District 25 Legislator
2022 is here and that means a new legislative session is upon us! I am Representative Tom Pischke, I live in Dell Rapids, SD and I will be again writing a weekly column to keep you up to date on important legislative items. Our first week of the new session has been filled with information gathering and speeches. On Tuesday, January 11th we heard the State of the State address from Governor Noem. Wednesday, January 12th, we listened in on the State of the Judiciary delivered by the Chief Justice Jensen and finally on Thursday, January 13th we heard the State of the Tribes address.
This will, without doubt, be another legislative session for the record books between the record amount of budget decisions that need to be made and the special impeachment investigation of the Attorney General and our usual number of bills that need to be looked over on top of it all. At this point in time, I only have 1 piece of Legislation out on www.sdlegislature.gov and that is HJR 5001 which is a Joint Resolution to apply for a convention of states under Article V of the Constitution of the United States, to impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, to limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and to limit the terms of office for federal officials and members of Congress. I will keep you updated on this progress in the weeks to follow but the House Committee hearing should be at 7:45am on Monday, January 24th.
This past summer, I served on the Commission for Parenting Guidelines as a result of piece of HB 1140 that I passed in the 2020 Session. The Commission took a comprehensive look at all of those Guidelines and made has recommending numerous changes that will be presented to the SD Supreme Court on February 15th. I will be present in the SD Supreme Court chambers on February 15th to testify in favor of these changes.
There has already been numerous bills introduced on the topics of marijuana (medical and recreational), property taxes and multiple appropriations. If you are interested in following along with any of our committees or chambers this session, there are two great ways to do that. First, visit www.sdlegislature.gov as this is the Legislature's home page where you can find any information about session that you are looking for. On the front page you will find a schedule of committees and when the House and Senate will be meeting and what's on the agenda for each meeting. You can also find listings of all the bills that we will be working on this session. Additionally, if you want to listen into a committee or chamber you can click on the South Dakota Public Broadcasting icon next to that scheduled meeting to listen live. The Second way to listen and watch is to visit www.SD.Net where you can find all the live audio from the committees and the live audio and video streams from the House and Senate Chambers.
Finally, if you have any questions about how to find information about a bill or committee, or any questions at all about session please contact me. I can be reached most anytime by phone at 605-999-2948 and by email at . If you do call and I’m unable to answer, try sending me a text and I will call you back later. Additionally, if you email please include that you are from District 25 and what town you're from. We get 100s of emails a day and I cannot reply back to them all, but if I know that you are from our district, I will get back to you! Lastly, if you are planning a trip up to the Capitol for a visit during session please let me know so that we can find a time to meet up while you are here! Have a great week and God Bless!
- Rep. Tom Pischke
