to pass them out of committee with a recommendation for voting on the Senate floor.
In Ag and Veterans Affairs, we have four bills to hear and six more to work on in committee.
HB 1423 relates to a model zoning ordinance for animal feeding operations and HB 1371 deals with ownership of livestock production facilities. Speaking of livestock, last week we heard HB 1437, which set up regional livestock planning grants.
These grants would be available to counties who would like to survey their county to determine areas within their county that would be suitable for expanding livestock production and be able to proclaim that they are a livestock friendly county.
Traill County is currently participating in a pilot project to determine if they would qualify for the livestock-friendly county designation.
Randy D. Lemm
District 20 Senator
701-430-1536
