By: Mary Steurer (ND Monitor)
North Dakota senators on Tuesday narrowly rejected a proposal to add $1 million for a “life education committee” in the Office of Management and Budget budget to teach people about abortion alternatives.
The amendment was brought by Sen. Janne Myrdal, R-Edinburg, who pitched the program as a way to help pregnant women.
The committee established by the amendment would have administered a campaign to teach the public about state abortion laws, policies “supporting life and family values,” and resources available for pregnant mothers, families and children. The campaign would have been carried out by a third party contractor.
The amendment was added by the Senate Appropriations Committee, but split from the rest of the budget bill so the Senate could vote on it separately.
Sen. David Clemens, who made the motion to split the bill, said he is not opposed to the idea of the program but takes issue with the fact that the proposal was never heard by a policy committee.
“I feel this is in violation of our own rules,” he said. Clemens, R-West Fargo, noted that members of the public were not provided the opportunity to speak for or against the funding.
Sen. Brad Bekkedahl, a Williston Republican and chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he agreed with Clemens that the public did not get proper notice about the amendment.
“Had this been a standalone bill with its own title and its own placement into a policy committee, it would have had people interested in listening to the discussion,” he said.
Sen. Judy Lee, R-West Fargo, said the $1 million would be put to better use for guardianship grants. The request for the budget was about $9 million, but the OMB budget as currently written sets aside $8 million for the program, she said.
Myrdal said a procedural technicality should not stand in the way of something that will help women and children. She also pointed out that the committees routinely amend bills after their public hearings.
“Nothing was hidden, nothing was strange about it,” Myrdal said.
The North Dakota Supreme Court in 2023 warned the Legislature against lumping issues into budget bills when it found that the state’s previous OMB budget violated the state constitution’s single-subject rule.
The amendment failed by a 23-24 vote.
The Senate approved other changes to the OMB budget, which included grant funding for Prairie Public.
The House had stripped Prairie Public’s $1.2 million base funding after it passed House Bill 1255, which sought to bar the state from spending state money to support public broadcasting. House Bill 1255 was subsequently defeated in the Senate.
The Senate Appropriations Committee added $850,000 to Prairie Public’s budget for broadcast tower infrastructure, but did not restore its $1.2 million base funding.
The Senate also reduced funding for a proposed state hospital in Jamestown by $45 million.
The amended funding includes $200 million from the strategic investment and improvements fund and $85 million from a Bank of North Dakota line of credit, for a total of $285 million. The funding was shifted to the OMB budget because that agency will oversee the construction.
The House’s version of the budget included $330 million for the hospital in the state’s Department of Health and Human Services budget.
The budget also includes $2.3 million for new driveway and additional fencing for the governor’s residence.
The Office of Management and Budget bill will next go back to the House for a concurrence vote.
