Members of the South Dakota State Legislature’s Executive Board are putting lawmakers on interim committees for in-depth analysis of certain topics. The State Senate and House of Representatives select the panel to meet outside of the regular winter session. They met Tuesday in Sioux Falls.
Legislators on the Executive Board gather several times a year. They set travel policies for lawmakers going to state-sponsored and national events. Members also appoint lawmakers to committees that examine issues in summer studies.
Representative Dean Wink chairs the Executive Board. He says an end-of-session poll shows topics lawmakers think deserve attention.
"Concern with county governments – how they’re funded. We had several bills come through this year where county funding was inadequate, so that was the top vote-getter," Wink says. "And the other summer study is the South Dakota High School Activities Association. There was a bill that came through this session that had to do with one of their policies concerning transgender athletes and so on, and so those two were the most popular and so those are the two that we decided to have summer studies on."
Wink says lawmakers are considering more than one policy. He says state Senators and Representatives want to determine who oversees the South Dakota High School Activities Association and the legislature’s relationship with the organization.