BISMARCK, N.D. (KFGO) – North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum has vetoed two bills that had been sent to his desk by the state legislature.
The first veto was issued Wednesday. In a letter to House Speaker Dennis Johnson, Burgum rejected House Bill 1475, which increased the maximum speed limit on most of the state’s interstate highways to 80 miles per hour. Burgum said the higher speed would increase the risk and potential severity of speed-related crashes, which runs counter to the goals of Vision Zero, the state’s multi-agency effort to eliminate fatalities and injuries caused from motor vehicle crashes.
In the second veto released Thursday, Burgum rejected Senate Bill 2231. That bill would have prohibited public schools from referring to students by pronouns that don’t reflect the sex assigned to them at birth. Burgum said his quarrel with the bill was one of local control and that it injects the state into rare instances more appropriately handled at the parent, school, and district level, and removes the discretion of school boards to determine how to accommodate the needs of all students.
