Senate Report by Bryan Breitling

2023 Legislative Session Week Five

We are now more than halfway through the session. Up to now, the policy committees have been working through their bills and appropriations has heard the budgets and plans from all departments and bureaus in the state. Next up is revenue setting, which firms up the final budget to work with for next year and the one-time dollars for this year, then cross over day, which is the last day to get a bill out of the house of origin.

In our fifth week on the Senate floor, the significant bill votes included SB74 – establishing a regional jail authority, passed and has moved to the House. And SB140 – revise certain provisions related to voter registration, was also passed and has moved to the House. There are several election bills this year, since it is between election cycles and gives everyone time to implement the new law before the next election begins. While our South Dakota elections are very safe and transparent, we want to ensure that South Dakota remains a leader in election law.

In appropriations this week, we heard reports from Departments of: Labor, Transportation, and Tourism. We also heard from Bureau of Human Resources, Bureau of Information Technology, and the State Auditor. These are the end of appropriations department reports, our time will now transition to setting the revenue this week, bill hearings, following up on budget research, and finalizing the FY23 and FY24 budgets.

Legislation I am working on include: SB79 - Hiddenwood Lake Dam Project, SB172 - Construction Inflation for BHSU Nursing program expansion, and SB173 - NSU Nursing and Business Expansion. These will all be heard in Appropriations this week. In addition, I agreed to be the Senate Prime for HB1133, define a commodity for common carrier, which passed the House on 2-9-23.

As always, I can be reached at [email protected]. I look forward to continued conversations!

House Report by James Wangsness

The fifth legislative week saw many different debates on various subjects. Some of the most notable were bills centered around the proposed carbon dioxide pipeline, and the continued debate around HB 1080.

On February 6, the House State Affairs Committee convened to hear the multiple bills concerning the proposed carbon pipeline. A lot of the debate centered around eminent domain, which allows businesses to force landowners to negotiate if they refused to do so. Many landowners claim that this allows businesses to enforce their terms and threaten to take their land regardless, and now with the proposed carbon dioxide pipeline, landowners are determined to fight for eminent domain reforms. Six bills were brought before committee with landowners calling upon the legislators to pass these bills and give them their property rights back, and businesses saying that the proposed bills would make any further projects impossible and force them to move to other states. Of the six bills, four were deferred to the 41st legislative day (thus defeating the bill). The other two (HB 1230 and HB 1133) passed and were sent to the House floor for consideration. HB 1230 clarifies references to the court in a condemnation action, while HB 1133 declares that a company transferring carbon dioxide via pipeline is not a common carrier. On February 8, HB 1230 came to the House floor and passed with 65 yeas and 3 nays. The next day, HB 1133 faced a long debate and was voted on, resulting in 40 yeas and 28 nays. They will now go to the Senate side for further debate.

In other news, HB 1080, which bans any sex altering medication or surgery, passed committee in the Senate and went to the Senate floor on February 9. It passed with 30 yeas and 4 nays and will be sent to Gov. Noem's desk for signing.

In a similar vein, HB 1069 also came up for debate. HB 1069 would have required any abortion performed to preserve the life of the mother, be performed by a properly authorized doctor/ hospital, and all medical information be submitted to the Department of Health. It came before committee on February 7 and was tabled, defeating the bill.