Rocky Blare, reporting from the Senate in Pierre. This week I was fortunate enough to have three bills pass from committee and will be considered on the floor. Representative Finck and I are sponsoring HB 1084 which increases the allowable height for vehicles carrying baled feed up to 15 feet and it passed unanimously. The bill is headed to the Senate, if it passes the Senate and signed by the governor it will go into effect immediately.

SB181 would allow the sale of short term medical insurance terms to increase from 6 months to 12 months, therefore those who purchase those plans can be protected until the annual open enrollment for ACA plans begins.

SB84 would authorize volunteers of a nationally recognized service animal training program to enter establishments with service dogs that have proper identification for training purposes. The bill was developed with the SD Retailers Assn., Board of Regents and Labs for Liberty. SB 84 passed the Senate and is on the way to the House for consideration.

I was asked to sponsor SB152, which is a bill that would allow chiropractors to enter into in to employment contracts with corporations. We are the only state that this and we limit opportunities for young professionals in our state. Avera and Sanford both testified in favor of this bill because they are integrating the medical practices at their hospitals for more effective and affordable pain management for their patients and reducing the need for pain medication.

One report I found very interesting was the DENR report from Hunter Roberts. He mentioned that they have $8 million available from the Volkswagon Mitigation Trust Settlement available for reimbursing city and counties for truck purchases and school buses for schools. Thirty five percent of the purchase would be covered by this fund. There have been very few applications for use of these funds, but I don’t know that they have done a very good job promoting this opportunity. My goal is to get the word out to our public entities that might be able to get assistance with these expensive vehicles.

The Red Flag gun law was defeated in committee. HB 1057 was defeated in committee, which is an act to prohibit certain acts against children and provided a penalty. It wasn’t brought for a smoke out and Friday would have been the last day to do that.

We passed a fee increase for pesticide registration, both dealer and commercial licenses, which would bring the program, costs in line with the fees. We also passed SB 37 which is for dollars to cover the states 10% of disaster costs which is paid by FEMA. FEMA paid about $100 million in disaster payments. SB 146 passed unanimously which would recognize Tribal ID cards be accepted by commerce to verify age to purchase alcohol and tobacco products.

Two bills I voted for that failed were SB90 which would have given more money to townships for culverts and structure replacement. SB111 would have excluded wind energy tax revenue from the school aid formula and maintained a higher level of local retention of the funds.

The House passed HB1008 which sets up guidelines for production and processing of Industrial Hemp in South Dakota. It will now go to the Senate Committee and the funding issues have not been resolved yet. Industrial Hemp has been approved for production by USDA for the Flandreau Sante Sioux Tribe in South Dakota.

We are just over half done with this years 95th Session of the South Dakota Legislative Session. As the pace picks up I encourage everyone to continue to contact me with your comments or questions.

I especially want to thank Carleen Burger from Colome High School who has been serving as a page in the Senate last week and she will complete her service this week. She has done an outstanding job and I would like to recognize the great work she has done.

Winner Public Librarian Misti Burns was in Pierre for Library Day, they had a lot of good information. I was disappointed that the Gregory School group could not make it to Pierre due to weather Wednesday. I hope I can visit with them at a later date.

At the end of week 5 we have completed 20 days of this legislative session and are over half done. There have been 479 bills introduced which is slightly up from last year but down by about 20 from the previous year.

HB1008 is the long debated and studied “Hemp Bill”. This bill legalizes the growth, production, and transportation of industrial hemp in the state, and to declare an emergency so planting can begin this spring for those farmers interested. This bill passed on February 6th out of House Ag and Natural Resources Committee unanimously. It moved to the floor on Monday the 11th. There was no discussion after the introductory statements and with a vote of 54-12 the bill now moves to the Senate.

HB 1099 is a bill that authorizes counties to impose a temporary voter-approved half-cent sales and use tax and to issue revenue bonds to fund certain county infrastructure construction. There are several counties that need to build new jails. Instead of increasing property tax to raise the money for these facilities, this bill was brought as an option for counties to help build revenue for these infrastructures through a voter approved ½ cent sales tax. The tax would only be in effect for the time it took the county to pay off the bond. I supported this bill because I feel it is important to look at different options for revenue in counties besides increasing property taxes. This bill was defeated in the House 32-35.

HJR5001 is a joint resolution to apply for a convention of states under Article V of the Constitution of the United States to impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, to limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and to limit the terms of office for federal officials and members of Congress. This 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. This failed on the House floor 32-37.

HB1129 is a bill that authorize the provision of telecommunications device location information to law enforcement agencies. This bill would make it legal for law enforcement to immediately do a search of telecommunication devices such as cell phones to assist in locating missing individuals. This bill passed 53-9.

SB50 passed the House floor on a vote of 69-0. This bill revises certain provisions regarding the practice of a certified registered nurse anesthetist. It was brought to broaden the scope of what CRNA’s can do especially in rural settings. The bill was amended, in cooperation and compromise of both sides of the issue, to create the best solution for all parties. When folks come together, talk about the issues and options, problems can be solved. SB50 is a great example of working together and shaking hands on an agreement that will help many in the medical arena.

HB1235 has been labeled as an “anti-immunization” bill. This bill is about Medical Freedom and absolutely is not an anti-immunization bill. I am not opposed to immunizations and I know they have been successful in stopping epidemics such as polio. This bill, if you read the entire bill, gives parents and adults the right to make medical decisions for themselves and their children. It gives parents the right to choose if they give all immunizations on a schedule recommended by the CDC, if they give the immunizations on a modified schedule or if they choose to not give the immunizations and use an alternative method of building up their child’s immune system. This bill also gives parents the right to agree to or refuse medical treatment and/or medicine recommended by a medical professional. It also gives adults the right to agree to or refuse medical treatment and/ or medicine. I brought this bill after many people asked me to help them due to being pressured to inject a medication into their body or their children’s body that was unwanted. Across this state folks who have refused injections, from certain immunizations to chemotherapy, have lost their jobs and children have been taken away from their parents or all parental rights have been taken away. Also, it is getting more prevalent that clinics in SD are refusing to treat or see patients who have not been immunized. This is America with a Constitution that gives individual rights. There is great emotion tied to the subject of immunization schedule with many studies that support recommendations on both sides of issue. But again, I want to emphasize that the main point of this bill is it returns the medical rights to the parents and individuals.

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 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!