Legislature plans to increase experience for new lawmakers ahead of term-limit turnover

December 2, 2024

The North Dakota Legislature is preparing to give newer lawmakers an experience boost during the upcoming legislative session with term limits expected to turn over about half the lawmakers in 2028.

Lawmakers will meet for the organizational session of the Legislature Monday through Wednesday. Newly elected officials will receive training on the legislative basics, receive their laptops and their committee designations.

The committee assignments could provide a quicker path into leadership roles than in the past, said House Majority Leader Mike Lefor, R-Dickinson.

"I remember when I was a freshman, it was an overwhelming experience. It's a lot to take in, in a very short period of time," Lefor said.

He said the House may appoint multiple vice chairs to some committees to give more lawmakers experience in helping steer a committee. Lefor added he may open up the committee leadership meetings to more lawmakers so they can observe the process.

Under the term limits measure, North Dakota lawmakers can't serve more than eight years in the state House and eight years in the state Senate, which would limit new lawmakers to four legislative sessions.

North Dakota voters approved term limits in 2022.

"I was elected majority (leader) in my fifth session and I was blessed to have a lot of people around me that had a tremendous amount of experience," Lefor said. "But, if you look in the future, you might see that more leadership that is only there for one session."

Senate Majority Leader David Hogue, R-Minot, said the Senate will continue to appoint multiple vice chairs to committees and is planning on putting some newer lawmakers on the Appropriations Committee to gain more budget experience.

"It's always helpful to have knowledge of what we've done with the budget in the past and what the agencies have told the legislative branch so they have a base of continuity in terms of the budget," Hogue said. 

New lawmakers filled out a survey about their interests and what they would like their first committee assignments to be, Lefor said. The Committee of Committees uses those responses to provide recommendations for assignments to each chamber's leadership.

North Dakota House Minority Leader Zachary Ista, D-Grand Forks, said incoming lawmakers may not have the time that previous legislators had to get their feet under them.

"We need folks to become subject matter experts in short order because they only have a short time to leave their stamp on those subjects," Ista said. 

Ista said having multiple vice chairs for committees to broaden the experience pool would be a good idea. He also proposed having more experienced legislators in a vice chair role could provide guidance to less-experienced committee chairs. 

Ista said he's not too worried about the first term-limit turnover coming in 2028 because he believes it is on the radar of every lawmaker in leadership.

"No doubt, there's going to be a loss of institutional knowledge and there is going to be a risk of that knowledge and power shifting to the executive branch or to interest groups that are around the Capitol," Ista said. "But ultimately, I think this is one of those issues where the voters made their judgment and it's one we can respect and honor just as long as we are doing our best to prepare for it."

Rep.-elect Collette Brown, D-Warwick, said she feels the pressure to get up to speed quickly. 

Brown, a former lobbyist with experience watching previous legislative sessions behind the brass railing on the chamber floors, said she's been relying on her fellow District 9 Dem-NPL running mate, Rep. Jayme Davis, D-Rolette, for advice on being an effective lawmaker. She also said she'd like to be mentored by a more seasoned legislator to round out her experience.

"Listening and watching, you don't get to hear, you are not privy to those conversations on the other side of the railing," Brown said. "So, I am looking forward to finding a good mentor who will be real with me."

Lefor said there were so many lawmakers willing to help out with the mentorship program he could've assigned two or three legislators to each of the new representatives.

Hogue said he encourages senior members of committees to mentor the committee freshmen, but those mentorships are informal.

"I do a lot of it myself and, in fact, that's one of the more enjoyable parts of the job," Hogue said. "Just about everybody who runs has a passion for public policy ... but you may not be as well informed about how to be successful in getting your policy adopted as law. And that's part of the mentorship that I focus on."

Hogue said he believes Legislative Council staff will need to preserve some of the institutional knowledge of the Legislature going forward. 

Emily Thompson, legal division director for the Legislative Council, said training scheduled for the last day of the organizational session aims to help new committee chairs learn how to run an effective legislative committee. She said a similar training was held before the previous legislative session.

"It was really a big hit having new chairmen be able to ask kind of those more seasoned chairmen like, 'What do you do if somebody won't go away from the microphone and it's been 30 minutes and you are way over time?' Like, how you handle those situations?" Thompson said. She added sometimes legislators feel more comfortable asking questions of other lawmakers instead of the legislative staff.

Legislative Council also made a new training document for incoming legislators with information such as explaining what a quorum is to where to go in case of a tornado, Thompson said.

When asked if North Dakotans should be worried about the impacts of legislative term limits going forward, Hogue said he's worried.

"And I don't worry about a lot," Hogue said. "We're adapting without waiting until it becomes a reality."

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