North Dakota House advances wide slate of bills, adopts public-safety, elections and veterans measures

The North Dakota House of Representatives considered and voted on more than two dozen bills during its session, approving measures on appraiser regulation, election timelines, a state rock designation, mobility-impaired parking, licensing for body-art facilities, interstate behavioral-health compacts, and several technical and administrative changes across state agencies.

Members passed bills addressing professional licensing and compliance, public-safety and veterans’ issues, and extended an existing moratorium on nursing-facility bed capacity. Lawmakers also defeated one campaign-finance measure that would have required candidate accounts to be non–interest bearing.

The measures that drew the longest floor attention included a revision to state rules for tattooing and body‑art facilities that creates a licensing and inspection requirement and a vote to extend the basic-care and nursing-facility bed moratorium to four years. A separate bill would give the Department of Insurance explicit authority to seek restitution for victims of violations of the insurance code; that measure passed after floor debate.

Votes at a glance - House Bill 1080 (appraisal management company statutory updates): passed (final vote recorded as 98 yea, 0 nay). Committee: Industry, Business and Labor; sponsor: Industry, Business and Labor Committee at request of the North Dakota Real Estate Appraiser Qualifications and Ethics Board. Purpose: update AMC statute for federal compliance. - House Bill 1138 (uniform bonding-election timing): passed (90 yea, 0 nay). Sponsor: Secretary of State; committee: Political Subdivisions. Effect: standardizes waiting period for bonding elections (from 20 to 64 days in certain circumstances) to create uniformity across election types. - House Bill 1186 (designate Knife River Flint as state rock): passed (89 yea, 1 nay). Sponsor: Political Subdivisions. Cited origin: Bottineau Rock Club-led outreach and statewide vote among geology clubs and residents. - House Bill 1137 (mobility-impaired parking permit display): passed (90 yea, 0 nay). Sponsor: Transportation. Change: allows permit to be displayed on dashboard as an alternative…