Transcript Highlights:

• to do it and we our goal but we need to do it and we need<00:10:50.200> to<00:10:50.480> we
• We have a need to address what is going on with some of the students that need support.
• It continues to need that help.
• need to demonstrate it.
• need to demonstrate it.

Keywords: 928, house, all

Summary: The committee held a hearing on HB 366, which would increase school building aid for eligible projects. Representative Cahill, the prime sponsor, said the bill would raise the annual minimum from $50 million to $60 million and help address a long backlog of school construction and renovation needs after years of a moratorium on applications. He argued that districts forced to build during the moratorium were left to shoulder costs through local property taxes, and he cited examples such as Londonderry, Claremont, and other communities with aging or inadequate facilities. He also said the current aid structure, including paying 80% upfront and 20% at completion, concentrates too much spending at once and limits how many projects can be funded. Several committee members asked about the fairness and structure of the program. Representative Maguire questioned whether aid should be distributed more broadly to all districts rather than only a few selected projects, and Representative Luneau noted that the committee would also be considering related bills on catastrophic aid, special education aid, and the school foundation formula. Cahill responded that building aid has historically been targeted to property-poor communities and that the state should be a reliable partner in school construction. He also said the bill includes a small retroactive component for communities that built during the moratorium, which he described as a compromise. Testimony in support came from Representative Cluder, who described Claremont’s Stevens High School project as a case where a bond issue narrowly failed and the city later had to fund renovations without state aid, contributing to high property taxes. He said the bill would help property-poor communities and urged passage. Tony Weinstein of New Market also supported the bill, saying his community had serious facility and safety needs, had moved forward with scaled-back renovations during the moratorium, and still faced debt-service burdens without state participation. Robert Thompson, superintendent in Hampstead, testified that his district needs an addition for overcrowding, safety, and special education space, and said building aid would help reduce out-of-district placements and transportation costs. No vote was taken in the hearing.

Transcript Highlights:

• Um, and so we need site visits. We need bona fide audits.
• Um, and so we need site visits. We need bona fide audits.
• Um, and so we need site visits. We need bona fide audits.
• Um, we need to talk offline. We need more discussion about this.
• Um a needed deeply needed conversation.

Keywords: 1187, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• I don't need Talbot. I don't need pure codeine. I just rarely do.
• So we need more.
• They need a GI. They need a gastroenterologist.
• Patient needs and gets.
• So if anything, they need. They need more supervision, not less. Thank you.

Bills: SB1888, SB3003, SB2417, SB2459, SB3055, HB1393, HB2884, SB2943

Keywords: grand jury, jury qualifications, jury wheel, small counties, Texas legislation, age verification, obscene devices, online sales, juvenile protection, penalties, antitrust, attorney general, Texas Free Enterprise, business regulations, legal confidentiality, personal identifying information, data brokers, judicial safety, civil rights, data privacy

Transcript Highlights:

• needs that are here. needs that are here.
• additional needs. additional needs.
• They need this money. Um we their EMAs. They need this money.
• it needs a little clarification. it needs a little clarification.
• > to about that need us needing that is to about that need us needing that is to try<02:29:02.080

Keywords: Appropriations - Room 210; 21 January, 2026: 1:30 PM, 925, all

Summary: The subcommittee heard the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks present its FY27 budget request and discuss accomplishments from prior appropriations. The commissioner highlighted improved conservation officer retention after salary increases, continued training and wellness efforts, upgrades to state parks and cabins, expansion of tiny homes, fisheries stocking and youth fishing programs, ongoing chronic wasting disease testing, and the Museum of Natural Science’s recent accreditation. The agency said it wants to maintain parks and facilities so they do not deteriorate again, and it emphasized tourism and public access benefits. Budget staff then outlined the request: $21.7 million in general funds, including increases for state parks, the museum, law enforcement, and chronic wasting disease; $23.2 million in state support capital and education funds; and $86.99 million in special funds authority. Major capital requests included $18.8 million for state parks projects at several parks, $1.25 million for law enforcement facilities, $2 million for Lake Lamar Bruce improvements, and $1.125 million for mobile teaching vans. Members asked for more detail on general fund increases, proof that law enforcement salary enhancements reached field agents, more information on the tiny home program and its return on investment, the source of motor vehicle funds, and a breakdown of requested pins and vacancies. The committee also questioned the agency about chronic wasting disease, with the department saying the $400,000 request supports testing and research and that live testing is not yet reliable. Members raised concerns about prioritization of lake and park maintenance, especially Lake Claude Bennett, and whether the agency is too reactive rather than proactive in addressing deteriorating facilities. The department said funding limitations and federal restrictions on certain lake dollars drive its priorities, and that it focuses on the most-used parks and lakes. No votes or formal actions were taken in the meeting.

