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 to rearview mirror. - House Bill 1140 (name bridge in Dickinson for Specialist John P. Fettig; emergency clause): passed (90 yea, 0 nay); emergency clause carried. - House Bill 1035 (social work licensure compact): passed (89 yea, 1 nay). Sponsor: Human Services. Purpose: create interstate compact to ease cross‑state practice for social workers, including benefits for military families. - House Bill 1039 (physician health program eligibility): passed (90 yea, 0 nay). Sponsor: Human Services; extends eligibility to former licensees in some circumstances. - House Bill 1071 (tattooing, body piercing, branding, subdermal implants, scarification — licensing and inspection; penalties): passed (75 yea, 15 nay). Sponsor: Human Services; includes licensing requirement, inspection access for the Department of Health and Human Services and a Class B misdemeanor for operating without a license. Floor discussion included questions about liability insurance and department access to records. - House Bill 1097 (study on accessibility for people who are deaf or hard of hearing): passed (87 yea, 1 nay). Sponsor: Human Services; directs a legislative management study on accessibility of government services. - House Bill 1108 (interstate compact for treatment of mental illness or substance use disorders; emergency clause): passed (89 yea, 0 nay); emergency clause carried. Sponsor: Human Services; designed to facilitate interstate treatment agreements, particularly with Minnesota. - House Bill 1154 (extend moratorium on basic care and nursing facility bed capacity from 2 to 4 years): passed (69 yea, 20 nay). Sponsor: Human Services. Floor debate highlighted differing views about frequency of statutory review and flexibility for bed conversions and exceptions for underserved areas or specialty populations. - House Bill 1062 (cleanups to utility/common carrier code): passed (98 yea, 0 nay). Sponsor: Energy and Natural Resources; updates statutes to reflect current Public Service Commission responsibilities. - House Bill 1043 (technical correction re: State Water Commission vice chair): passed (89 yea, 0 nay). Sponsor: Energy and Natural Resources. - House Bill 1042 (terminology cleanup: application → permit): passed (98 yea, 0 nay). Sponsor: Energy and Natural Resources. - House Bill 1041 (cleanup re: removal of noncompliant dike/dam language): passed (90 yea, 0 nay). Sponsor: Energy and Natural Resources. - House Bill 1157 (amend campaign-account rules to require non–interest-bearing accounts): failed (15 yea, 75 nay). Sponsor: Political Subdivisions; committee recommended do not pass. - House Bill 1158 (temporary exemption of petition records from open-records requests during 35-day verification window): passed (98 yea, 0 nay). Sponsor: Political Subdivisions; exempts initiative/signature records from open-records requests for the initial 35-day verification period. - House Bill 1162 (voting rights for West Fargo mayor on Lake Agassiz Water Authority board): passed (90 yea, 0 nay). Sponsor: Political Subdivisions; changes associate member status to voting member for West Fargo mayor. - House Bill 1077 (clarify National Guard security officer/firefighter retirement plan inclusion): passed (90 yea, 0 nay). Sponsor: Government and Veterans Affairs; cleanup to ensure consistent retirement-plan enrollment. - House Bill 1078 (reimbursement of certain medical expenses for ND National Guard; emergency clause): passed (90 yea, 0 nay); emergency clause carried. Sponsor: Government and Veterans Affairs; extends medical protection for state active-duty service members. - House Bill 1135 (raise Veterans Aid Fund maximum loan from $5,000 to $8,000): passed (90 yea, 0 nay). Sponsor: Government and Veterans Affairs. - House Bill 1148 (declare May Military Appreciation Month): passed (98 yea, 0 nay). Sponsor: Government and Veterans Affairs. - House Bill 1180 (technical cleanup re: veteran-earned benefits letters): passed (90 yea, 0 nay). Sponsor: Government and Veterans Affairs. - House Bill 1096 (reduce 911 assessed communication service fee from 5% to 2.5%): passed (89 yea, 0 nay). Sponsor: Finance and Taxation; committee recommended amendments and due pass when amended. - House Bill 1088 (insurance commissioner authority to seek restitution for victims of violations of insurance title): passed (final tally reported on the floor; committee recommended due pass with amendments). Sponsor: Industry, Business and Labor. Floor debate included concerns about the scope of restitution and evidentiary thresholds; supporters said the authority would aid victims in an identified egregious case. - House Bill 1044 (DNA collection procedures — allow correctional officers to collect saliva samples; emergency clause): passed (90 yea, 0 nay); emergency clause carried. Sponsor: Judiciary. - House Bill 1099 (print presidential candidates’ names on ballots as full names): passed (89 yea, 0 nay). Sponsor: Judiciary; aligns presidential-ballot name language with other offices. - House Bill 1110 (narrow exemption for Public Service Commission railroad-inspection records during active NTSB investigations): passed (82 yea, 8 nay). Sponsor: Judiciary; committee amended the measure to narrow the exemption after concerns from the press association and to limit the exemption to records tied to active NTSB investigations.

What happened on procedural and agenda items Several bills were formally returned from committees to the floor for withdrawal and then withdrawn by unanimous consent (examples on the 8th order included House Bills 1427, 1304, 1342 and 1439). The House also laid over certain bills and concurrent resolutions to later legislative days as part of routine agenda management.

Why this matters The package of bills advances statutory cleanups and policy changes that affect licensing and consumer protections, election timing, veterans’ services, and how the state regulates facilities and utilities. The passed moratorium extension and the tattooing/body-art licensing bill drew sustained floor attention because they touch provider operations, public health oversight and rural-care capacity.

Next steps Passed bills will proceed per the legislative calendar and, where included, emergency clauses take immediate effect. Several bills noted technical or implementation details that will be addressed in agency rules or later administrative action (for example, licensing rules for body‑art facilities and accounting/reporting protocols tied to campaign finances).