Week 3 of the 2026 Legislature I talked to one of the LRC bill writers this week. He said that he expected about 700+/- bills to be “dropped”. Our committee meetings are full every day of people to testify for or against a particular bill, and questions and discussions have been really thorough.

In education we still have bills that are trying to take local control away. We also had “Partners in Education Fund” folks asking for authority to increase the scholarships that they issue for accredited private school students. Schools were asking to put the property insurance into the capital outlay fund from the general fund. The Dept. of Education along with the Dept. of Health asked for authority to allow epinephrine nasal spray along with the injection to be administered in an emergency.

In Health and Human Services we had a big discussion about Terminal Care facilities allowing medical marijuana to be used, stored, and distributed within the facility. That was sent to the 41st day. A bill to create a taskforce to study the creation of Indian Medicaid Managed Care and the members. We dealt with a lot of other bills and sent most of them to the floor of the House for further consideration.

In our four day session this week we had a couple of long days as we dealt with the State’s business. HJR5001 has to do with protecting private property rights. We passed that bill with an amendment. On Monday we also passed HB1044 which is an appropriation to implement the rural health hopefully help our hospitals and EMS programs financially. There was a lot of debate, but most of it had to do with The Big Beautiful Bill and the 50 billion dollars that will add to our national debt. We gave authority to have some buildings at the state fairgrounds demolished. We authorized the construction of a National Guard maintenance building in Sturgis. HB1077 was the biggest and loudest debate that we had on the floor of the House. HB1077 is an amendment to SDCL394-2. HB1077 “ is an act to consider a cultivated-protein food product to be an adulterated food.” This bill passed out of the House. Again, if you have any questions or concerns, please call. God bless and have a great week Representative Jim Halverson 605-840-2290