Tools to Follow Legislature’s Interim Committees

It is generally accepted that a lot of action happens during North Dakota’s biennial legislative sessions, which occurs in odd numbered years. What is not as widely known is the volume of work that takes place between sessions in interim committees. Because the action of the legislative session flies by in 80 days or less, most of the discussion, negotiation, and research of the issues will take place well before the 2011 legislative session begins.

For individuals interested in following and advocating on North Dakota issues, it is well worth the time to get to know the interim committee process. Here are a set of tools to begin.

A list of interim committees can be found online. From there you can click on a committee to find out which legislators are assigned to a particular committee and what they will be working on over the interim.

You can find meeting notices and agendas of scheduled meetings online. Many committees make an effort to meet in cities other than Bismarck during the interim.

If you would like to monitor several committees or have a particular committee you don’t want to miss, you can sign up here to automatically receive meeting notices and meeting minutes by e-mail.

AARP North Dakota regularly monitors activity related to consumer issues. In this interim, for example, we are following energy development. We also watch health and human services with regard to health care, insurance, and long-term care. Taxes and areas of transportation such as transit are also of importance to our members. If you would like to receive updates regarding issues regularly followed by AARP advocacy, you can sign up for our alerts.

If you do not have Internet access, you can make a request to be put on a mailing list to receive hard copies of meeting notices and minutes by calling the Legislative Council at 701-328-2916. When you call, you will be asked to specify the committees in which you have an interest.