A law state legislators approved last year is prompting changes to this session’s calendar. Some bills that alter laws related to criminal justice must have fiscal analysis attached. That bogs down workflow, so lawmakers are moving bill deadlines.
South Dakota’s legislature follows a set of rules. The rules dictate the hows and whens of getting bills through the Statehouse. Lawmakers are bound by those rules - but, they can change them.
State Senators are taking that opportunity to move the date bills must be submitted from Wednesday, January 29th to Friday, January 31st.
"What they’ve done is extended the deadline for the last day of unlimited bill introductions by two days, which simply provides the members a little more time to process drafts that were prepared over the weekend when they come back," Fred Schoenfeld, Executive Director of the Legislative Research Council, says.
Schoenfeld says including fiscal analysis with criminal justice bills helps lawmakers recognize the financial impact of altering the state’s laws on parole or incarceration, but preparing the paperwork takes time.
"This was as a result of getting backed up due to the additional work load of the judicial impact statements that were required for some of the legislation involving cost estimates of bills that change the incarceration of offenders," Schoenfeld says.
Schoenfeld says the Senate’s change doesn’t ripple through the rest of the session. He says bills still have to be back to the Legislative Research Council on Friday.
Now that legislation is filed and assigned to committees, dozens of bills are on the agendas this week. And Joint Appropriations members are scheduled to hear about health and human services issues for three full days.
The House of Representatives hasn’t extended the legislation deadline for its members; however, leaders from both chambers have a discussion scheduled Tuesday afternoon at 3 o'clock.