Frequently Asked Questions
(about this site)

How often does the Legislative Assembly meet, and for how long? The North Dakota Legislative Assembly meets biennially, from approximately the second week in January to mid-April in each odd-numbered year. Days in regular session are "legislative days," which generally include Monday-Friday of each week. The Legislative Assembly met for 76 legislative days in 2005, from Tuesday, January 4, through Saturday, April 23. Special sessions are rare (the most recent special session was from Monday, May 5, through Wednesday, May 7, 2003). The 2007 regular session convened Wednesday, January 3, 2007.

What is the compensation and expense reimbursement of a legislator? Information on the compensation and expense reimbursement of legislators is provided in the minutes of the July 25, 2006, meeting of the Legislative Compensation Commission.

When will Information about 2007 proposed legislation be available? Bills can be prefiled for introduction beginning Wednesday, December 6, 2007. Information about those bills should be available on this site beginning Wednesday, December 20, 2006.

Where can I get information about 2007 proposed legislation?

• Under Information Center, click "Bills, Resolutions, & Journals", then click the appropriate link in the left-hand column; or under Legislative Assembly, click "60th (2007)," then click "Legislation: 2007," then click the appropriate link in the right-hand column.
• If you are looking for proposed legislation on a certain subject, please click "Major Topic Index to Measures" on the 2007 Bills, Resolutions, and Journals page. Look under at least three different headings in the index. Pick headings that generally describe the subject matter of your inquiry or a subject under which your inquiry probably would be indexed. During the first four weeks of the session, the Major Topics Index is updated as time permits. To review current information on bills introduced review the "First Reading" portion of the daily journals, as described in one of the following FAQs.
• If during the legislative session you have a question concerning bills, hearings, floor sessions, or legislative activity and cannot find the answer from the information available on this site, you can call the legislative telephone message service with your query. A toll-free telephone number--1-888-NDLEGIS (635-3447)-- is available for any North Dakota resident to obtain information on bills under consideration. For those individuals requiring a TTY number, 1-800-366-6888 is available to reach a relay operator who will contact the legislative telephone message service during a regular session.

How current is the information on 2007 Bills, Resolutions, and Journals and on 2007 Standing Committee Hearing Schedules?

• The information is updated overnight, after the Legislative Assembly has completed its work for the day.
• Today's Roll Call Votes is updated when the voting system key is "closed" and each vote is recorded during floor sessions.
• After adjournment sine die, the bills, resolutions, and journals information reflects all legislative and gubernatorial action applicable to the 2007 session.
• After adjournment sine die, daily calendars and standing committee hearing schedules for the legislative session are no longer available.

Where can I view the text of bills?

• Click "House Bills" or "Senate Bills" on the 2007 Bills, Resolutions, and Journals page, as appropriate;
• Scroll down the list of bills; and
• Click the number of the bill. Make sure you click the version you want. As the legislative session proceeds, several versions of a bill are prepared (which include amendments to those bills) and those versions become the "engrossed" versions. An "enrollment" is the version of the bill as enacted by both houses of the Legislative Assembly.

Where can I view a bill's status or the legislative actions on a bill? If you are looking for the current status of a measure, e.g., is it in committee or has it been reported out of committee, please click "Bill Status Inquiry" on the 2007 Bills, Resolutions, and Journals page, enter the measure number in the Bill Status Actions box, and click the button or press the enter key.

Where can I find a list of bills the Governor has signed? During the legislative session, click the "more about proposed legislation" link on the home page, then (1) click "Bills Signed by Governor" link; or (2) click either the "House Journal" or "Senate Journal" link to get to a list of House Journals or Senate Journals, use the "Fastpath to" window to select House and Senate Journal Index, and select "G", which will take you to the "Governor Signed" listing of bills signed by the Governor.

After the legislative session, click the "Bills, Resolutions & Journals" link under Information Center on the home page, and click the "Effective Dates of Legislation" link to get to a list of bills passed by the Legislative Assembly and their effective dates. If the list identifies a bill as "vetoed", the bill was not signed by the Governor.

