Legislative Procedures

Committee

At the end of week 5 we have completed 20 days of the 94th SD Legislative session. There have been 272 bills introduced in the House and 188 in the Senate. Of those bills, around 45 of them are “Vehicle Bills”. A Vehicle Bill is one that has a title and the body of the bill is empty. Once the body of the bill is done, it is amended or “hog housed” into the bill and is heard in Committee. This year has been one of many changes. About 1/3 of the legislators are new, there are new people in the Legislative Research Council who write the bills, there is a new Governor and many new people in Government agencies. Because of all of this, the perfect storm hit with 32 vehicle bills filed in the House and 14 filed in the Senate. There are different reasons for the bills ranging from the LRC not having the time to finish the bill by the deadline, LRC not being able to find all of the information needed, Government agencies not being able to provide information needed by the deadline for bill filing, and information being sought conflictingbetweentwosources. This week many of the vehicle bills were filled and will be heard in Committee or tabled. Next week we will address more and work to get them cleaned up.

HJR 1005 is a bill which would have declared that SD wanted a national constitutional convention to be held to change the US Constitution. Proponents were in favor of a convention for spending restraint, limiting federal power and setting term limits for federal officials and members of Congress. Opponents were concerned that they did not want to open the constitution to limitations on other rights such as the second amendment. The measure failed in State Affairs. It was acted on by the House with a “smoke out” vote which now brings the bill to the floor for a debate and vote this next week.

HB 1173 is a bill to permit the possession of firearms by certain employees. This bill was intended to permit employees to have a firearm in a locked vehicle while at work. It also proposes that no employer could fire or not hire an employee for legally carrying a firearm in their vehicle and keeping it locked in the vehicle while the employee is at work and the employee’s vehicle is parked on the employer’s property. The bill has unintended consequences in Section 8 and will be amended to make sure what the prime sponsor of the bill intended is clean. This will be heard in House State Affairs this week.

HB 1088 is a bill to prohibit the use of certain electronic devices while driving. This bill covers a large number of electronic devices used for texting, social media, movies etc as being illegal to use while driving in SD. A violation of this law is a Class 2 misdemeanor. This bill passed the House floor on a vote of 40 to 30 after Representative Kent Peterson gave an emotional testimony of a friend who was killed while riding bike with her two children by someone who was texting while driving. This now moves to the Senate.

HB 1108 passed out of House Education Committee 9-6. This bill proposes a ban on any instruction of “gender identity or gender expression” from kindergarten through seventh-grade. School administrators in the state and the state teacher’s union spoke against the bill, but the committee decided that discussions on gender and sexuality belong in the home, not in schools. The bill now moves to the House floor.

You may be surprised on this bill, but it is one I have been getting a lot of emails on. HB 1156 is a bill to designate the accordion as the official state musical instrument. Right now South Dakota’s official state musical instrument is the fiddle and this bill was brought to change that to the accordion. I am not in favor of that change. We will hear this bill in State Affairs this week.

SB 117 is a bill which would mandate the state to administer the driver’s license written test in Spanish. It passed from the Senate Transportation Committee 5-1 and now moves to the Senate floor.

This week Governor Kristi Noem vetoed her first bill, SB 14 which is a bill to define solar energy facilities and to establish certain provisions regarding solar energy permits. The Governor declared her reasons as “this bill creates unacceptable ambiguity and confusion over the Public Utilities Commission’s authority. Even though the Legislature has expressly prohibited the Commission from mandating the specific location of an energy facility as we conducted a detailed legal review of the enrolled bill, it became apparent poor drafting in this bill gives the Commission that authority for solar energy projects.” This bill came back to the Senate and they voted to uphold the Governor’s veto with agreement from the PUC.

I want to thank you again for the honor you have given to me in serving you in Pierre as your Representative in District

21. Please feel free to contact me at anytime with thoughts, ideas or concerns. My email is lee.qualm@sdlegislature.gov and my cell phone is 605 207-0406.

Blessings to you for a great week! Keep warm and safe!