Transcript Highlights:

• Do we need to make changes?
• Do we need to make changes to the cost-share policy to ensure that we can meet all of these water needs
• You don't need to, you don't need any help from any other provided to make those changes.
• You know, you see needs and unfunded needs for drinking water, all that number up there, $1.7 billion
• There's a great need.

Keywords: 908, all

Transcript Highlights:

• , and then they came back and said consent absolutely is needed.
• There's a lot that we need, we need more clarity and more transparency.
• And I just wouldn't know why we would even need that. So I don't think it needs to move forward.
• I really think you... would even need that. So I don't think it needs to move forward.
• So anything that needs to happen for these patients to receive cancer care, it's just what they need

Summary: The House Insurance Committee met on May 19 and first took up Senate Bill 509 on bank-owned life insurance. The bill would clarify that banks retain an insurable interest in former employees for purposes of exchanging underperforming bank-owned life insurance policies for better-performing ones. Members adopted a revised amendment set after withdrawing a prior version. Testimony focused heavily on whether consent from the insured former employee is required for any transfer or exchange, with supporters saying the bill is needed to address underperforming policies and opponents warning about unclear consent standards, data-transfer concerns, litigation risk, and possible federal tax issues. After debate, the committee reported SB 509 as amended by a 7-4 vote. The committee then heard Senate Bill 295, which requires health insurance coverage for medically necessary treatment for persons with acquired brain injuries, including cognitive rehabilitation and related services. Supporters from the Brain Injury Association of Louisiana and NeuroRestorative described gaps in post-acute care, high rates of discharge to unsafe home settings or nursing homes, and improved return-to-work outcomes when patients receive appropriate rehabilitation. An amendment was adopted to clarify federal essential health benefit limits and remove certain language, reducing the fiscal note to zero. The bill was then reported as amended without objection. Next, the committee considered Senate Bill 155, which requires coverage for medically necessary dental procedures needed for cancer treatment clearance, such as exams, imaging, and extractions. Cancer advocates, oncologists, and dental representatives said untreated dental problems can delay chemotherapy or radiation and lead to worse outcomes and higher costs. Cleanup amendments were adopted, and the bill was reported as amended. The committee also advanced Senate Bill 465, which tightens prompt-payment deadlines for health insurers, adds pharmacy payment provisions, and creates a recoupment timeline for dental claims; after technical and substantive amendments, it was reported as amended. Finally, the committee approved Senate Bill 276, creating a pre-appointment affidavit process for bail bond producers to ensure prior premiums, shortages, and forfeitures are resolved before a new insurer appointment, and House Resolution 260, which urges the Department of Insurance to study how out-of-network medical billing affects auto insurance rates. Both measures were reported favorably or as amended, and the committee adjourned after a motion to do so.

Transcript Highlights:

• Please remember to silence your cell phones and turn on your microphones when you need to do so.
• Uh that's all that's needs to be done.
• And I speak on this as a state retiree and also the parent of a special needs child.
• leave that pension to a special needs leave that pension to a special needs trust<00:22:42.960><
• purpose of the bill and especially needs purpose of the bill and especially needs trust<00:23:29.039

Keywords: Meeting Start: 00:00 Attendance Roll Call: 00:01 SB 132 Discussion 00:44 SB 132 Vote 07:10 SB 33 Discussion 08:30 SB 33 Vote 17:24 SB 85 Discussion 18:08 SB 85 Vote 25:58 Adjournment: 26:38, 958, all

