LEGISLATIVE REPORT

Senator Erin Tobin

District 21

Gregory/Tripp Charles Mix/ Bon Homme Counties

Committees: Commerce & Energy, Education, Vice Chair of Health & Human Services

Capitol Address:

500 E. Capitol Ave.

Pierre, SD 57501-5070

Capital: (605) 773-3851

Cell: (605) 840-4224

e-mail: Erin.Tobin@sdlegislature.gov

We have three more weeks, 12 legislative days, to go. Much of our time will be finalizing onetime money. Crossover day is Thursday, February 25th. This means that all bills will need to have made it through one side (Senate or House) so that we can finish up our work in the few days we have left. Every single bill that is introduced, gets a hearing, in SD. Here are some highlights from last week.

We are looking very in-depth at COVID one time funds at this point as all the requests are in. The $5 million for meat processing grants will go through. We have mental health requests in Rapid City and Sioux Falls. Ellsworth Air Force Base is also being closely looked at with the addition of the B21 Bombers that they will be servicing on the base and the influx of officers. We are discussing expanding the railway from Pierre to Rapid City, which would greatly open up the state and take some carrying traffic off the interstate. We will also likely approve the 11 million to school districts to make up for the drop in student enrollments during Covid. The Board of Regents has many requests that we are exploring. There has been much discussion of economic development. We are trying to make investments that will have a long lasting impact, 20 years or even more. I will continue to try to make conservative decisions with these one time funds and emphasize agriculture, education, healthcare, infrastructure, small business, and veterans.

HB 1065, an act to adopt the emergency medical personnel licensure interstate compact. An interstate compact allows member states to recognize and allow practice for a licensed individual in another state. We have done this with with nurses and doctors. There are 21 states that have this agreement and if we join this our EMT’s can practice across state lines in the case of emergency care. This passed out of Health and will go to the Senate floor.

SB 167 is an act to supply grants to regional nursing home facilities. This is a voluntary option to facilities that may benefit from a regional facility in some of these small communities. Many rural nursing homes are outdated and have a difficult time taking care of more complex care patients and we have seen even more difficulty in offering private visitation to residents of long term care facilities during COVID.

This bill would allow $6 million in grants to combine and construct a new nursing home if it could better serve two communities that are within close proximity. This is a way to offer an update to this important infrastructure in our state. This was passed out of Health unanimously and will go to Appropriations.

SB 177 did pass the Senate floor and will go to the House Committee. Remember that we have a constitutional duty as a state to offer an education to all children. The education system belongs to all of the citizens of the district. When we create hurdles for certain parts of the educational system, we are excluding children and this is unconstitutional. The truancy standards aren’t working as is, and this bill offers a more streamlined process for truancy and places this in the hands of all those who surround the child in their daily life, not just teachers.

Looking ahead, we will likely hear about a medical marijuana bill this week.

We will hear SB 183 on the Senate floor, which is a bill regarding surrogacy contracts. Surrogacy allows families who have struggled with infertility to have children and create life. This bill is important to those families, and I will be looking into the details of this so that we don’t create such a hurdle to these families that we actually stop surrogacy in the state or drive good families across state lines in search of reproductive medicine. The ultimate goal is to encourage life, cherish life, and promote family.

Warm regards, Senator Tobin District 21 Erin.tobin@sdlegislature.gov