Week 3 – Session 2026

Pack 273 Weblo Cub Scouts visited our Capital with Emily Ward, Den Leader and Justin Bell, Pack Leader.

We have just completed legislative day 12, marking the end of our third week of this legislative session. Committee work is in full swing, and our legislative calendars are full each day. The working relationships between colleagues are cordial, but there have been a few “point of order” moments and one public apology given while we were in House session. In reviewing the week, I think the members are voting on bill content without bias toward personalities or friendships. To date, 485 pieces of legislation have been introduced—which is much more than last year at this time—and I predict more will come next week. Seems no one is bashful in this session.

The highlight of the week for me was the passing of HB 1058, which gives live horse racing events an updated funding mechanism to hopefully stay viable in our state. The bill passed out of the Commerce Committee on Monday and the full House on Tuesday. We are halfway there, and I am cautiously optimistic the momentum will continue in the Senate.

Other interesting legislation brought to the House floor included HB 1008 and HB 1078, which proposed amending rules to allow high school credit for participation in extracurricular varsity athletics and allowing agriculture science courses to be substituted for regular science courses. I think both bills had merit, yet I hesitated to support them as there are pathways to accomplish these requests through established rules by the Department of Education. In summary, I felt the legislature really shouldn’t be the “state school board” and voted to defeat them both. Both were narrowly defeated.

HB 1044 was legislation to allow spending authority to pursue the Rural Healthcare Transformation project, which was funded by the federal government toward the goal of making rural healthcare better and sustainable. I thought there was substantial opposition to this, as there are loud voices who do not like states getting federal dollars because of concerns about the federal debt and wasteful spending. I supported the legislation, and it passed on Monday with the needed 2/3 majority.

Continued distrust of established economic development incentives is apparent with HCR 6007. Although not as definitive or directive as regular legislation, a concurrent resolution is a formal statement of policy; in this case, I did not support it. Incentives to attract capital investment, create jobs, and stay competitive with neighboring states have been with us for many decades. Not recognizing them is shortsighted and dangerous to the growth of our state. It was defeated by only a small margin, which to me indicates a denial of facts in favor of a "purity" of political philosophy.

HB 1004 was soundly defeated in committee but was “smoked out” by its supporters, so it was up for a vote to be put on the calendar for consideration this week. HB 1004 was a measure to make it easier to recall a public official—in this case, a county commissioner. It is usually the case that a petition process must be completed if a public official is to be removed before their term expires. HB 1004 altered the existing requirements, and in the committee hearing, the members did not agree with the sponsor that the existing system is broken and needed to be amended. In short, many of us respect the committee process that hears all testimony and weighs the claims from proponents and opponents. Once again, the vote was close, but the legislation was not supported by enough legislators to be put on our calendar for full House consideration. The closeness of this vote and others shows the divide we have in political philosophies.

Finally, HJR 5002 proposed asking voters at the next general election to amend the Constitution of the State of South Dakota by repealing the Medicaid expansion that voters approved in 2022. As a reminder, Medicaid is a low-income health and disability insurance program that is jointly funded by the federal government (90% share) and our state (10% share). When we voted to expand it four years ago, we made eligibility available to adults with incomes up to 138% of the poverty level. For a family of four, an income level of $43,000 or less would make them eligible; for a single person, it is $21,000. Although Medicaid expansion costs the state approximately $36 million, I was in the majority voting to defeat HJR 5002, as the voters approved Medicaid expansion just four years ago with a 56% approval.

We have a full five-day work week next week, with the last day for new bill introductions being Wednesday, and I expect a flurry of activity. Thank you for your texts and emails, as I value your thoughts very much.

See you next week,

mw