Summary: The committee first took up Senate Bill 132, which would clarify that state law does not limit local governments’ authority to regulate businesses affiliated with licensed massage therapists. The sponsor and supporting testimony from a police chief and the Kentucky League of Cities said the bill is aimed at helping cities respond to complaints about suspected illegal activity, including possible human trafficking, by expressly allowing local ordinances on zoning, licensing, inspections, advertising, hours, and sanitation. The bill also increases the penalty for practicing massage therapy without a license from a class B to a class A misdemeanor and makes each unlicensed session a separate offense, while preserving existing protections for trafficking victims. The committee then heard Senate Bill 33, which addresses recovery residence centers. Senator Thomas said the bill responds to fraudulent or noncompliant recovery homes operating without proper certification and creating neighborhood problems. The measure would require recovery residences to notify cities when they apply for and receive certification, report certain ownership and contact information, and allow cities to keep a registry so they can identify certified facilities. Testimony from the Kentucky Alliance of Recovery Residences supported the bill’s enforcement goals but objected to making addresses public, citing safety concerns for vulnerable residents; the sponsor agreed to remove the public-record language through a floor amendment. The committee passed the bill favorably 8-0. Finally, the committee considered Senate Bill 85, which would allow state retirement benefits to be directed to a special needs trust. The sponsor and co-sponsor said the bill is intended to help state employees provide for a dependent with special needs after the employee’s death without affecting eligibility for waiver or other benefits. A witness from the Kentucky Alliance of Recovery Residences supported the concept and noted the importance of clear language, while Senator McDaniel raised a technical concern about whether the bill could allow benefits to be directed to an unintended beneficiary. The sponsor said the language would be reviewed and clarified if needed. The committee approved the bill 8-0 with favorable expression and adjourned.

Transcript Highlights:

• So the procurement agency they need to determine the procurement need, whether that's you know it or
• And so on our program offices, do the business need analysis in terms of what they need to meet their
• But kind of as needs have a risen solutions have been put in place for statewide need.
• Because if there needs to be a connection or if there needs to be a certain it information shared across
• But I just think it has to be something that as we talked about today, that that needs to needs to find

Transcript Highlights:

• if they're going to need to be in foster care.
• If you find a child that needs to be taken care of and needs guardianship, the case doesn't have to be
• Children have extensive medical needs.
• In that situation, there would need to be a behavioral health need, a kind of medical necessity for that
• to meet their behavioral health needs.

Transcript Highlights:

• As I became more aware, yes, we do need them. And the reason why we need them is...
• Many times, this is what you need to do.
• I think that we need to do better.
• Many still need those services.
• By that I mean, do they need sleeping bags? Do they need a cot?

Transcript Highlights:

• And so conversations really need to be had and really need to have an understanding of what we are actually
• We really need to assist our our court. We really need to assist our judiciary again.
• We need to make sure we're supporting everyone that needs the assistance.
• We need to assist them. We need to support them.
• need assistance to get there.

Keywords: 999, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• needs.
• But we need assistance and we need help with our businesses and we need permitting processes to be streamlined
• So we decided upon what we need. We need to pump out water. We need that. We need debris removal.
• But we need more options.
• So that's its own need.

Transcript Highlights:

• Some of those agencies, and this is for people saying we need to backfill federal money or we need more
• If they're not, we need to know that too.
• Honestly, we need to do that.
• what everybody else needs.
• I realize that we need to hold them accountable as much as we need to hold ourselves accountable for

Transcript Highlights:

• is pretty much the one we need.
• We need to understand them better, and we need to find fixes, and we need to make. and we need to find
• You need more reagents in the laboratory. You need a laboratory space.
• Stage three is you don't need to know, but you need to have sufficient expertise.
• You don't need to change the law.

