Details from District 2: Rural health care gains substantial funding
The third week of the 101st Legislative Session is in the books and it’s my turn to report in from Pierre to the great people of District 2. One notable thing with this past week is that this is usually the time when bills from one chamber start making their way to floor of the other chamber and, if passed, onto the Governor’s desk.
One such bill, and it’s a big one, is HB 1044. The bill deals with the Rural Health Transformation Program that came out of Washington, D.C. and was contained in the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ this past year. HB 1044 gives spending authority to our Department of Health for $402 million from now until Oct. 27 of 2007 with the focus of aiding and beefing up health care across rural South Dakota. Additional future appropriations will take place in the years to come and, over a five-year period of time, South Dakota rural health could see in the range of $1 billion to assist in delivering health care to our citizens. The bill was signed by Governor Rhoden on Thursday and it goes into effect immediately.
On to a couple other bills of the week. HB 1077 dealt with ‘cultivated protein’, otherwise referred to as lab grown meat and the banning of such in South Dakota. This bill did pass in the House 45 to 22 and has been sent over to the Senate. I now have an admission to make. I initially voted Nay on this bill. As the vote was taking place, I stood and requested a personal privilege in order to recognize Sheriff Mike Milstead on his retirement announcement. When I reached down to hit my microphone button, I inadvertently hit the ‘Yea’, or green button first, thus changing my vote. The gavel fell before I realized my error and the vote was recorded. Seems to be one of the rare times myself and Representative Sjaarda vote the same on some of the more contentious bills. I can live with that!
The last bill I’ll reference in this report is SCR 605, a bill to recognize the significance of the monarch butterfly and encourage voluntary conservation efforts in South Dakota. This passed in the Senate 33 to 1. Seems that Senator Carley from Meade County must not like butterflies and probably won’t have the milkweed plant in his landscaping. Not to worry as I’ll plant some extra in ours.
The most exciting thing coming up this week is Brandon Day at the Legislature and we are looking forward to seeing those familiar, friendly faces.
I end by encouraging our readers to take a dive into the legislative website at www.sdlegislature.gov and stay informed in all the bills we are dealing with. There are 452 bills introduced in the two chambers with more in the hopper, so too many to report on in these short reports. For myself, Representative John Sjaarda and Senator Steve Kolbeck, thanks for reading and we will stay in touch.
