January 17 - January 22 Recap - Week two

Breakfast with the Future Farmer’s of America visiting the Legislature.

Great to help our young people realize their potential! Legislative Page, Olivia Breen from Wagner.

In committee this week, we heard and voted on 34 bills. Many of these bills were related to IM26 and refining laws on medical marijuana to make the program safe and available to patients who need it. We did expand the prescription authority for medical marijuana to nurse practitioners and physicians assistants, knowing that in our area of the State, these providers serve as primary care providers for many patients. Prescription authority is extremely important for access to medical care.

We also heard appropriation bills in the Education committee to appropriate funds to increase nursing and other healthcare profession enrollment at BHSU, Northern, Southeast technical college. I was so excited to see this prioritized by our State Legislature, and hopefully, we can start tackling some healthcare workforce issues in SD by increased enrollment.

The Governor's budget priorities are important, but there are priorities that the Legislature has as well – being representatives for the people of their respective districts. Each legislator will look through the Governors list to weigh their specific community needs to decide how they will promote and vote for their particular spending priorities. We are talking about the appropriation for the Wagner National Guard readiness center. I will be bringing appropriation bills to examine Lake Andes lake's problems and build a rodeo arena at SDSU as this facility isn't adequate for our college rodeo participants. These are all good things for District 21 and the people of SD.

I did bring a Term Limits resolution to the committee this morning. This resolution was to apply for an Article V convention to term limit Congress. This idea is not new. Currently, we have 77 US Representatives, and 18 US Senators signed on to a federal resolution to term limit themselves – which is not the 2/3 needed of Congress. 88% of South Dakotans want this. I tried to add SD, but unfortunately, Senate State Affairs disagreed with this, and the resolution died in committee. I would encourage everyone to continue to reach out to their Legislators regarding this very important issue. I will be continuing to work on this understanding that sometimes we all have to play the long game.

Thank you again for entrusting me to represent District 21, and have a great week.

Senator Tobin