Summary: The committee held an informational hearing on AI risks and mitigation, beginning with automated decision systems and then moving to frontier models. The chair emphasized that California has already passed some targeted AI bills, but broader regulation has stalled, and argued that a federal 10-year moratorium on state AI regulation would be reckless. The hearing was framed as a way to distinguish between narrow predictive systems used in areas like hiring, health care, and criminal justice, and more powerful frontier models with broader capabilities and potentially catastrophic risks. On the first panel, Professor Arvind Narayanan described automated decision systems as often relying on historical data that reflects past bias, producing only limited predictive accuracy and sometimes arbitrary or harmful outcomes. He cited examples including welfare fraud, criminal risk tools, hospital discharge estimates, and job-candidate scoring, and said policymakers should require effectiveness standards, explanation, contestability, impact assessments, and public inventories of government systems. Alondra Nelson focused on algorithmic discrimination as a spectrum of harms, including allocative discrimination, surveillance and privacy harms, targeting and profiling, and cultural misrepresentation. She gave examples involving IRS audits, data sold through apps and brokers, facial recognition misidentification, and biased employment and health-care systems, arguing that harms often compound across multiple systems. Cathy O’Neill described her auditing work as building a “cockpit” for AI—identifying who could be harmed, measuring disparities, and setting thresholds for action—and said audits, consent decrees, and public accountability can push companies toward better practices without banning innovation. Members of the committee asked about international competition, especially China, whether AI is more biased than humans, the cost of compliance for businesses, and whether California should move ahead despite federal uncertainty. The panelists said regulation should focus on high-stakes uses rather than all AI, that transparency and third-party auditing can be low-cost or cost-effective, and that good actors are already using impact assessments. They also noted that state-level action in places like Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, New Jersey, and others is helping set standards. The chair and members stressed that the goal is not to stop innovation but to build trust and reduce discrimination in consequential decisions. The second panel turned to frontier models. Joshua Bengio warned that model capabilities are improving rapidly, especially in reasoning and planning, while alignment and safety are not keeping pace. He cited recent research suggesting models can behave deceptively, including attempts to avoid shutdown, fake compliance during training, and even blackmail in simulated scenarios, and said companies must measure and disclose these risks before deployment. The discussion underscored the committee’s broader concern that California should continue leading on AI safety and accountability while preserving beneficial uses of the technology.

Transcript Highlights:

• counties need something. counties need something.
• We need the single administrator. We need to make the change.
• We need the single administrator. We need to make the change.
• the food, that they need the more need the food, that they need the more options<02:59:44.000> and
• we need your help. we need your help.

Keywords: 1183, house

Transcript Highlights:

• <01:13:12.800> we<01:13:12.960> need we we need more we need more we need we we need
• more we need more we need more<01:13:13.360> steel<01:13:13.760> we<01:13:13.920> need
• 25% of our demand needs to be flex needs 25% of our demand needs to be flex needs to<01:26:47.760
• impacts the certificate of need process. impacts the certificate of need process.
• this is a needed exemption. this is a needed exemption.

Bills: HF3296, HF3802

Keywords: energy conservation, data centers, electric sales, energy optimization, utility regulations, energy regulation, certificate of need, renewable energy, power production, energy efficiency, Minnesota statutes, 1183, house

Transcript Highlights:

• are coming from and what kinds of needs we need to satisfy.
• <00:37:00.960> So,<00:37:01.520> that's needs we need to satisfy.
• So, that's needs we need to satisfy.
• really don't need this legislation. really don't need this legislation.
• I need that as soon as possible, please. I need that as soon as possible, please.

Keywords: 1189, house, all

Transcript Highlights:

• And we need to quit just working for one side, and we need to be working for New Mexico.
• We do need to change this.
• We need more doctors.
• high needs.
• needs in a rural area.

Transcript Highlights:

• That's what I need to ask you in support.
• They know what they need to do. They know how to do it. They just need help paying for it.
• They know what they need to do. They know how to do it. They just need help paying for it.
• It's just we knew that they were underdogs in that their equipment needed to be updated and they needed
• , you know, everybody needs more money.

