Tue, Dec 6th, 2022 - 6:49am
January 11, 2023 - 6:41am | By Kyle Cornell
(Bismarck, ND) -- As expected, plenty of bills and ideas are being floated around in Bismarck as the 68th legislative session marches on.
North Dakota lawmakers are considering a proposal to create an office to address the state's labor shortage.
The office would assist international works with becoming permanent residents to possibly fill some of the two-thousand job openings in the state. The bill would also speed up the process for approving healthcare workers as permanent residents.
The president of the North Dakota Long Term Care Association says the process currently takes about three years. No committee action was taken on the bill Tuesday.
Meanwhile, lawmakers are considering a bill that would increase funding for career and technical education.
The state's Department of Career and Technical Education is asking for an additional 40-million dollars to cover increases in inflation and construction costs.
The department was awarded 88 million in a special 2021 session for over a dozen different projects, with 68-million of that coming from the federal government. The federal funding hasn't been released yet.
Lawmakers are also considering a bill that would expand benefits for infertility health care.
The bill would increase the cap on infertility coverage for those in the Public Employees Retirement System healthcare plan. The bill would increase the coverage cap to around 50-thousand-dollars, up from the current 20-thousand dollar lifetime limit.
The Legislature rejected a similar bill last session.
