A bill seeking to strengthen South Dakota’s conflict of interest and corruption laws dies in committee. While most described it as well-intended, criticism ranged from redundancies to overstepping the line of legislative authority.
A key provision of this bill would give the House and Senate Judiciary committees the legal authority to summon people to the Capitol.
Piedmont Republican Sen. John Carley is the prime sponsor.
“This bill simply does three things," Carley said. "It solidifies legislative subpoenas, two it strengthens whistleblower protections, and three it clarifies the conflict-of-interest provisions.”
However, opposition described the bill as largely redundant, pointing to recent reforms within state government that went into effect in the last year.
Senate Pro Tem Chris Karr was visibly skeptical of the bill and questioned an out-of-state lobbyist about the need for judiciary committees to have subpoena power.
“I just want you to understand how we do things in South Dakota as far as our Judiciary Committee meets during session only, and our (Government Operations and Audit) Committee meets year-round," Karr said. "Our judiciary committee hears bills, they’re a policy committee. They don’t really do investigations and oversight. That’s just not something they do, that’s why we have the GOAC committee. So, give me an example from these other states where a Judiciary Committee like ours has used subpoenas and would need to use subpoenas.”
That lobbyist was unable to answer Karr’s question.
Spearfish Sen. Randy Deibert then moved to kill the bill. He said it oversteps the bounds of what the Legislative branch of government should be capable of.
“There’s things in this bill that have merit, and there’s a couple things that don’t, that’s why I have the motion," Deibert said. "On the last part of this bill, it talks about instructing the judicial system what to do. I don’t think that’s our time and place, it’s a separate and distinct entity and we should treat them that way.”
The bill died on a vote of 7-1 Wednesday in the Senate State Affairs committee.