State Senators are passing a Senate Concurrent Resolution that commends Republican U.S. Senators John Thune and Mike Rounds for voting to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in October.
Not all Republican senators voted in favor of the concurrent resolution, however.
Concurrent resolutions carry no force of law, but rather are used to authorize interim studies, joint rules, sessions or committees, to instruct a department of state government, or petition federal agencies.
Some state lawmakers say SCR 5 does none of those things, instead, they say reads like a thank you card to the state’s two US senators and sends well wishes to Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Republican State Senator Brock Greenfield is the president pro-tempore and voted against the concurrent resolution.
“This clearly does not rise to the level of what a concurrent resolution should be used for,” Greenfield says. “When I stumbled across that I wanted to share it. The more that I’ve thought about it since then the more I’m convinced I am right and that every concurrent resolution going forward must conform with that standard. It’s one thing to state an opinion, if you want to do that write a letter to the editor.”
Greenfield says the senate floor should not be used for that purpose. It passed 22 to 13.
He says he fully supports Justice Kavanaugh and the state’s two senators. It’s the second concurrent resolution lawmakers have debated that comment on national politics.
Greenfield says the lengthy debates on national issues could be a result of a light bill load. He says there are about 550 bill requests still pending with the Legislative Research Council. He expects to see most of those bills appear next week.
