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During the 69th Legislative Assembly, North Dakota Democratic-NPL Insider will provide updates and calls to action each day of the regular session. If you would like to have something added to the newsletter, email us at [email protected]. Spread the word of our newsletter by sharing our sign-up link today: https://demnpl.com/join-our-newsletter/.
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Friday Federal News Round Up - 24 January
Each week, we will pull together a reasonable list of actions and ideas happening at the federal level. This is not an exhaustive list because none of us has that much time - to curate or to read. If there are issues you wonder about, let us know and we will try to get you more information.
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On Monday, January 20th, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president. A day that should have been a celebration of the work of MLK, Jr and so many civil rights activists with the election of a black woman to the presidency, was instead a deft display of the turn toward an oligarchy that this administration will be. Removing even many government officials and surrounding himself with the wealthiest men in America, Trump took his oath forgetting to put his hand on the bible. He moved the inauguration ceremony into the Capitol rotunda so he could be warm, while all the rest of his supporters were left out in the cold to watch on a large screen.
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Also on that day, Cecile Richards, long time president of Planned Parenthood, died surrounded by her loving family. Her work to keep legal the right of all people with reproductive capacity to have the autonomy and freedom to choose if and when they become parents was heroic. We lost a real champion, but she left us a legacy we will rely on to fight and reclaim reproductive freedom.
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He also, apparently on impulse, pardoned ALL but a small number of the January 6 insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol, destroying property and assaulting capitol police (those not pardoned had their sentences commuted.) In an act of utter disrespect to his colleagues, Speaker Mike Johnson allowed Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers and one of the recently freed insurrectionists, to come to the capitol this week and visit with some legislators. Just in, however, Judge Mehta barred him and other Oath Keepers whose sentences were commuted from going to Washington or the US Capitol without permission from the court. (Important to note that at least some of our courts are still holding, more on that a little further down).
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Also this week, Trump began removing people and committees implemented to keep Americans safe. One of those was the aviation security committee, put in place after the Lockerbie Scotland bombing. He also let go the head of the TSA (his own appointee).
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You can find a list of all the executive orders signed by Trump since he took office this second term. One of the first was the rescinding of birthright citizenship. This was immediately challenged and is on hold with an action by a Washington judge, and will likely be just one of many court challenges.
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Meanwhile the cabinet nominee hearings have been going on this week, and it appears one of the more controversial, and completely unqualified nominees, Pete Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense, will get a full vote. Our senators, Cramer and Hoeven, voted with all but 2 Republican senators to advance his nomination.
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And finally for this week, Trump takes aim at education, even as we battle attacks on public education here in ND. He rescinded President Biden’s actions to strengthen Tribal Colleges and Hispanic serving institutions and attempted to contradict the science of the gender spectrum.
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MAGA, formerly known as the Republican party, is now led by a man with no ability to govern who is bent on breaking our country. Watch this space to stay informed, and find the Get Involved tab to join the fight from here in ND.
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-Cheryl Biller, Democratic-NPL Executive Director
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What happened today in the ND legislature?
Compared to national news, today was a good day in North Dakota!
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Sen. Chuck Walen's (R-4) bill (SB 2178)—which would have required voters to publicly request their party ballot of choice at the primary polls, would have tracked voters’ political party selection and kept it on record, and decreased the timeframe a voter could request a primary election absentee ballot—failed to pass the Senate!
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What's coming up?
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Rep. Mike Schatz (R-39) bill HB 1244 would divert public resources up to $10,000 per child for home school expenses through a tax credit. It's scheduled for a vote on Monday, January 27.
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Democratic-NPL Bills
Rep Jayme Davis' bill (HB 1564) which updates North Dakota's Indian Child Welfare law, will be heard and Rep. Mary Schneider's bill (HB 1567) proposing a legislative management study to improve access to dental and oral health care for low-income children, Native American children, and individuals with disabilities will be heard in the House Human Services Committee.
