Weekly Recap - Week 8
We are now in the last week of the session. Monday was our last day to move bills off the Senate or House floor with either an affirmative vote to pass or to kill a bill by it not receiving enough votes to pass. There will be some bills that have been amended in the Senate or House that will need to move to the other chamber for concurrence on the amendment. If one chamber or the other does not like the amendment, the bill will be sent to a conference committee of 3 comprised of 2 Republicans and 1 Democrat to see if there can be some kind of agreement worked out on the bill. If there is an agreement worked out, it will go back to both chambers to be concurred with. If there is no agreement found, it will go back to both chambers, and the motion would be to not concur and reappoint. Typically this could happen three or four times. If, after that many attempts are made, and the two chambers can not agree, then the motion would be to not concur and not reappoint, killing the bill. Rarely does this happen to a bill, but it does occur every now and then. On Monday, there were 27 bills to be heard on the Senate floor. I would say about half of them are budget bills that will fund things like new buildings at the State Universities, water and sewer projects through the state, cleanup of the Big Sioux River, and improvements to the state radio system. By no means is this list all of the budget bills.
Sometime this week, we will be hearing Senate Resolution of Disapproval 901. It is the resolution to prevent to Governors Executive Order to merge the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources from taking effect. SCR 901 was heard in and passed out of Senate Ag and Natural Resources Committee last week by a slim 4 Yeas to 3 Nays. I am a member of the committee and voted in favor of the resolution. I think if I counted the emails I have received on this issue, the number would tally over 100 right now, with I’m guessing 10% of them received from District 6. I believe all of the District 6 emails do not support the merger, and more than 90% of all emails received do not support the merger. Even most of the farmer and rancher emails do not support the merger. The reasons are ones I agree with; agriculture producers believe they need a stand-alone department that only focuses on agriculture, and they are afraid that they will lose services provided by the department and that the department will focus on environmental issues more. On the other side are the people more interested in the Environment and Natural Resources issues. Their concern is the opposite. They are afraid the agriculture arm will take command, and the environment and natural resources part will not be enforced/watched out for properly. No matter the outcome, I believe the proposed merger is something that should be either approved or disapproved by the full Senate.
As the budget process finishes up its work this week, the Legislature will once again pass a structurally balanced budget for the State of South Dakota with great steps taken to improve the infrastructure needs in the regional system, railroads, Ellsworth Air Force Base, broadband access in underserved areas and mental health services to name a few.
Please contact me with your comments and concerns at herman.otten@sdlegislature.gov