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Senate committee issues unanimous do-not-pass on assistance-animal documentation bill; advocates press for federal alignment
Summary
The committee voted unanimously for a do-not-pass recommendation on Senate Bill 2222 after testimony from disability advocates, legal aid and state agencies who warned the bill would impose stricter requirements than federal law and risk loss of federal cooperative status.
Sen. Bob Paulson introduced Senate Bill 2222, which would add state requirements for documentation and renewal of assistance-animal and service-animal certification and would impose penalties for knowingly providing false documentation.
Advocates for people with disabilities, fair-housing organizations and civil-rights groups testified against the bill in its current form. Christina Sambor of the High Plains Fair Housing Center and Micah Olson of North Dakota Protection and Advocacy both said the bill as drafted would require documentation from medical providers licensed in North Dakota and would require annual renewal of documentation. They argued those provisions would be unduly burdensome, could harm tenants who move into the state while receiving care elsewhere, and would make North Dakota law more restrictive than federal requirements under HUD guidance and the Fair Housing Act.
Zachary Greenberg, interim commissioner of the Department of Labor and Human Rights, warned that the proposed language could put the state out of “substantial equivalency” with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). He said loss of that substantial-equivalency designation would end the cooperative agreement with HUD that provides federal funding (recently about $125,000 annually) and allows coordinated investigations of housing-discrimination complaints.
Medical stakeholders raised concerns with the bill’s penalty provision and licensing requirement. Donna Thronson of the North Dakota Medical Association opposed the bill’s penalty and asked for further work with licensure language.
Multiple tenants and service/assistance-animal users described how emotional-support animals or assistance animals enabled daily functioning, and urged lawmakers to avoid language that would hinder access. Witnesses proposed changes including allowing licensed out-of-state providers and licensed mental-health professionals (licensed clinical social workers, licensed therapists, psychologists) to provide documentation and removing the annual-renewal requirement.
The committee recorded a unanimous do-not-pass recommendation for Senate Bill 2222. Committee members said they would prefer to address the concerns and coordinate amendments on the companion bill pending in the House rather than advance this version through the Senate committee.