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Sen. Kathy Hogan's bills (SB 2282) for an income tax credit for child care contributions provided by qualified employers and (SB 2281) regarding taxes on vapes will be heard in the Senate Finance and Taxation Committee.
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Her bill (SB 2305) to continue a family paid caregiver service program and the cross-disability advisory council and Sen. Tim Mathern's bill (SB 2316) to augment long-term care services for patients with ventilator or psychiatric needs will be heard in the Senate Human Services Committee.
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District 44 Public Forum
Saturday, January 25, 2025 – 10:00 AM
Northport Library Community Room
2714 Broadway North, Fargo
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Sen. Josh Boschee and Reps. Karla Rose Hanson and Austin Foss will provide updates about the session and take questions.
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District 12 Blue Dinner
Friday, January 31, 2025 – 6:00 PM
The Bunker
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1520 3rd St SE, Jamestown
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The Winter Blue Dinner will be held on Friday, January 31st at 6:00 PM at The Bunker in Jamestown, where attendees can enjoy a warm chili and baked potato bar, participate in a pie auction and silent auction, and engage in meaningful discussions. This is a family-friendly event and all ages are welcome.
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The evening features dynamic speakers who will share recent insights and empower attendees to take action. Josh Boschee, member of the North Dakota State Senate, will outline state legislative priorities for the year ahead and discuss how to “cut through the noise” to meet the core needs of our communities. Katrina Christiansen, former U.S. Senate candidate and university educator, will highlight the power of people-oriented campaigns focused on local issues. Olivia Schloegel, District 12 Chair and former ND State Senate candidate, will share how individuals can step up in their communities, whether through involvement in local initiatives or by organizing at the grassroots level.
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General admission tickets are $35, Kids (6 -12 years old) tickets are $12, and Kids 5 and under can join at no cost. Tickets can be bought online at secure.actblue.com/donate/d12bluedinner or by mailing a check to District 12 Dem-NPL, PO Box 873, Jamestown, ND, 58402.
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Legislative Updates with District 21
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Saturday, February 8, 2025 – 11:30 AM
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Amvets 1001 1st Ave S, Fargo
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We are hosting a Legislative Update Lunch on February 8th! We will be hearing from Senator Kathy Hogan and Representatives Mary Schneider and LaurieBeth Hager. We would love to see you there- and invite a friend!
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Where: AMVETS Post 7 1001 1st Ave S Fargo
When: 11:30-1:00 PM
$8 brats/burgers plus sides (optional)
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Excited to see you all there!
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District 36, 37, and 39 Reorganizations
Wednesday, February 12, 2025 – 7:00 PM
The Press Box at Players Sports Bar & Grill
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2050 1st Ave E, Dickinson
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District Reorganization is a great time to get involved in your local Democratic-NPL Party! District 36 is located in Dunn, Stark, and Morton Counties. District 37 is located in the City of Dickinson. District 39 is located in Golden Valley, Billings, Slope, Bowman, Dunn, Hettinger, Stark, and Adams Counties.
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District 24 Reorganization
Sunday, February 16, 2025 – 2:00 PM
District 24 Headquarters
200 N. Central Ave. Valley City
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District Reorganization is a great time to get involved in your local Democratic-NPL Party!
District 24 consists of all of Barnes and Ransom Counties.
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Cass County Dem-NPL Re-organization meeting
Saturday, February 22, 2025 – 10:00 AM
Carl Ben Eielson School
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All Dem-NPL districts will meet on Saturday, February 22nd at Carl Ben Eielson school, 1601 S 13th Ave. Fargo from 10:00-12:30 pm. Coffee & Rolls will be served. We will meet in the lunchroom for the kickoff before each district moves to their assigned room to elect, Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary & Treasurer and any additional leadership that the district membership deems necessary.
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The District with the most members will be awarded a prize!
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Please join your neighbors from all 11 districts in Cass County and help plan the next two years to be successful ones.
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Northern Valley Dem-NPL Reorganization
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Saturday, March 1, 2025 – 10:00 AM
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Ramada Inn Grand Forks
1205 N 43rd St, Grand Forks
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Save the Date!
