North Dakota Senate approves suite of bills on elections, budgets, education and health; one tax measure fails

The North Dakota Senate on March 19, 2025 advanced and passed a package of bills covering elections, agency budgets, health and education policy while rejecting a duplicate agriculture valuation measure.

The measures include House Bill 1204, which expands the Century Code provision on publication of false information in political advertising to explicitly cover social media, commercial media, text messages and phone calls, and was approved 45-1 with one senator absent. The chamber also approved Senate Bill 2064 (46-0) updating controlled-substance scheduling, passed funding and administrative bills for higher education and state agencies, and approved changes to emergency medical services licensing. House Bill 1508, a duplicate change to agricultural land valuation, failed on a 2-44 vote.

The developments matter because they alter state criminal and administrative rules for political communications, provide funding or spending authority for state agencies and institutions, and change oversight and licensing rules for EMS operations. Several measures carried emergency clauses or one-time spending authorizations and some amendments will move to appropriations for additional review.

House Bill 1204 (false information in political advertising): The Senate approved the bill as amended to add explicit references to social media, text messages and telephone calls to the existing Century Code provision. Senator Bromberger (carrier) described the amendment as adding “social media and or commercial media” to the statute and Senator Cleary moved an amendment to include…