HB 1049 is a technical update to South Dakota’s official code of laws. The bill amends the statutory section that defines what volumes, revisions, interim updates, and pocket parts make up the official South Dakota Codified Laws, replacing the prior list with the current revisions and supplements through the December 2024 Interim Update Service and the 2024 cumulative annual pocket parts.
The bill also clarifies how the updated code interacts with legal challenges and later-enacted legislation. It preserves the rule that pending civil or criminal actions challenging the constitutionality of provisions are not validated by the code’s enactment, and it states that the code does not alter existing transactions, curative statutes, or accrued penalties and liabilities. In addition, it provides that laws passed in the 2025 session are deemed enacted after the code, and if a later 2025 enactment conflicts with the code, the later statute controls.
Impact
HB 1049 updates the reference point for South Dakota law by incorporating the latest official revisions and supplements into the codified statutes. Its practical effect is to keep the state’s official code current and to ensure that citations, amendments, and repeals in the 2025 session are interpreted against the updated code. The bill does not create new substantive policy; instead, it affects statutory organization, legal interpretation, and the administrative maintenance of the state code.
Sentiment
The available voting history shows unanimous support at every recorded stage, with do-pass votes of 13-0, 69-0, 7-0, and 35-0. That pattern suggests the bill was viewed as routine, noncontroversial housekeeping legislation necessary to maintain an accurate official code of laws. No committee transcript is available, but the absence of recorded opposition indicates broad agreement.
Contention
There is little apparent contention around HB 1049 because it is a technical codification measure rather than a policy change. The only potentially significant legal point is the bill’s clarification that the updated code does not validate prior constitutional challenges, does not disturb existing transactions or liabilities, and yields to later 2025 enactments if there is a conflict. Those provisions are standard safeguards in code-update legislation and do not appear to have drawn opposition.