What’s dead, what’s likely to become law in South Dakota

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - South Dakota lawmakers wore black attire on Thursday in a playful tradition of mourning the bills that didn’t survive this year. Lawmakers have just nine days of meetings left this year to determine what will become law in South Dakota.

The Legislature hit a deadline on Thursday to clear all bills out of the chamber in which they were introduced. As lawmakers hit crunch time, here’s a look at what’s dead, what’s clinging to life, and what has a good shot of becoming law.

DEAD:

- TRANSGENDER TREATMENT BAN

Lawmakers were preoccupied in the first few weeks of the session with a proposal to ban doctors from giving puberty-blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries to children under 16 who wanted to change their gender. The proposal quickly cleared the House, but was held up in the Senate Health and Human Services committee where moderate Republicans killed the bill.

- COMMERCIAL SURROGACY BAN

The Senate Heath and Human Services committee again proved to be a barricade to House bills supported by conservative Republicans when the committee narrowly blocked a bill aiming to ban commercial surrogacy. The bill would have criminalized agents who facilitate surrogacy contracts, but lawmakers said they would rather regulate the practice and may study the issue before next year’s session.

- DEMOCRAT PROPOSALS

The handful of Democrats in the House made a last-minute push this week to have their proposals considered by the Republican-dominated House. At a press conference on Thursday, Democratic legislative leaders complained about the difficulty they had in getting their bills scheduled for a hearing. Democrats said the delay in scheduling put them at a disadvantage.

“It doesn’t give us the time that other bills have been afforded to try to work through some of their issues,” said House Minority Leader Jamie Smith, a Sioux Falls Democrat.

Republicans on Thursday killed several Democrat proposals: allowing people with felonies to vote while they are paying restitution but have completed the rest of their sentence; requiring South Dakota schools to accommodate the educational needs of deaf students; and adding clergy and dental hygienists to the list of professions that are required to report suspected child abuse.

NOT DEAD YET:

- DEMOCRAT PROPOSALS

A couple proposals from Democrats have survived. A bill to add interns to the list of people protected against sexual harassment and discrimination in job applications sailed through the House. The House passed another bill that requires the Department of Education to include all children with hearing loss in its reporting on accommodations for deaf students.

- LIMIT ON PRESUMPTIVE PROBATION

Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg has made it his mission to curtail a program that gives certain low-level felons automatic probation rather than prison time. He says the roll back would allow law enforcement to address the state’s meth problem. He introduced two bills - one bill died, the other survived. A proposal to require people with low-level drug felonies to cooperate with law enforcement in order to qualify for probation is still on the table after passing by three votes in the Senate; the other would have disqualified people from presumptive probation if they have more than two felonies in a 10-year period, but didn’t pass a Senate committee.

- NATIVE AMERICAN SCHOOLS

A proposal to create four schools that would teach an Oceti Sakowin curriculum centered around Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota language and culture unanimously passed the Senate this week.

Senate Minority Leader Troy Heinert, a Democrat from Mission, was visibly moved by the support it received, saying it could mark a historical moment of Native Americans in the state reclaiming education. The governor also supports the idea.

But supporters still face opposition from education groups and have to convince the House that the schools are a good idea.

ALIVE

- HEMP

A bill to legalize the growth and processing of industrial hemp has broad support in the Legislature, but faces a final question from Gov. Kristi Noem - will the Legislature pay the $3.7 million she wants to get the program up and running?

Some lawmakers argue that figure is way too high.

House Majority Leader Lee Qualm, a Platte Republican, said that supporters of the bill are planning to meet with the governor’s office on Monday to hammer out a final figure.

- BAN ON FACULTY UNION

Both the House and Senate have passed separate bills that would ban state university faculty from forming a union. Republicans say the union keeps the schools from being flexible, while opponents argue that the initiative threatens the schools’ ability to recruit top professors.

- NOEM’S ZONING BILL

Noem will turn her attention to the House in pushing her proposal to overhaul how counties make decisions on feedlots and other projects. She has argued that it will bring investment across the state, but opponents argue it takes away locals ability to object to controversial projects.

- RIOT BOOSTING

Several Native American tribes have made it clear they don’t want to see Noem revamp the state’s riot laws ahead of expected construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, but most Republicans in the House supported the proposal. It will now be taken up in the Senate. A few lawmakers have said they will be taking a closer look, especially after a judge found parts of a “riot boosting” law passed last year to be unconstitutional.