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North Dakota Legislative Session 2009: A Primer |
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Written by Chet
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Monday, 05 January 2009 |
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(Click here to quick link to some basic resources for the 2009 North Dakota Legislative session.)  I can't write everything I'd like to write about the North Dakota Legislature here for a variety of reasons, but I can give you a few primers on the 2009 North Dakota Legislative Session. Here are some things every North Dakota citizen should know:
- Start Date - The 61st North Dakota Legislative Session (the "session") starts tomorrow, Tuesday, January 6th, 2009.
- The Website The legislature maintains an okay informational website. It's not perfect, but it can be helpful at times. You can get to it at this web address: http://www.legis.nd.gov/
- Stuff on the Website - Here's a list of some of the useful resources on North Dakota legislature's website:
- A list of Senators. The list should contain contact information for your Senator. Use the contact information to let your legislators know how you feel about a pending bill
- Bill Status Inquiry page (If you know the number for the bill you're trying to find out about, you can enter it here to find out its status.)
- A Major Topics Index page (If you don't know a specific bill number but want to look around at what's going on under various major subject areas, use this page.)
- A Committee Hearings Schedule page. If you want to see what the various legislative committees are up to, this page might be useful to you.
- A Daily Calendars page. This page is updated at least daily during the session. You'll be able to follow along with what's going on on the floor(s) of the House and Senate.
- Daily Roll Call Vote page. If this works like it worked last session, I think they'll update the page in real time, as votes happen on the floor.
- A Budget page. This page isn't of much use to Republicans. Borrow and spend. Borrow and spend. Puff out your chest and gloat about what a budget hawk you are when oil prices fortuitously go up. You know the drill.
- Audio/Video Coverage page. While you work or home, you can have near-real-time audio or video of the floor sessions playing in the background on your computer. If someone starts talking about something you are interested in, you probably will want to have a copy of Audacity -- a free streaming audio recording program -- installed on your computer so you can record the floor debate. If you're able to record something REALLY interesting, convert it to an MP3 file (using the free MP3 encoder optional download) and e-mail it to me. I'll probably post it here. [This link may be a bad link until the session starts. I'll try to remember to come back and correct it if it's wrong. Or remind me to do so.]
- Crossover - February 20th is "crossover." That's a sort of "drop dead" date; the date by which bills generally must "cross over" from one legislative chamber to the other.
- Bill Grids - Probably the single most useful thing you are going to learn about in this blog post is this: Fair Housing of the Dakotas maintains an AWESOME bill grid that breaks down some of the more interesting and/or important pieces of legislation pending before the North Dakota legislature. Someone at FHD tracks all these bills and updates the grid on a daily (?) basis -- or pretty close to it -- during the session. If you're interested in human rights or labor issues (including workers comp) or arts or election law or non-profit/charity or children/minor/student issues, this grid will keep you up to speed on many of the more interesting bills addressing those issues during the legislative session. Click here to view the grid. Watch this grid during the session to track the progress of some of the more important pieces of legislation. Though nowhere near as user-friendly as Fair Housing's grid, the Association of Counties keeps a fairly decent list of interesting bills too. You can read their list by clicking here. NDACo keeps a hearing schedule you can read by clicking here, too. They've got some other potentially useful info you can find by clicking here. [I'm sure there are other good grids out there. If you know of any other organizations' online bill grids (etc.) that people might find usefull, please send me the URL(s) and I'll add links here.]
- Testifying - Anybody can -- and should -- testify to the legislature about a proposed law. You do not have to register as a lobbyist unless you are going to speak on behalf of someone (or something) else. To express your own opinion, you do not have to register as a lobbyist. If you are going to lobby for a group, you generally will have to register. You can find links to pages about registering as a lobbyist and information about "how to testify" by clicking here (the links are to the left after you click through, below the word "general"). What I'd suggest is this: Go watch a committee hearing a day or two before you plan to testify. Listen to how a "real" lobbyist addresses the chairman and other members of committees. When you testify, try to use some of the same jibber-jabber the lobbyists use. That way you won't look like a newb when you testify. Lastly, don't be surprised when the committee doesn't take action on the bill you're interested in while you're in the room. It's not uncommon for them to put off their votes until nobody is around but the lobbyists who get paid the big bucks to linger in the hallways and wait for the committees to take action on bills. That's just the way it is.
I'm not sure what else to tell you. Someone (thanks, DW) was kind enough to get me a media floor credential for the session. I almost never get up to the capitol building duirng the session, but maybe I'll get up there this year. I might even try to get up there for the Governor's budget address, or something. I don't know.
If there's something pending that's interesting and you'd like to share what you know, feel free to post a comment under this (or any later legislative blog post) or shoot me a note at northdecoder at gmail daught com.
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