When do bills enacted by the 60th Legislative Assembly take effect? Generally, a 2007 bill will take effect on August 1, 2007, or on a subsequent date if specified in the bill. An appropriation measure for the support and maintenance of a state agency or a tax measure that changes a tax rate will take effect on July 1, 2007, or on a subsequent date if specified in the measure. A measure declared to be an emergency measure takes effect on its filing with the Secretary of State or on a date specified in the measure. At the end of each measure contained in the 2007 Session Laws, the approval date (if approved by the Governor), the filing date (when filed with the Secretary of State), and the effective date of the measure will appear.  After adjournment sine die, the Bills & Resolutions page under Information Center and the 60th (2007) page under Legislative Assembly will contain a link to "Effective Dates of Legislation," which lists every enacted bill with its effective date.

Why do I need to use Acrobat Reader to view text of some materials? The information made available on the Legislative Branch web site comes from a variety of computer systems, through different software packages as required for the original purpose of the systems. Specifically, text of bill drafts, laws, or legislative journals (information available through the Interim Committee Bill Drafts; 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, and 2007 Legislative Council Bills and Resolutions; 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, and 2007 Bills, Resolutions, and Journals; 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, and 2007 Session Laws; North Dakota Century Code; and House and Senate Journals web pages) requires Acrobat Reader.

The list of bills does not contain a description of a bill. How can I review the general subject matter of the bills introduced without viewing each bill? You can scan the general subject matter of bills introduced in either house:

• Select "House Journal" or "Senate Journal" on the 2007 Bills, Resolutions, and Journals page;
• Select the day of interest, generally most House Bills are introduced before the 11th legislative day and most Senate Bills are introduced before the 16th legislative day; and
• Scroll through the journal until you see a heading "First Reading of House Bills" or "First Reading of Senate Bills". Usually, this is near the end of the journal. Under those headings, the number of the bill introduced, its title (general subject matter), and committee of referral are given for that day.

     You can view bills indexed under subject matter headings:

• Select "Major Topic Index" on the 2007 Bills, Resolutions, and Journals page;
• Scroll through the list of major topics until you see a topic generally describing your area of interest; and
• Select that topic. Each entry under that topic briefly describes the subject matter as indexed for that bill. Each entry includes the bill number and gives you the option of selecting "T" to view the text or "S" to view the status of (legislative actions on) the bill.

How can I see the text of a bill if it does not appear after I click on the link to a bill? You must install Adobe Acrobat Reader.

How do I search for or find a section in the North Dakota Century Code? These are the suggested steps for searching the code: (1) Read the introductory paragraphs under "North Dakota Century Code" (found under "State Laws" under Information Center); (2) Review the list of titles on that page and select the title that best describes the subject area under which your sought-for statute might be found; (3) Acrobat Reader will open to the first section of that title; (4) The frame on the left contains a listing of numbers and captions for all chapters in that title; (5) Review that list and select the chapter that appears most relevant; (6) The first section of that chapter will appear in the right-hand frame and you can scroll through that chapter on a section-by-section basis.

You can also use the find feature of Acrobat Reader and search each Title of the code (thus you still need to select a relevant title for your search). You can do this rather than steps 4-6 above.

I have Internet Explorer and Netscape Communicator, and when I use one I can view the text but not when I use the other. Why? If you alternate between browsers, you may have downloaded Adobe Acrobat Reader before you downloaded the browser that does not show the text of a bill. You need to reload Acrobat Reader because when you originally downloaded it your most recent browser was not available for it to download for both.

How do I print information from Legislative Branch web pages? The normal way to print items should work. You can click "Print" in the file menu and set the printing options you want or you can use the printer icon on your browser's toolbar.

If you want to eliminate the outer "columns" and print text across the entire page, select the text and set your print range as "selection" or as necessary to print selected text.

Where can I get technical assistance regarding online access to 2007 legislative information? Help assistance will be available for questions concerning online access to 2007 bill status information (2007 bills, resolutions, and journals, 2007 House and Senate Journals, and 2007 standing committee hearing schedules).   This assistance is for technical questions concerning online access. For assistance concerning proposed legislation, please review the third question on this page.

• North Dakota State Agency users should contact:
  • Al Veit, Information Technology Department
    Phone: 701-328-3173
    E-mail: aveit@state.nd.us
• Non-State Agency or University System users should contact:
  • ND Higher Education Computer Network South Host Help Desk
    Phone: 701-231-8685 (select option 1)
    Fax: 701-231-8541
    Attention: Brian Peasland
    E-mail: bills@NODAK.EDU

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