701-566-9300Here we are at Legislative Day #13 and starting to get some idea of how things are going this session. One area of agreement that efforts during the Interim helped settle is that of Grain Inspection and related issues. That bill, HB1026, passed the House floor today with no dissenting votes. Congratulations to all who have helped get to this point. It would be highly unusual for this not to pass the Senate once the bills crossover in a month or so. SB2026, on the other hand, is taking a rockier path to passage. That is the Road Trains bill which would allow the Governor to institute a pilot program. It got a 6-0 Do Not Pass Recommendation but then passed the floor on Friday to breathe new life and live to fight another day on the House side.
Water has gotten the attention of many with the advent of SB2208 which in its present form would hinder Water Resource Districts, tiling, snagging and clearing and assessment drainage (by changing the percentage of voter approval from a simple majority to 60 percent) to name a few provisions. As happens to most if not all lawmakers at some point, the intricacies of law lead to sponsors not being fully aware of the implications and therefore this bill will be undergoing substantive revisions. One major player told me today that the tiling provisions will be stripped out while snagging and clearing will also be stricken but probably appear somewhere else. If those and other changes are sufficiently friendly to producers and the Water Resource Districts it will become possible to support it.