Legislative Update - Week 17 FINAL...for now

Legislative Update – Week 17 
It's Over...Kind of...

The North Dakota 64th Legislative Assembly has gaveled out “sine die” but they did not complete their work. They left town with unfinished business by failing to pass the budget for the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) SB 2022. House leadership refused to sit down with Senate leadership to resolve differences. Instead, the House adjourned for the session and the Senate would not accept the House version of the budget. Nearly everyone with extensive legislative history has never known of such circumstance. You can read more about that here. No one is really sure what will happen now, but the most likely scenario is the Governor calling them back for a special session before June.


Click here to see the final list of the bills NDWN followed in the tracking grid.
Save the date for the final legislative videoconference wrap up at 9am on Saturday, May 9th. We’ll go over the major accomplishments and missed opportunities from the 2015 ND Legislative Session.


Join us today, Friday May 1st, at Feminist First Friday. You can check our events page at www.ndwomen.org to see all the locations and times. I’ll be joining Fargo’s gathering and Caitlin will be joining Dickinson’s.


Once again, here is the overview of passed NDWN supported bills we sent to you last week.
We are pleased the Compassionate Care for Rape Victims Bill, SB 2284, with $250,000 funding has been signed by the Governor.
State policy for state employee family leave has been improved this legislative session. HB 1244 and HB 1387 allow state employees to use up to six weeks of earned sick leave for birth or adoption of a child.
The bill requiring reasonable accommodations for pregnant women, HB 1463, was also signed by the Governor

Every bill associated with Human Trafficking has passed nearly unanimously during the 2015 Legislative Session.