North Dakota Senate rejects expanded organizational-session rules, approves broad package of bills including consumer protections for crypto kiosks

BISMARCK, N.D. — The North Dakota Senate rejected a proposal to add detailed organizational-session requirements to state law but approved a slate of measures on Wednesday covering employee leave, traffic and emergency-vehicle lighting, cryptocurrency kiosks, artificial-intelligence disclosures in political ads, and other items.

The most contested measure, House Bill 1257, would have required a prescriptive set of orientation and training activities during the legislative organizational session. After floor debate in which senators argued the matter belonged in internal rules rather than in statute, the Senate voted 10 ayes, 36 nays, 1 absent; the bill failed.

Why it matters: Supporters said the bill would give newly elected legislators more time and structured instruction to perform duties effectively; opponents said legislative leadership can and should set orientation by rule so it can adapt over time. The bill carried a $9,407 fiscal note, which sponsors said was modest but illustrative of why prescriptive program details do not belong in the Century Code.

Votes at a glance (final tallies and short summaries)

- House Bill 15-99 — shared leave cleanup: Passed 45 ayes, 1 nay, 1 absent. Amends North Dakota Century Code section 54-06-14.7 to remove duplicative language and clarifies physician verification for shared leave; applies retroactively to July 1, 2023.

- House Bill 13-16 — temporary restricted licenses: Passed 45 ayes, 1 nay, 1 absent. Adds an additional fee for restricted-license holders with another moving offense and requires revocation after three moving violations following issuance of a temporary restricted license.

- House Bill 12-41 — authorized emergency vehicle lamps: Passed 46 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent. Allows purple lights for funeral processions and adds limited blue-light authorization for tow operators at scenes; bill originated from funeral-home and towing-industry requests.

- House Bill 12-57 — organizational session requirements: Lost 10 ayes, 36 nays, 1 absent. Would have specified orientation content and length for the legislature; State and Local Government Committee recommended "do not pass." Fiscal note $9,407.

- House Bill 14-47 — virtual currency kiosks (consumer protections): Passed 45 ayes, 1 nay, 1 absent. Establishes definitions and licensing for virtual-currency kiosk operators, requires visible fraud warnings and clear terms (fees, exchange rate), requires receipt options, and sets a $2,000 per-day transaction limit. Sponsors cited national and state fraud estimates and testimony from banks, law enforcement and industry.

- House Bill 11-67 — AI disclosure for political communications: Passed 46 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent. Creates an AI-disclosure requirement for political communications that use AI to generate images, video, audio, text or other content; disclosure language to be displayed in clear labeling.

- House Bill 11-40 — naming a bridge for Specialist John P. Fettig: Passed 46 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent; emergency clause carried. Designates the bridge on State Highway 22 in Dickinson in honor of Specialist Fettig, killed in action in Iraq on July 22, 2003.

- House Bill 11-70 — state employee annual leave (front load): Passed 36 ayes, 10 nays, 1 absent. Allows state agencies to front-load a 40-hour PTO balance for new hires (that front load does not roll over), intended as a recruitment tool.

- House Bill 10-88 — insurance-title penalties: Passed 45 ayes, 1 nay, 1 absent. Creates a penalty provision after a reported incident in which a consumer believed they had a health-care policy but later discovered they did not; sponsors and industry negotiated language to avoid implying automatic coverage while providing consumer protections.

- House Bill 13-44 — use of local jails/correctional facilities: Passed 46 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent. Creates guidelines for using local jails when Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DOCR) is at capacity and sets minimum daily-inmate terms in agreements.

- House Bill 15-18 — rotary/traffic-island signaling repeal: Lost 3 ayes, 43 nays, 1 absent. Sponsor asked for a "no" vote because the House had already passed the measure; the Senate rejected it.

- House Bill 14-15 — DOCR employee work schedules exempt from open records: Passed 46 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent. Adds DOCR employee schedules to the list of exempt records to protect staff safety after incidents where schedules were shared with a former inmate.

- House Bill 15-89 — firearms qualification for retired officers: Passed 46 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent. Allows retired law-enforcement officers to be certified for CLEOSA qualification by a certified concealed-weapons test administrator rather than requiring agency certification, easing scheduling burdens.

- House Bill 11-58 — petitions held by the Secretary of State: Passed 45 ayes, 1 nay, 1 absent. Temporarily exempts petition packets from open-records requests during the 35-day signature-verification period to protect originals and allow prompt verification.

- House Bill 11-38 — bonding-election timeline alignment: Passed 44 ayes, 2 nays, 1 absent. Extends the timeline for calling bonding elections from 20 days to 64 days, aligning it with other election timelines.

- House Bill 11-86 — Knife River Flint designated state rock: Passed 44 ayes, 2 nays, 1 absent. The bill originated from a student campaign in Bottineau; proponents highlighted cultural and geological ties.

- House Bill 10-78 — National Guard medical-reimbursement protections: Passed 46 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent; emergency clause carried. Extends medical coverage for members injured or ill from state active duty.

- House Bill 12-99 — citizen arrest statute update: Passed 45 ayes, 1 nay, 1 absent. Narrows circumstances when a private person may break into a building to make an arrest to situations involving a reasonable belief of imminent risk of serious bodily injury or death.

- House Concurrent Resolution 3008 — designation of state troubadour Chuck Souki: Passed (voice). The resolution designates Chuck Souki as the state troubadour for a five-year term.

- Senate Bill 20-38 — tax-incentive disclosure (concurred amendments and final passage): Passed 46 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent. Allows the tax commissioner, upon written request from legislative-management chairs, to disclose amounts of tax incentives claimed by taxpayers; the effective date was moved by the House to 12/31/2024 and the Senate concurred.

- Senate Bill 23-24 — county and city home-rule charter conformity: Passed 45 ayes, 1 nay, 1 absent. Allows home-rule charters to be amended by local governments to conform with statute or court orders.

- Senate Bill 21-22 — uniform commercial real-estate receivership act (and study): Passed 45 ayes, 1 nay, 1 absent. Creates provisions for commercial-real-estate receivership and requested a legislative-management study.

- Senate Bill 20-90 — state fire marshal/attorney general appointment updates: Passed 45 ayes, 1 nay, 1 absent. Updates statutory language to reflect organizational changes after the fire marshal moved under the insurance commissioner's office and adjusts hazardous-materials reporting language.

What happened on the floor: Sponsors summarized committee testimony and committee recommendations before each recorded vote. Several bills passed unanimously in committee and on the floor; some drew specific opposition (notably HB 12-57 and the failed HB 15-18). Sponsors repeatedly asked for "green" or "aye" votes; final tallies were recorded electronically by the secretary.

Context and notable details: Supporters of the cryptocurrency-kiosk bill (HB 14-47) cited national fraud estimates, testimony from law-enforcement and banking groups, and proposed a $2,000 daily transaction cap after negotiation with industry. Opponents of the organizational-session bill argued the legislature can set orientation by internal rule and that statutory prescription would make future adjustments difficult. The DOCR work-schedule exemption (HB 14-15) followed testimony about a specific incident in which a schedule photo was shared with a former inmate.

The Senate adjourned and will reconvene at 1 p.m. Wednesday, March 19, 2025.