Hey everyone, it’s been a busy week up here in Pierre. This week is our only 5-day week of the session and the most chaotic so far. Because of the busyness and chaos, I have decided to let my intern, Tristen Petrik from Platte, write my article this week about what’s been going on in Pierre. As always, feel free to contact me anytime. My number is (605) 680-0304 and my email is Marty.Overweg@sdlegislature.gov Hello esteemed constituents of District 21! My name is Tristen Petrik, and I have the honor of working as Rep. Overweg’s intern this session. I am from Platte and currently am a sophomore at SDSU where I study criminology and sociology with minors in legal studies and ag business. I hope to someday go to law school but where is undecided yet.

Working with Rep. Overweg has been an incredible experience and I have already learned a lot. He stays quite busy as the chairman of the House Ag and Natural and Assistant Majority Leader. One of the hardest tasks of my job is to keep his schedule and get him to where he needs to go, which sounds easy but with all the changes and chaos to his schedule, it is harder than it sounds. Rep. Overweg is huge on communication, so he is really good at telling me where he is going and always asks what he has for meetings and what time.

This is the fourth week of session and Wednesday was the last day to introduce bills. House Ag got hit with 10 bills on Wednesday and as of Thursday morning we’ll be getting 3 more this afternoon. There have been 325 total bills dropped this session with 325 from the house and 245 from the Senate. That’s the most since 1998, I don’t want to make anyone feel old but I was negative 8 years old in 1998.

Thursday morning in House Ag we heard HB 1001, a bill dealing with prescribed burning along the Missouri River. The bill allows landowners who border state owned land to work with the state to conduct prescribed burns on adjacent state land. These burns are limited to grassland management and invasive species control, and landowners must complete required training, have proper equipment and manpower, and follow existing fire laws. The landowner assumes all liability for the burn, while the state is protected from damages. HB 1001 passed committee and will be heard on the House floor on Friday.

Thank you for reading my article, if you need to contact Rep. Overweg or I, my email is Tristen. petrik@sdlegislature.gov. Have a great week, God bless!