Senate withdraws one bill, approves measures on rail, ethics, finance, pesticides and controlled substances

Bismarck — The North Dakota Senate on Jan. 13 withdrew Senate Bill 2162 by unanimous consent and gave final passage to a series of bills affecting rail policy, railroad crossings, ethics code language, controlled-substance scheduling, the Department of Financial Institutions' budget process, and state pesticide certification standards.

The most contested recorded vote of the morning was Senate Bill 2028, which establishes a continuing appropriation and a joint budget approval process for the Department of Financial Institutions; it passed 46-1. Senator Ben Barter, sponsor of SB2028, said the change would allow the department and the banking industry to respond faster to evolving regulatory needs and help keep regulatory control at the state level. “This is about keeping the regulatory control within the state and just providing our Department of Finance and the commissioner the ability to do so,” Barter said.

The Senate approved Senate Bill 2064, which updates the scheduling of controlled substances and includes an emergency clause. Senator Adrian Castaneda told senators the bill adds crystalline polymorph psilocybin (identified in the hearing as the compound currently known…