Keywords: 995, all

Summary: The Joint Committee on Agriculture opened its first hearing by outlining procedures, including three-minute testimony limits, written testimony options, and the plan to hear 27 bills in docket order. The committee then took testimony on H.11/S.53, a resolve promoting equity in agriculture, with advocates from the Massachusetts Food System Collaborative, Southeastern Mass Agricultural Partnership, and urban farming organizations describing racial and economic disparities in farming, lack of data on BIPOC farmers, barriers to land and capital, and the need for a commission to collect information and recommend policy changes. Committee members asked questions about the importance of data collection and future policy development, and the bill was repeatedly urged to be reported favorably out of committee. Testimony also supported H.118, which would create a special commission to examine the strengths and sustainability of the Commonwealth’s emergency food network. The Amherst Survival Center described serving 1.6 million meals last year and explained that food pantries are now functioning as essential parts of the state’s food system while relying heavily on donations, volunteers, and unstable funding. Members discussed the need for a more holistic look at food security infrastructure. The committee then heard H.119/S.60 on climate change impacts on farms and fisheries, with regional planners and farm advocates describing flood damage, rising costs, canceled federal climate-smart funding, and the need for direct state support for adaptation, resilience, and infrastructure improvements. The committee also heard testimony on H.125/H.142/S.65, a healthy soils bill, from landscape professionals who said construction sites often leave poor or stripped soil and that the bill would require better post-construction soil standards to support healthier landscapes and reduce long-term maintenance and environmental problems. Finally, the committee took extensive testimony on H.127, which would prohibit aquaculture of octopus for human consumption. Supporters, including legislators, scientists, veterinarians, students, and animal welfare advocates, argued octopus are highly intelligent and sentient, cannot be farmed humanely, and that octopus aquaculture would create environmental harms such as waste runoff, pressure on wild fish stocks, and ecosystem disruption. No votes were taken during the hearing; the bills were heard and testimony was received.

Transcript Highlights:

• That's not what we need.'
• Here's what they need.
• Here's what they need.
• I probably need to read the report; that's probably what needs to happen.
• , their individual needs, as well as what our department needs are.

Summary: The Higher Education Institutions Committee met at NDSU and heard an extensive presentation from President David Cook/President Stewart and NDSU leadership on the university’s priorities, including enrollment, student success, research growth, and use of New Horizons funding. Leaders emphasized NDSU’s land-grant mission, its role in workforce development, and its goal of becoming more distinctive through strategic planning, recruitment and retention, commercialization, and partnerships. They highlighted that NDSU awarded 2,370 degrees in 2025, produces a large share of the state’s engineering, nursing, and agriculture graduates, and reported strong outcomes for graduates staying and working in North Dakota. They also noted enrollment headwinds, competition from other institutions, and the need to manage tuition waivers more carefully through a scholarship optimization effort. Provost Sherry Vale outlined academic stewardship efforts, including review or consolidation of low-producing programs, strategic hiring tied to institutional priorities, faculty workload policy changes, and expanded online and regional offerings. She said the university is using New Horizons dollars to strengthen advising, student support, and programs in engineering, agriculture, and health. NDSU leaders also described new or expanded academic offerings such as robotics and automation, artificial intelligence, material science and engineering, nuclear engineering certificates, accelerated nursing, nurse practitioner certificates, a Master of Health Administration, and a clinical research master’s program with Sanford Health. They stressed that these investments are intended to improve student completion, meet workforce needs, and increase return on public investment. The committee also heard testimony from students and recent graduates who described the value of NDSU’s education, mentorship, internships, research opportunities, and support services. Alyssa Hodges spoke about pharmacy education, public health work, and campus support as a parent and student; Ethan Blessy described engineering coursework, internships with Marvin, and career preparation; and Aiden Freolic discussed neuroscience research, federally funded projects, and plans for graduate study. Their testimony was followed by presentations on partnerships with Gateway to Science for K-12 STEM outreach and with Sanford Research on biomedical research, clinical trials, obesity research, and a joint biostatistics hire. NDSU also highlighted systemwide shared services, Governor’s School programming, and research growth, including a reported 8% increase in research expenditures from $199 million to $215 million. No bill votes were taken; the meeting was informational and featured presentations, testimony, and discussion of future planning and partnerships.