We’re excited to announce the Northern Valley Dem-NPL (NVD) Re-Organization event!
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Please mark your calendar and join us for this important gathering:
When: Saturday, March 1, 2025
Time: 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Where: Ramada by Wyndham Grand Forks
This is a great opportunity to connect with fellow Democrats, engage in meaningful discussions, and plan for the future. Spread the word and bring your friends along!
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Dist 29 Dem-NPL Reorganization Meeting
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Sunday, March 16, 2025 – 2:00 PM
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District 29 Democratic-NPL will host their Re-Organization meeting March 16 2pm at the Pekin Community Center.
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Help us spread our message—share these posts from the past week!
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Committee votes to tweak North Dakota lawmaker term limits
House Minority Leader Zac Ista, D-Grand Forks, said he believes the voters spoke clearly in 2022.
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“I think it’s a little bit of legislative hubris for us to question what those voters put in place,” Ista said. “None of us are irreplaceable or indispensable. If somebody loses out on a couple of years of service based on the term limits, this body is going to do just fine. So, I’m not inclined to support it.”
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Trio of bills show potential changes coming to North Dakota elections
Erica Johnsrud, McKenzie County's auditor/treasurer, said the bill would increase costs for counties for additional ballots and workers, place possible limitations on where they can have voting locations, create additional challenges for balancing and handling ballots, and decrease voter anonymity.
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She was right
What did Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde say in her sermon that was wrong? At the Washington National Cathedral, the Bishop pleaded for three things: She asked for dignity, honesty, and humility. She accurately pointed out that certain groups of people in this country are scared. People that work hard everyday doing jobs that many Americans don’t want to do. People that are struggling with their sexuality. Human beings that few of us understand.
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A judge strikes down North Dakota’s abortion ban and rules that access is protected
“We have been made to choose between saving a patient’s life and possibly facing jail time,” Dr. Ana Tobiasz, a fetal-maternal medicine specialist in the state capital of Bismarck, said during a Zoom news conference. “We are finally free to put our patients’ health first and offer patients the standard of care without fear of facing criminal prosecution.”
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North Dakota bill requiring inmates to serve 85% of prison time draws heated, lengthy debate
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Minimum mandatory sentencing laws do not reduce crime or recidivism, said Andrew Myer, a criminal justice professor at the University of Cincinnati Corrections Institute.
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“For deterrence to work, we need three things to happen,” he said. “We need certainty, which means that the person will be arrested or caught for their crimes, we need celerity, that the punishment will happen quickly, and we need severity, that the punishment is at an appropriate level.”
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North Dakota researchers digitize records from Native American boarding school
Researchers are digitizing historical records from a Native American boarding school in Bismarck, aiming to bring information closer to the communities affected by its existence.
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“There’s a hunger to understand this part of our history, to better understand the boarding school era,” said Prairie Rose Seminole, who is part of the team working on the project.
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Forum editorial: U.S. Attorney Mac Schneider quietly helped make North Dakota safer
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When a deranged gunman opened fire on Fargo police officers on July 14, 2023, Schneider’s office devoted federal resources to local and state agencies to learn as much as possible about the madman and support victims of his ambush.
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Schneider could have tried to grab the spotlight, but instead he quietly worked to ensure others had the federal government’s help.
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The same can be said about Schneider’s efforts to secure four more assistant attorneys to better prosecute violent criminals and crimes in Indian Country.
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“It is utterly unacceptable the lack of law enforcement resources — boots on the ground, investigators, all of it — in Indian Country,” Schneider told The Forum. “It is not something that any community across this country would accept, and it is unacceptable in that context, as well.”
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"F--k it: Release 'em all": Why Trump embraced broad Jan. 6 pardons
But as Trump's team wrestled with the issue, and planned a shock-and-awe batch of executive orders Day 1, "Trump just said: 'F -k it: Release 'em all,'" an adviser familiar with the discussions said.
