Legislative Update #2

This is definitely a first world problem, but ask any of my colleagues, and you’ll get the same answer. What’s the worst part of a short session? The answer: Week 3!  Next week, Senators and others will be doing everything that the legislature does all at the same time. They are debating carryover legislation (much of which is suspect at best), introducing new bills (Days 9 and 10 are usually big bill dump days) and holding public hearings on newly introduced bills. Even though we have Monday off for Martin Luther King Jr Day, I won’t probably be more tired on any Friday than January 23rd. Oh…and the bills that have hearings we are working on for next week have only been in the hopper for a few days, so everyone is scrambling to prepare testimony and information sheets and the like. Again…a first world problem. No sympathy expected!

Anywho…there have been 420 pieces of legislation introduced this year already, and my guess is we’ll see a couple hundred more next week. I had a client ask me today if there was anything ‘crazy’ introduced, and I said, ‘only about a hundred.’ So that’s not new and not surprising. It’s job security for yours truly! What I can tell you is that I believe there are just as many bills that this firm is watching as there are bills we aren’t. So that should show you that there are many bites being taken at the same pile of apples. That being said…there are probably only 51 working days left in the session. It’s going to be very fast and very furious.

As I mentioned, hearings start on Tuesday and officially kick the session into full speed ahead mode. Those hearings will continue every afternoon through the month of February. Our new bill tracking software is supposed to be using Artificial Intelligence to record and summarize those hearings into quick and readable form. We’ll see how those notes compare to the 20-somethings that I’ve had attending hearings for the past decade or so. So far, it’s been very cool to watch and utilize. When you hear from me next, we’ll have all the bills for the year in front of us, so the stage will be set and ready for action.

Have a great long weekend if you get one!

~Kent
 

2026 Legislative Bill Tracker
The passcode to NDHA Bill Tracker is 353742.