By: Michael Achterling (ND Monitor)
With the 69th North Dakota Legislative Assembly finishing its business in the coming days, lawmakers elected members to the Legislative Management Committee to prepare for the next session and deal with any unfinished business.
The Legislative Management Committee has three primary roles during the interim before the 70th Legislative Assembly meets in January 2027.
The committee decides which studies will be completed before the next legislative session and assigns them to the appropriate committees. They will appoint lawmakers to at least eight mandatory interim committees and additional committees, such as the committee tasked with being the North Dakota version of the Department of Government Efficiency, that were approved during the session. Lastly, the committee will accept the reports compiled during the interim.
John Bjornson, director of the Legislative Council, said up to 60 discretionary legislative studies and up to 15 mandatory studies are approved during each legislative session, and it will be up to the committee to whittle that down to a more manageable 45 studies in total and assign them.
“Then, they might not meet again for months,” Bjornson said.
The Legislative Management Committee also has the power to reconvene the Legislature with a majority vote, using any unused days remaining from their 80-day allotment. If Gov. Kelly Armstrong calls for a special session, the Legislature would not need to use the remaining legislative days. It’s anticipated that lawmakers may need to reconvene to address impacts from federal funding cuts.
Speaker of the House Rep. Robin Weisz, R-Hurdsfield, said the committee also elects its own chairperson that would have additional responsibilities during the interim, such as approving requests from lawmakers to attend meetings requiring travel reimbursement and working with the Legislative Council.
“Legislative Management doesn’t have any role in funding,” Weisz said. “We have an Emergency Commission, a Budget Section that will deal with funding issues outside of session.”
Bjornson said the Legislative Management Committee is expected to meet in June to decide which studies to pursue and make interim committee appointments.
Members of the 2025-26 Legislative Management Committee are:
