Legislative Bills
A Bill is a document proposing a law to be considered by the legislature. A bill is introduced by either the House or the Senate at the beginning or during a short period of time after the beginning of the legislative session. They are sent to a committee in the body in which it was introduced. The committee hears testimony for and against each bill prior to giving a recommendation on its passage prior to the full vote by the entire legislature.
If the bill does not pass it does not become law.
If the bill is passed by the full legislature it is sent to the governor for signing. If the governor chooses to sign, the bill it becomes law.
Example - Step 3 - Bills & Legislative history
In our example we are attempting to locate the legislative history for Senate Bill No. 2265, enacted into law during the 2007 legislative session.
On the left-hand sidebar is a link to Legislative Bill Histories -- 1989 - 2021. This is a link to bill histories for that period broken down into sections for the House and Senate. There are also links to the individual sessions. North Dakota's legislature regular sessions meet from January to April every odd year.
Since we know the bill number (SB 2265) from the 2007 session, search for the bill in that year.
Legislative Histories for years prior to 2001 are only available on microfiche, or by contacting the ND Legislative Council.
By clicking on the link for SB2265 you can download a pdf version of the legislative history for that particular bill.
Legislative histories can vary, and may contain fiscal notes, committee votes, amendments, minutes, testimony.
Modifications to a Bill
A bill moves through both the House and Senate before being sent to the Governor for signing. The progress of a bill can be followed by looking at the amendments / markup of the bill in context with the legislative history. If you have the bill number used in a particular session, you first go to the link for the regular legislative assembly for the particular year.
In this example, we are looking for the markup of HB1419 from the 2017 Regular Session.
Scroll down the page below the committee membership, calendars and schedules to the House and Senate Bills and Resolutions.
Text of Bills and Resolutions
On the page with links to the different versions of a bill or resolution, scroll down to the bill.
This example is of House Bill 1419 (HB1419). You can see there are a variety of entries for this bill, including as introduced, fiscal notes and markup with the language of amendments.
