BISMARCK, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – The following is a District 24 Legislative Report from April 8th to April 15th by Representative Dwight Kiefert and Representative Cole Christensen submitted on Friday, April 16th.
“The end of the 67th Legislative Assembly is approaching quickly. The House and Senate continue to move forward on Conference Committees as some of our most impactful bills are being worked out between the two chambers. This week the House continued to concur on Senate amendments and adopt conference committee recommendations on important legislation.
On Thursday, April 8th, the House overwhelmingly concurred with the Senate Amendments to House Bill 1498. This legislation strengthens our state’s current stand your ground law. Under the current law, a person has a duty to attempt to retreat before using deadly force against an intruder illegally entering private property. This legislation removes that duty to retreat. Supporters of the bill argued that it enhances o
VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – District 24 Republicans passed a resolution to censure Representative Dwight Kiefert during a meeting on April 17th according to a document submitted to NewsDakota.com by the District 24 Republican party.
According to the resolution, Representative Kiefert’s vote to remove and expel fellow legislator Representative Luke Simons earlier this year without due process goes against established legislative rules, the North Dakota Republican Platform, the constitution of North Dakota, and the constitution of the United States.
The resolution said, despite Republican Representatives in the House offering various amendments to change the expulsion to censure, due process for the accused, and an option to follow adopted rules of procedure and investigate the allegations made against Representative Luke Simons. Representative Dwight Kiefert did not support most of these efforts according to the District 24 Republican party.
BISMARCK, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – Dickinson Representative Luke Simons was expelled from the state House of Representatives over allegations of sexual harassment by legislative staff, interns and House colleagues. Simons denied the allegations. The vote to expel Simons was 69 to 25.
Representative Dwight Kiefert of Valley City said he voted to expel Simons saying, “the past…complaints and failure of him to correct his inappropriate behavior is why I voted to expel him. Instead of apologizing for his actions over the past four years he asked “What am I guilty of? His comment, Let’s have some fun with it”, regarding an investigation was very troubling. I think this sounds like someone who needs a psychiatric evaluation.”
BISMARCK, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – The 2021 North Dakota Legislative Session kicked off on January 5th at the State Capitol in Bismarck.
During the legislative session and beyond if the public has questions about topics of interest that they would like their local state lawmakers to address, simply email them at the addresses below or via of the news release attached below.
District 24 State Senator Mike Wobbema can be emailed at
mwobbema@nd.gov
dhkiefert@nd.gov
colechristensen@nd.gov