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CPS says ICE agents kept out of South Side school, but feds deny any action there
Chicago Public Schools officials said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were turned away after arriving at a Southwest Side elementary school Friday morning, but ICE and Homeland Security officials have denied the claims.
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Birthright citizenship of Native Americans questioned by Trump administration
Questions about whether Native Americans born in the United States have birthright citizenship if they aren’t “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S. — such as if they live on sovereign tribal land — were raised in a U.S. Justice Department filing this week defending President Donald Trump’s executive order suspending such citizenship.
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However, the arguments are based on 19th-century legal provisions that precede the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 passed by Congress, which established citizenship for Native Americans who were previously excluded by the Constitution.
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Project 2025 parallels in Trump's executive order avalanche
"As President Trump has said many times, he had nothing to do with Project 2025," White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields said in a statement to Axios this week.
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Trump Wants You Exhausted. Here's How to Fight Back
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The Trump outrage cycle is built to exhaust you. It is intended to make you stupid and scared (the worst possible combination). It is made to disincentivize you from acting.
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President Donald Trump was dealt his first major legal blow since returning to the White House when a federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked his executive order to end birthright citizenship for the future children of some immigrants. U.S. District Judge John Coughenour, a Reagan appointee, called the order "blatantly unconstitutional." In all of the nonsense this week, one executive order that's received less attention is the administration's move to designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. Keegan Hamilton, senior editor for legal affairs and criminal justice at the Los Angeles Times, explains the real-world implications of Trump's cartel order.
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Elon Musk doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt
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Musk has a long and extensive track record of extreme-right politics, flirtations with antisemitism, and juvenile trolling. This assessment does not hinge entirely on one gesture but on the totality of his public behavior. Just a few years ago, someone this radical wouldn’t be anywhere near a presidential inauguration.
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Musk’s presence there, and his ability to avoid even a hint of contrition for doing something that emboldens America’s neo-Nazis, is a sign of a deeper rot.
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Why Trump’s Meme Coins Have Alarmed Both Crypto Insiders and Legal Experts
Crypto insiders worry that the coins will make the public even leerier of an industry already filled with scams and bad-faith actors. “The crypto sector put someone in power whose first act is to emphasize and take advantage of the opportunity for grift within crypto,” says Angela Walch, a crypto researcher and writer. “And that's just embarrassing.”
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Committees
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Every bill is voted on in the North Dakota legislature, but first, it must go through a committee hearing. The committee will vote to give the bill a "Do Pass" or a "Do Not Pass" recommendation. Below is a list of Standing Committees this legislative session.
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Senate Standing Committee Members
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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Meets Monday through Friday
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Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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Desiree Van Oosting (R-36)
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Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
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Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
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Desiree Van Oosting (R-36)
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Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
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Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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House Standing Committee Members
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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Gretchen Dobervich (D-11)
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Cynthia Schreiber-Beck (R-25)
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Meets Monday through Friday
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Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
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Cynthia Schreiber-Beck (R-25)
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Patrick R. Hatlestad (R-1)
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
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Mike Motschenbacher (R-47)
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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Gretchen Dobervich (D-11)
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Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
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Lisa Finley-DeVille (D-4A)
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Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
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Lawrence R. Klemin (R-47)
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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Patrick R. Hatlestad (R-1)
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Lawrence R. Klemin (R-47)
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Mike Motschenbacher (R-47)
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Meets Thursday and Friday
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Lisa Finley-DeVille (D-4A)
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The Century Club supports our year-round work to build party infrastructure supporting candidate recruitment, local district and regional leadership, issue-based education, and tools for Dem-NPL success.
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Help us elect great Democrats up and down the ballot!
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The North Dakota Democratic-NPL is launching a new grassroots program called “Neighbor to Neighbor” where volunteers will connect with voters in your community to elect Democrats up and down the ballot. As a volunteer, you will be responsible for connecting with voters in 25 homes in your neighborhood or friends and family to help elect Democrats up and down the ballot about 3-4 times this year.
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Grassroots organizers are the lifeblood of the Dem-NPL! Sign up to volunteer with the Dem-NPL!
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