Legislative Update Week 4

With how week 4 ended, we looking forward to the coming weeks. Bill deadlines are at play now. While Senators had a bit more time to submit bills, their deadline was the 23rd. Now all additional considerations will need to be floated to the delayed bills committee chaired by Lefor (House) and Myrdal (Senate). With the bill count raising, GNDC is taking time to look at each bill and weigh their intentions and byproducts against the policy positions created by our members. While there are a few we like, we are seeing bad bills coming out of the woodwork and stinking up the capitol.
 
Bills as of Monday midday: 909 (increase of 225 one week, only 26 shy of last year’s total bill count)
Senate introduced: 362
House introduced: 547
GNDC tracking: 136
Days left in the session: 67 (max)

 
WEEK 3 GNDC RECAP:

• Appropriations
  • Testified in support of HB 1018 (ND Dept of Commerce) this week.
    • Special call out to Commerce’s Automation Grant – which unlike the Automation Tax Credit, is not limited to private sector. $10M for automation grants and $5M for automation workforce upskilling.

• Education
  • HB 1030: Career Builders Reauthorization (more on that to come) - Support
    • Program to support in-demand workforce training and retention needs
    • ​Passed house chamber 90-0 (emergency clause intact)
  • HB 1032: High-demand certificate scholarships  - Support
    • Specific to CNA and CDLs

• Industry, Business, and Labor
  • HB 1222: Expands veteran's preference eligibility - Monitor
    • ​will impact hiring practices of all employers

• Business Climate (Regulation)
  • HB 1124: “Ban the Ban” - Support
    • We like HB 1234 better as it’s more encompassing but this bill is specific to regulatory certainty and in this case natural gas in new construction.

• SUPPORTING: SB 2012: ND Dept. of Health and Human Services – we are watching issues related to workforce (childcare and vocational rehabilitation)
• MONITORING: HB 1240: This is continuation, modification, and additional appropriation to the Career Builders program. There are parts of this bill that we really like (flexibility in the source of matching funds) but we are watching to see the committee work and direction as well as the potential appropriation.

BUSINESS BUSTER LIST
We are also starting to compile those stinky, bad bills.

• HB 1460 employee opt-in employer paid family medical leave program 
• HB 1472 paving the way for a patchwork of political subdivision minimum wages 
• HB 1507 increasing minimum wage to $9/hour followed with automatic annual increases
• HB 1527 employers required to have a license to employ workers