Thu, Oct 26th, 2023 - 10:17am
November 08, 2021 - 7:37am | By Kyle Cornell
(Bismarck, ND) -- North Dakota lawmakers are ready to dig into a special legislative session.
The session gets underway Monday as lawmakers considered how to allocate North Dakota's one-billion dollars in federal Rescue Plan. Much of the planning has been done by committees, but the allocations must be put up for votes, making it easier for lawmakers to move through the allocations more quickly.
Among the 26 bills also being considered are mandates for the COVID-19 vaccine and critical race theory. The Delayed Bills Committees meets shortly after the session opens to approve or reject bills for consideration.
As far as federal COVID funding, much of those dollars are expected to go towards infrastructure, and possibly a plan to bring Bakken oil to eastern North Dakota. The proposal would use 150-million dollars in federal stimulus money to build another pipeline to deliver the oil. North Dakota Pipeline Authority Director Justin Kringstad says he's consistently heard conversations arguing that there is a disparity between the western and eastern parts of the space when it comes to gas access.
Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner says he thinks a five day session is possible, but that a six or so day process is more likely.
