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N.D. (NewsDakota.com) The North Dakota Legislature is in their Crossover beak. Lawmaker will be home for a few days and return on Wednesday, March 1st.

Here is a report from District 24 State Senator Larry Robinson: The week ending on Friday, February 17th was an interesting one here in the Senate. The budget for the North Dakota Department of Transportation was on the floor of he Senate for a full vote. Included in the budget was the proposal to close 8 State Highway Shops in rural North Dakota. The Litchville and the Courtenay Shops are  included in that proposal. We had offered amendments in the Senate Appropriations Committee to  keep the shops open, but those amendments were not accepted by the committee. The battle then moved to the floor of the Senate. Once again, we offered amendments to keep the shops open. After lengthy testimony on the floor, we lost the battle. The bill with the proposal to close the shops now heads to the House of Representatives. Needless to say, this was a disappointing defeat. In my opinion, the argument to keep the shops oven is solid. The presence of the shops provide important services to rural areas. Folks in the rural areas need open roads for medical emergencies, to respond to fire calls, to get to work, to transport their children on school buses, and to transport farm commodities to and form the market. I am hopeful that clearer minds will prevail in the House of Representatives on this issue. Should this closure materialize, our Highway Shop Foreman will be asked to cover a much larger geographic area with their plows. These dedicated employees have served us well. They are up early and often work late into the evening to keep our roadways clear.  The closure of these Shops, should that become a reality, will place significant additional responsibility on their work load.

On Friday, February 17th, the budget for the Department of Veteran’s Affairs was on the floor of the Senate. I offered an amendment to include a total of $50,000 to the budget, to provide funding for four Service Dogs for Veteran’s with PTSD. This program has proven itself as an effective means of  providing our Veterans;’ who are suffering with PTSD, with a valuable companion and friend. The dogs have been effective in providing important  therapy for our Veterans. The amendment would have allowed the purchase four trained dogs at $12,500 each. We have four Veteran’s waiting for their dogs at this time. I argued that this is small price to pay for such an important cause. I also argued that our veteran’s have never said no to us, we ought not say no to them. In the end the amendment was approved and the bill now heads to the House of Representatives. If we fail to fund the purchase of these four Service Dogs, the four Veterans waiting for their dogs will be asked to wait two more years. That is not acceptable!

Breathe North Dakota (Center for Tobacco Cessation) is destined to be  closed down this legislative session. The program was initiated and funded by a federal lawsuit several years ago against the tobacco companies. In the past 8 years, the program has reduced tobacco usage by 50% saving the state of North Dakota hundreds of thousands of dollars in health care costs. Both former Governor Dalrymple and newly elected Governor Burgum propose in  their Executive Budget recommendations to close the program down and transfer the responsibilities to the Department of Health. Prior to the Breathe ND program, reductions in smoking were stalled in North Dakota. As a result of the Breathe ND effort, rates are dropping significantly and North Dakota has been referenced as a state that has been leading the way. In my opinion, the move to close down Breather ND is  a huge mistake. The Department of Health will be consumed with the implementation of the Medical Maraijauna legislation. There is no way they will be able to provide the emphasis on tobacco cessation like the Breathe ND program has done and has done successfully. The Breathe ND program has proven to be effective. Why change now? Physicians testified before our Senate Appropriations Committee that Breathe ND has been effective. Tobacco is a “Gateway Drug”. Significant percentages of tobacco users end up using other substances that  often lead to addictions.

There is much more to report. However,  I need to get to the Senate Appropriations Committee for continued work. There is no Legislative Forum this weekend, February 25th. Our next Legislative Forum will be Saturday, March 4th, in Valley City at the Hi-Liner Activities Center. We will begin at 9:00  and conclude by 11:00. Hope to see you there. Until then, I can be reached at lrobinson@nd.gov. Don’t forget to take in the many activities and events at the North Dakota Winter Show!