Deutsch: Lawmakers off and running

Legislative report

Posted

Greetings! Week one is in the books!

We started the week with the governor’s State of the State address. All I could say when it was over was, “WOW!” Here are some areas Governor Noem is asking the House and Senate to pass this session:

• Ban abortions that take place due to a Down Syndrome diagnosis.

• Invest $40 million into college scholarships, so students can be matched with high demand career opportunities.

• Extend broadband internet access to the 135,000 South Dakotans who don’t have it.

• Remove government “red tape” in health care.

I look forward to helping the governor pass a Down Syndrome abortion ban. Any time I can help save a human life from abortion, I believe I’ve accomplished something really, really important.

The governor’s other requests strike me as ambitious but doable. Passing them will help improve the quality of life in District 4. Think about it. If we could bring high speed internet to every home and business in our district and install cell towers to ensure coverage to every single resident in District 4, wouldn’t that make a difference? I think so.

The governor also covered other areas of economic development. She gave examples like the expansion of Amazon into Sioux Falls with their 200-million-dollar project building a new distribution center and adding over 1,000 jobs; and a $500 million project building a new food production facility by CJ Foods in Sioux Falls.

By the end of the week more than 60 House bills and more than 70 Senate bills were filed. A few that I am watching:

• HB 1034 to revise certain youth hunting requirements to encourage more youth to get outdoors.

• HB 1046 to limit liability for certain exposures to COVID-19, geared toward protecting business owners, healthcare providers and makers of personal protective equipment.

• HB 1058 to authorize the recall of county commissioners. The bill establishes similar processes that are in place to remove elected city officials.

As for my bills, it was my honor to introduce the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. The bill begins, “The same available means and medical skills that a physician would render to any child born alive to promote, preserve, and maintain the child’s life, must be used to promote, preserve, and maintain the life of a child born alive as a result of an abortion or an attempted abortion at the same gestational age.”

The bill protects infants who survive the violence of a botched abortion from any further violence. The bill requires the abortionist to provide care noted above and then transfer the born-alive infant to a hospital for the emergency medical care he or she deserves.

If you would like to read the bill. It is HB 1051. It is available along with all bills on the https://sdlegislature.gov/ website. 

Another bill I introduced this week comes from one of our District 4 school districts. It would allow school districts flexibility in the use of wind-tower tax revenue. Currently the tax revenue can only be used for expenses in the General Fund. Under the bill, schools will have flexibility to put the revenue in either the general fund to pay for expenses like teacher salaries or put it in the Capital Outlay fund to pay for building projects. 

If successful, the bill will allow school districts to make that determination based on what’s best for the school district. It would only apply to wind-tax revenue.

I am also working with a broad-based coalition of legislators, law enforcement, marijuana lobbyists and others to write safety measures in the medical marijuana law. It’s likely we will have a bill later this session. The bill will not change anything about accessibility to legal medical marijuana but will implement common sense restrictions such as you can’t drive a vehicle when intoxicated.

None of our work pertains to recreational marijuana, as this is currently before the Supreme Court, and not within the purview of the legislature.

Of interest, we have eight new marijuana lobbyists registered in the Capitol. And, when I searched the Secretary of State’s site for new businesses containing the word “cannabis,” I found 30. That doesn’t include new cannabis businesses that doesn’t include the word cannabis in its name.

In closing, feel free to contact me at fred.deutsch@sdlegislature.gov. Please know that when writing to me about an issue, emails do not need to be lengthy. It’s enough to identify the issue – use the bill number if you know it – and explain briefly how it affects you. 

Mass emails or copy-and-paste emails are ineffective. It’s better to explain one or two key points in your own words about why you support or oppose a measure. If you can point out unintended effects, have constructive suggestions or workable alternatives, that is particularly helpful.

That’s it for now. Thank you for the opportunity to represent you in Pierre.