The Legislature meets for just three days this week to reconcile bills passed in different forms by each chamber. Five bills are already in conference committee this week; six more face concurrence in the House or Senate today.
At 10 a.m. today, the Senate takes up two bills amended in the House:
- Senate Bill 187 puts electric bicycles on bike paths. I’m kinda skittish about opening exercise trails to vehicles not requiring exercise, but since people using cheaper means of transportation can’t get respect on the streets, I guess we have to let them ride somewhere.
- SB 140 authorizes the Board of Regents to recruit more American Indian students. Even without money appropriated for that purpose, it struggled to pass the House, with 25 Republicans voting against it, because, you know, Indians.
At noon today, the House takes up four bills amended in the Senate:
- HB 1099 provides for the designation of a caregiver to receive information regarding residents of treatment facilities. It received one Nay in the House and should be non-controversial today.
- HB 1186 was a whole different bill offering counties some help from the extraordinary litigation fund. Senate Appropriations hoghoused it to repeal the termination of the juvenile detention cost-sharing fund.
- HB 1191—that’s hemp! Don’t let Wyoming win—pass this bill!
- HB 1250* creates a new board to regulate professional counseling and marriage and family therapy. A new board—Governor Noem won’t allow that, will she?
If HB-1250 is discriminatory against Gays, Noem would sign it in a fetal heartbeat.
I’ve seen many electric bikes on bike paths with riders peddling away. They’re a little easier, but don’t seem any different than other bikes and the riders are out there getting some exercise.
” it struggled to pass the House, with 25 Republicans voting against it, because, you know, Indians.”
Yup. Typical SDGOP shameless racism.
Mike is right about 1250.
“while there have been many types of discrimination in our history, the African-American (and the Native American) experiences are unique and different. Theirs are not immigrant experiences but involve a moral injury that simply isn’t there for other groups.”
And…
” We’re a nation coming apart at the seams, a nation in which each tribe has its own narrative and the narratives are generally resentment narratives. The African-American experience is somehow at the core of this fragmentation — the original sin that hardens the heart, separates Americans from one another and serves as model and fuel for other injustices.”
Those quotes come from a really outstanding piece in the Strib today that’s led me to thinking differently about reparations, a very divisive topic. This may be the best short piece I’ve read about it. I can definitely see it as the basis for a post on the topic of reparations for our American Indian citizens.
It’s written by David Brooks and can be found here: https://goo.gl/gbt2Ub