presented by the North Dakota Home School Association to home educating families for educational and instructional purposes. Nothing contained herein is to be construed as partisan in nature. Given accurate information recipients can make up their own minds about steps they can take to affect legislation in North Dakota in a respectful manner which promotes personal liberty, responsibility and freedom.  All comment is the opinion of Gail Biby unless otherwise noted.  Nothing contained herein is to be construed as legal advice and is included for educational purposes only.

Arranged in numerical order with House bills listed first. It is our goal to send the Legislative Watch every Friday during the Session. If you have input on any of these, or others of interest, please contact me at: billbiby@msn.com  Some of the following are included for your information, some for action, and some for the sheer joy of it.

Quick links added to NDHSA website. Go to www.ndhsa.org and click on any of the quick links to read the bills, find out when they will be heard in committee, to contact your legislator and much more.

WATCH those in red! 

To listen to audio or watch video of live floor proceedings, click on this  website address and take your choice:  www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/60-2007/dailysess/

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR:  Our list is getting shorter and shorter. It won’t be long before this session will be history. When the Legislative Watches are no longer necessary we will go back to publishing the biweekly Eclectic  (for NDHSA members only). Just for your information the Chokecherry is now the state fruit of North Dakota. Mmmmm....chokecherry syrup on pancakes. Hard to beat. And my grandsons can use grandma’s and grandpa’s car to take their driver’s test instead of a 15-passenger van. Life is so good in America I can hardly stand it sometimes. What a blessing to live in this land!

HOUSE BILLS 2007 LEGISLATIVE SESSION 

HB 1136 - Will increase the number of immunizations required for entrance into public, private, parochial or home school, day care centers, child care facilities, head start programs and nursery schools. Added to the already  lengthy list of mandated immunizations are: pneumococcal disease, meningococcal disease, rotavirus, hepatitis A.

·          Passed Senate, Y 43, N1 3/15. Returned to House with Senate amendments 3/16.

Health care decisions ought to be left to parents and their physicians.  North Dakotans still have the right to opt out of any or all mandated immunizations based on philosophical, religious or moral beliefs. The Rotavirus vaccine is really problematic.

HB 1169 - Allows the Supt. of Public Instruction to be elected without a current ND professional teaching license.

·          Passed House and Senate and awaiting Governor Hoeven’s signature.

This is a good thing and will widen the field to hopefully include good managers and diligent administrators.

HB 1319 - Provides for sensible laws regarding the use of deadly force.

·          Senate, second reading, passed as amended, Y 44, N 2 3/23. Returned to House for concurrence on amendments.

Sneeringly called by some in the media the “Shoot the Burglar Bill” Allows an individual threatened by a ne’er-do-well to use force to protect his home, car, motor home and family without having to think of every possible alternative. Amendments have been added to pacify law enforcement officials. I see a similar bill was passed in Texas.

HB 1357 - Prohibits the possession of child pornography.

·           Signed by Governor Hoeven 3/21.

Changes the penalty for possessing child porn from a misdemeanor to a class C felony period!

HB 1434 - Related to the viral hepatitis education and vaccination program.

·          Reported out of Senate Appropriations Committee, do pass, Y 14, N 0 3/23.

This appears to be geared toward high risk groups and mandates that the Department of Health conduct a surveillance  regarding the impact of Hepatitis C.

HB 1435 - Relates to childhood immunizations.

·          Reported out of committee with amendment,  do pass, Y 14, N0 3/23.  Amendment adopted and placed on calendar.

The Second Engrossment with Senate amendments deals only with appropriations and the meningococcal vaccine mandate has been removed (HB 1136). Appropriates $2.5 million to provide the program to public health units.

HB 1466 - Relates to the prohibition of the performance of abortions, except to save the life of the mother.

·          Senate, reported out of committee without recommendation, Y 6, N 0 3/23.

Considered a ‘trigger bill’ and would outlaw abortion if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe vs. Wade. Pray for this!

HB 1471 - Relates to the human papilloma virus.

·          Signed by Governor Hoeven 3/28.

Mandates a public education program on the human papilloma virus and the availability of an HPV vaccine. I’ve read too much about this to think this is a good thing! 

To find House members go to:

http://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/60-2007/house/members/

To find out who sits on what committee in the House go to:

http://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/60-2007/house/standing-comm/

SENATE BILLS 2007 LEGISLATIVE SESSION

SB 2181 - Related to consent for certain health care services provided to minors.

·           House, Second reading, failed, lacks constitutional majority, Y 46, N 46.

Bill had been amended to allow minors to receive medical care for pregnancy (without parental knowledge) only and not the original “medical, mental, or other health care services”. The bill was defended by pro-life groups and according to one of my Senators the only group that spoke against what I consider a usurpation of parental rights was the North Dakota Family Alliance.

SB 2248 - Deals with computer luring of minors.

·          Passed House as amended, Y 92, N 0  3/14. Returned to Senate 3/15. Senate refused to concur; conference committee  appointed.  Motion was made ‘to reconsider’ which prevailed and the conference committee dissolved.

I can’t see how anyone could oppose this bill on any grounds.

SB 2309 - Deals with high school graduation requirements increasing them to 24 by school year 2011-2012.

House Second reading, passed as amended, Y 59, N 32. Returned to Senate. Refused to concur. Conf. Committee appointed: G. Lee, Flakoll, Taylor. House Conf. Committee: L. Meier, Wall, Hunskor.

The bill has basically been stripped of its original mandates and now simply increases graduation credits. Apparently the Senate didn’t like what had been done in the House Education Committee. The Conference Committee will now attempt to work out the disagreements.

SB 2312 - An abortion bill which requires the Dept. of Human Services to disburse funds from Title IVA (Fed. Program) to non-governmental alternatives-to-abortion programs and mandates the DoHS spend funds to inform the public that this program exists.

·          Passed both houses. Awaiting Governor’s signature.

Would there be government strings attached to monies given to private groups? 

SB 2347 - Relates to the creation of the North Dakota promise grant program for students enrolled in institutions of higher education in North Dakota.

·          Passed the Senate Y40, N 7 on 2/14. Failed in the House Y28, N 65.

According to what I have read regarding the reasoning behind this bill’s failure ,it boiled down to money. Many believed that the financial cost to the State of North Dakota would be too great.

SB 2377 - Provides for a legislative council study of midwifery.

·          House, second reading, failed to pass, Y 3, N 90.

I am surprised by this turn of events. Even with the bill being almost completely gutted, I did think it would at least be considered worthy of study during the interim. I guess not. It’s probably just as well.

SB 2415 - Prohibits implanting microchips and provides a penalty.

·          Awaiting Governor Hoeven’s signature.

Prevents anyone from implanting a microchip containing a radio frequency identification device into anyone.

To find the Senate members go to:

http://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/60-2007/senate/members/

To find out who sits on what committee in the Senate go to:

http://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/60-2007/senate/standing-comm/

To read any bills currently in the hopper go to:

http://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/60-2007/leginfo/index.html

To find your Legislative District and members go to:

http://web.apps.state.nd.us/hubexplorer/legislativedist/viewer.html

During a legislative session, a legislator can be reached at the State Capitol through e-mail or by leaving a message with the legislative telephone message center at 1-888-NDLEGIS (635-3447) or 701-328-3373 (local). Otherwise, a legislator can be reached by mail, telephone, or e-mail at the address listed in the legislator's bio under Legislative Assembly.