Murphy’s Law 2023 | #2
Session Begins

Today is the third day of the session but still the first official legislative day (we get 80). This is because they only count as an official day if the House and Senate convene in their respective chambers. They did so on Tuesday to kick it off, but they don’t have enough bills that have made it through committees to act on together. So tomorrow, Friday, they will convene, and it will be day two. Most days after this will be counted, though at the very end they might hold off to let conference committees get ‘er done.

I would say that one bill of importance was discussed this afternoon in Senate Transportation. Bill 2113 would allow North Dakota Department of Transportation (NDDOT) to establish a separate fund to help out on something besides Federal and State road systems. This means that counties, townships and cities would qualify for whatever aid this new fund would offer. NDDOT Director Henke told the committee that the NDDOT would like to help but often have their hands tied as the two sources of NDDOT funding are constitutionally bound for either Federal or State roads. He quoted, as an example, the township around Casselton this summer asking for help to fortify roads near the new soybean crush plant and told the committee that they had to tell the township that they could not. This would give them that flexibility and it passed out of committee 5-0.