Erin Oban, left, stakeholder engagement and policy lead for Garty Consulting, speaks next to Jolene Garty, owner and project lead for Garty Consulting, during a legislative committee hearing on April 23, 2026. (Photo by Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)
BISMARCK, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) – A consulting group recommends expanded mentorship and orientation for new lawmakers, making legislative sessions annual or changing the timing of sessions to mitigate the impact of term limits.
The 116-page study, compiled by Garty Consulting for the Legislative Procedure and Arrangements Committee, aimed to help the Legislature prepare for the impact of limiting lawmakers to serving no more than eight years in each chamber, a limit imposed by voters in 2022.
The impact of legislative turnover is expected to hit beginning in 2028. Lawmakers worry about a loss of institutional knowledge, more frequent turnover of leaders and challenges in recruiting future lawmakers.
One suggestion in the study is holding legislative sessions every year rather than every other year, which was supported by 70% of North Dakotans surveyed as part of the study.
“They actually feel like it makes the Legislature more responsive to changing times as the best reason to consider moving to annual sessions,” Erin Oban, engagement stakeholder and policy lead for the study, told lawmakers this week.
North Dakota lawmakers are limited to meeting for 80 days every other year.
Sen. Kathy Hogan, D-Fargo, a member of the legislative committee, said other states break up their annual sessions into a longer session and a shorter one, such as 50 days and 30 days.
A bill to switch to annual sessions passed in the North Dakota House last year but failed in the Senate
Alternatively, the study recommends shifting North Dakota’s legislative sessions to even-numbered years. Under the current schedule, new lawmakers elected in November serve in their first session the following January. Meeting in even-numbered years would give newly elected lawmakers more time to prepare.
“That gives you an entire interim to spend orienting, and onboarding, and training new members,” said Oban, a former Democratic-NPL state senator from Bismarck.
More structured orientation for lawmakers, as well as a mentorship program, could also help new legislators get up to speed faster, said Jolene Garty, project lead for the study.
She added an ongoing leadership training program for lawmakers could blunt the effect of leadership turnover.
Sen. Jerry Klein, R-Fessenden, chair of the legislative committee, said he believes new lawmakers should prepare themselves, but there is no substitute for sitting at a desk in the chamber and going through the process.
“I think it’s a difficult process trying to add time to help people develop direction when there is so much on-the-job training and learning on this job,” said Klein, who was first elected in 1996. He also suggested legislative candidates could develop relationships with established lawmakers before getting elected to give them insight on how to approach the job.
The study, which received input from focus groups, also recommended that lawmakers schedule office hours during the legislative session to meet with stakeholders and constituents. Those office hours could be scheduled so they don’t count against the Legislature’s 80-day session limit, Oban said.
“This is when you could have deeper conversations,” Oban said.
Focus group participants also suggested that lawmakers have a more consistent policy on allowing virtual testimony instead of leaving it at the discretion of the committee chair.
Speaker of the House Robin Weisz, R-Hurdsfield, a member of the committee, said he thinks expanding orientation or adding more work during the interim could deter candidates from running for the Legislature.
“People with families, with careers, it’s going to get harder and harder for them to be able to say, ‘Yeah,’” Weisz said.
Some other recommendations include:
- Consolidating duplicative bills.
- Regular use of the consent agenda for bills in the Senate to align with uncontested bill procedures in the House.
- Restructuring of organizational sessions and interim committee schedule.
The survey, which was of 600 North Dakotans, showed 80% of respondents favored term limits for state lawmakers. During focus group meetings, Oban heard more from citizens about their views on term limits.
“Ultimately, they basically had the attitude of, ‘You know what, they (lawmakers) are grown-ups. They should figure it out,’” Oban said. “Like, ‘Make the changes you need to make because we’re not changing our mind on term limits.’”
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