North Dakota Legislature rejects Dem-led attempts to add child care, data center moratorium for special session
North Dakota Democrats attempted to introduce bills addressing child care funding and a data center permitting moratorium during Wednesday’s special session, but Republican majorities blocked both efforts.
This post has been republished from the North Dakota Monitor under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
North Dakota Democratic lawmakers tried to introduce bills on child care funding and a moratorium on data center permitting during the special session Wednesday, but the attempts were voted down or blocked by each Republican-led chamber.
House Minority Leader Zac Ista, D-Grand Forks, urged lawmakers to consider debating a proposal to add $9 million for child care assistance to get low-income families off of a growing waitlist.
Senate Minority Leader Kathy Hogan, D-Fargo, had pushed for the bill ahead of the session, but a panel of legislative leaders did not advance it. About 1,900 North Dakota families are on a waitlist to receive state child care assistance.
Grand Forks Dems blast special session priorities, call for focus on families
Ista told House lawmakers that child care needs affect every legislative district, family and the state’s workforce. Child care providers are also being strained financially, he said.
“This is an urgent issue that cannot wait until January 2027,” Ista said.
House Majority Leader Mike Lefor, R-Dickinson, said the bill was debated during Legislative Management prior to the special session, including discussion about a recent significant increase in state spending on child care. In addition, an interim legislative committee that meets Sept. 9 is studying the programs.
“The interim committee is looking at what is the effectiveness of different programs within child care, and I’d ask you to continue to allow the interim committee to continue to do their work,” Lefor said.
House lawmakers rejected a motion to introduce the child care funding bill on a 72-21 vote.
Hogan tried to introduce the child care bill in the Senate, but Majority Leader Sen. David Hogue, R-Minot, objected. A voice vote to override the objection failed.
Rep. Gretchen Dobervich, D-Fargo, attempted to introduce a data center permitting moratorium bill, but that motion failed on a 68-25 vote. The proposal led by Sen. Tim Mathern, D-Fargo, called for a temporary pause to data center permitting through June 2027.
“Data centers are not a black and white issue,” Dobervich said. “There are benefits and legitimate concerns that are being raised across North Dakota.”
In the Senate, Sen. Ryan Braunberger, D-Fargo, attempted to introduce a similar data center moratorium, but Hogue objected to the motion to introduce the bill. There was no motion to overturn Hogue’s objection.
North Dakota lawmaker eyes data center transparency, temporary moratorium for special session
During a press conference Friday morning, Sen. Jamie Selzler, D-Fargo, said the lawmakers were attempting to introduce the bills for discussion.
“We just wanted to talk about it,” Selzler said. “Republicans are not listening, because if they were listening, they’d be willing to talk about these things.”
Lawmakers have five bills to consider during the special session, which is expected to take three days.
After the votes in the House, Rep. Matthew Ruby, R-Minot, co-chair of the Policy Committee during the special session, said Democratic lawmakers exercised their rights within House rules.
“At this point, we just don’t have the time to dig into it,” Ruby said. “And simply throwing money at it (child care) might not be the best way to go about it.”
North Dakota Monitor reporter Michael Achterling can be reached at machterling@northdakotamonitor.com.
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