PIERRE, SD (MITCHELL NOW) Week 4 in the state legislature is cruising right along. The deadline date for bill introduction has passed and there are about 500 bills and resolutions have been introduced. The www.sdlegislature.gov website is a great website to track and search for bills that interest you. The number of bills I introduced this year doubled from last year, and covered a verity of issues, and I even had to give away one to another Representative because I had too many bills on my plate and I wanted to make sure that bill was given the justice it deserved.
In House Transportation we heard a couple bills about licenses plates; one to create a license plate for hunting habitats and another one for creating a license plate for EMS workers, similar to the fire fighter license plates that you see.
Commerce and Energy heard HB 1169 on banning a few certain substances in food, that bill failed. We also heard HB 1183 to allow for virtual meetings and audits for insurance companies, that bill passed. We also heard HB 1196 that streamlines the process for event locations to acquire a one time use permit for on-site alcohol sales for events, that one also passed. Another one was SB 57, which was something I thought was already happening but wasn’t, it would allow inmates in prison that have a professional license to constructing governors homes to retain the hours they have earned on their license so they aren’t starting from scratch upon their release; they have an opportunity to be hired and actually use the skills and experience they acquired. Finally, we had HB 1139 that was supposed to allow campgrounds to have small amounts of off-sale artisan distilled spirits. Personally, I thought the bill seemed fine, but some individuals had issues with the bill, the sponsor went back to the drawing board and fixed those issues, re-introduced the bill, but unfortunately a whole different group of people had issues with the bill and it died in committee; which is unfortunate because I thought the bill was fine.
For the full House floor we had SB 54 to make sure that residents are the ones actually receiving resident hunting licenses by making a residency requirement rather than just owning property. This would prevent those rare licenses like elk and big horn sheep tags from getting snagged up by people that live out of state. As a hunter I thought the bill made sense and I voted for it, and it passed by a razor thin margin of two votes. Ironically, we just passed a bill to put in a residency requirement for resident hunting licenses, but in the coming week there will be a bill, SB 17, that is attempting to remove residency requirements for voting and would allow people to vote in South Dakota that don’t even live here; I will absolutely be voting against that one.
HB 1125 was a bill to prohibit someone from converting industrial hemp to a consumable marijuana product. This was an easy yes vote for me and it passed unanimously.
We also had a Special Joint Session of the House and Senate, which I was told almost never happens, where we heard from Governor Noem regarding the southern border. It was a very good speech that emphasized the importance and the danger we face from the southern border regarding gangs, drugs, cartels, illegal immigration, human trafficking, and how the cartels recklessly endanger lives.
I had two bills in House Judiciary Committee this week. The first one was SB 12 that would allow employers to fire or deny hiring someone for a safety sensitive job if they test positive for marijuana. This is for the safety of employees because we don’t want someone that is under the influence of marijuana to be operating heavy equipment like bulldozers or skid loaders. There is a way to quickly and accurately test to see if someone is under the influence of alcohol, but there isn’t a method to do that for marijuana; there is only a way to check if it’s still in someone’s system, which can remain in their system for weeks after use. It also allows employers to continue to operate a drug free workplace. This bill passed unanimously out of committee.
One bill I had drafted over the summer and wanted to introduce but had too many other bills I was working on I had to give away to someone else because I still wanted to see it pass, HB 1195 is commonly referred to Bentley’s Law and the idea originated in a different state. The concept of it is someone found guilty of vehicular homicide would owe child support to the victim’s surviving children. It also passed out of House Judiciary this week as well.
My other bill was a heavy heavy bill, HB 1192 would allow for the death penalty for someone that rapes a young child twelve years old or younger. That means if someone did the unthinkable to a child that the death penalty would be an available option in the worst of the worse cases. In cases where the death penalty wouldn’t be sought then the minimum sentence would be life in prison without the possibility of parole. Unfortunately, a few members on the committee gutted the bill to avoid taking a tough stand and amended the penalty down to be nothing really different than it is today. It passed out of committee unanimously as amended. We’ll see what transpires going forward. I would like to get this bill back in its original form because I believe protecting children has to be one of the most important things we can do.
In the coming week we will have a lot of pipeline bills regarding the CO2 pipeline and landowners rights. Rest assured, I have always been on the side of farmers and landowners and will continue to do so. No matter what we’ll keep on trucking as the legislative session continues. It continues to be an honor to serve everyone. As always, feel free to contact me with any questions, comments, or concerns. My email address is Ben.Krohmer@sdlegislature.gov.
Ben Krohmer
State House of Representatives, District 20