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SDPB Radio Coverage of the South Dakota Legislature. See all coverage and find links to audio and video streams live from the Capitol at www.sdpb.org/statehouse

After Failed Smoke Out Transgender Bill Is Back Again

The issue of the South Dakota High School Activities Association’s transgender policy has been brought back to life by House lawmakers yet again. SDPB’sJackelynSeverin has this story.

House Bill 1195 would have voided the South Dakota High School Activities Association’s transgender policy which it adopted last year. The measure passed the house but failed in the Senate education committee. An attempt to bypass the committee process and put the measure on the Senate debate calendar also failed. Normally this would have put an end to the measure for good - at least until next year’s legislative session. However, the issue has been resurrected through a hog house maneuver. A hog house is when a measure is completely rewritten from its original form.  This is what happened to Senate Bill 140 which now has the same language as House Bill 1195.

Representative  Jacqueline Sly says this issue has received thorough discussion. She says bringing the issue back again in this way defeats the purpose of the legislative process.

"We’ve gone through committee, we’ve gone through floor hearings, we’ve gone through committee process. We went back to the senate and they chose not to have is calendared. We need to respect the process that we have in place with our legislature because otherwise should we just bring everything to the floor and then we can bring it back again and again and again," says Sly.

However, Representative Roger Hunt says this is an important issue. He says the legislature needs to send the message that it is in control of policies concerning education and not an association or agency.

"There have been a certain amount of gamesmanship that’s been played in this particular matter. Agreed. But I believe that it’s so very, very important that we recognize that when an organization like this adopts rules that this legislative body doesn’t get the opportunity to review prior to implementation – something’s wrong someplace," says Hunt

Senate Bill 140 passed the House by a vote of 45 to 23. It will now move to the Senate for approval of the House amendment.

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