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Legislative roundup: Elections, transgender kids and Noem’s first signatures [1]

['John Hult', 'More From Author', '- February']

Date: 2023-02-03

PIERRE – Aside from the ongoing saga of censured-and-reinstated Sen. Julie Frye-Mueller and an emotional debate on transgender health care, elections were the major theme this week in the Legislature.

Our own Josh Haiar spent Friday morning in the House State Affairs Committee, where he heard debate on a few of the 46 election-related bills filed as of 1 p.m. Friday.

Here’s a link to the election bills. Here’s another for the “election verification” bills.

One of those bills, SB 55, would ban ranked-choice voting. It’s an option that isn’t currently used in South Dakota elections. The bill passed on the Senate floor Thursday and is headed to a House committee.

Josh is working on a rundown of the election proposals and the competing visions emerging from different factions of the Legislature.

Keep your eyes peeled, readers.

Another big topic this week? Trans health care.

We heard emotional debate on House Bill 1080, which would prohibit certain kinds of health care for transgender youth.

Supporter Rep. Brandei Schaefbauer, R-Aberdeen, quoted Martin Luther King Jr.

Another supporter, Rep. Liz May, R-Kyle, compared gender-affirming health care to lobotomies and other medical procedures that were once common but are now frowned upon.

None of that sat well with the bill’s opponents, including the South Dakota Legislature’s first openly gay male lawmaker, Democrat Rep. Kameron Nelson of Sioux Falls.

Nelson called the MLK quote “reprehensible” in the context of HB 1080, and vowed to fight for the LGBTQ+ community with this line: “I’m here, I’m queer, and I’m not leaving Pierre.”

HB 1080 passed the House 60-10 and heads to a Senate committee.

Lastly, Gov. Kristi Noem signed the first 2023 bills into law this week.

The big one was Senate Bill 41, which frees up $200 million in infrastructure funds to support the construction of workforce housing – funding that was supposed to be available last year.

Here’s a press release covering other new laws, and another one about Noem’s signature on an unemployment insurance tax cut.

Here’s an update on what happened this week with the bills we’re tracking:

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[1] Url: https://southdakotasearchlight.com/2023/02/03/legislative-roundup-elections-transgender-kids-and-noems-first-signatures/

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