25-02-2025
House defeats bill to streamline North Dakota Ethics Commission
Rebecca Binstock, executive director of the North Dakota Ethics Commission, speaks during a committee hearing on Jan. 31, 2025. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)
The North Dakota House overwhelmingly defeated a bill that aimed to give the Ethics Commission more freedom over how it investigates potential ethics violations.
The Ethics Commission pushed for House Bill 1360 as a way to simplify the rules and laws that govern its work. Commission staff said this would both help reduce the commission's backlog of complaints, as well as make the process easier to navigate for the public.
The Attorney General's Office and Gov. Kelly Armstrong's Office testified against the bill. Both agencies said the proposal would give the commission the authority to adopt and enforce its rules without proper checks and balances.
Voters created an ethics commission in North Dakota. Then the Legislature limited its power.
Referencing that testimony, Rep. Karen Rohr, R-Mandan, said on the floor Monday that House Bill 1360 raises 'significant legal and constitutional concerns for clients, citizens and the state.'
'Although necessary to do their job properly, it is still an example of a system that is ripe for misuse and a broad delegation of this power without guardrails,' Rohr said.
House Government and Veterans Affairs Committee Chair Austen Schauer, a West Fargo Republican, noted last week it was unusual for the governor's head attorney to lobby so strongly against a bill before a legislative committee.
There was no discussion of the bill after Rohr's speech. Lawmakers voted 81-12 against the proposal.
Ethics Commission attorney Logan Carpenter in a letter addressed to Schauer last week pushed back on the claims the bill would give the commission too much power.
He stated that the bill would bring the commission more in line with what North Dakotans voted for in 2018, when they approved a constitutional amendment to establish the commission.
Carpenter also noted the commission is subject to checks and balances from each of the state's executive, judicial and legislative branches.
In a statement last week, Executive Director Rebecca Binstock said the bill is necessary in order for the commission to operate effectively.
'Without HB 1360, the complaint process will continue to impair the Commission's ability to do its work as directed by the citizens,' she said.
Ethics Commission to seek legislation to bolster transparency, investigative authority
Another ethics-related bill, House Bill 1505, also failed on the floor Monday evening.
The bill would have protected lawmakers from being prosecuted for a conflict of interest crime for voting on a bill as long as they properly declare the conflict and/or follow guidance from the Ethics Commission.
The proposal was sponsored by House Majority Leader Mike Lefor, R-Dickinson, and Senate Majority Leader David Hogue, R-Minot.
Vicky Steiner, R-Dickinson, said lawmakers are already protected from Ethics Commission action if they follow proper conflict disclosure requirements, but that immunity does not extend to criminal prosecution.
House Bill 1505 incorporated some elements that were similar to House Bill 1360.
For example, it would have allowed the commission to close complaints at any time. It also would have given people under investigation by the commission the freedom to discuss the matter publicly.
The Ethics Commission took a neutral stance on House Bill 1505.
As with 1360, the commission, Attorney General's Office and Governor's Office had differing views on the proposal, Steiner told lawmakers.
'The GVA committee could not find a path with the contradictory legal advice that we had been given,' she said. The bill failed by a vote of 84-9.
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