PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) -- More than a decade ago, the South Dakota Legislature made a seemingly small rule change. Starting with the 2014 session, lawmakers could withdraw any of their bills and resolutions, provided they did so ahead of the proposal's first public hearing. TenHaken unsure when mayoral term ends due to new law The idea was that lawmakers would no longer have to go to a committee hearing and directly ask other legislators to set their bill aside, a process formally known as tabling -- or, as some lawmakers put it, having to 'go out in public and shoot your own dog.' Turns out, for some of them, the change wasn't small at all. Withdrawing a bill has become somewhat commonplace for a handful of lawmakers. During the 12 years that the withdrawal rule has been in place, lawmakers have taken back a total of 285 bills and resolutions. How many get withdrawn varies session to session, but has clearly been edging up. The first three years saw 10, 19 and nine. The 2024 session saw a record 38. The 2025 legislative session, which wraps up on Monday, saw 30 withdrawals, marking the first time of back-to-back years with 30 or more. Those were from a 527 bills and resolutions introduced in 2025 and 511 in 2024. One lawmaker is still serving who was on the 2014 panel that recommended adding the withdrawal rule. KELOLAND News asked Republican Rep. Al Novstrup for his thoughts. "Yes, the rule is working as intended," Novstrup said. "I believe the most common reasons a legislator chooses to withdraw a bill is the bill is flawed or not needed." As an example, Novstrup pointed to a bill he sponsored this year, only to withdraw it. House Bill 1233 called for increasing the annual appropriation to the state Department of Social Services by $300,000 to provide hearing aids to children, based on a recommendation from a certified audiologist. Novstrup said he brought HB 1233 because he had been told that state government intended to stop paying for cochlear implants for children who have hearing difficulties. A former lawmaker, Democrat Paul Dennert, had brought the original cochlear-implant legislation in 2005. "This changed everything for the hearing impaired," Novstrup said about Dennert's effort. So when Novstrup heard state government was possibly going to stop the funding, he asked for a bill to be written to not only preserve the cochlear implant funding that Dennert had fought for, but also to expand the funding to cover hearing aids for children if their family's insurance doesn't provide for them. Novstrup said he withdrew his legislation after receiving assurance from the Department of Social Services that the hearing devices could be provided through another program. "Withdrawing a bill allows the Legislature to reduce the work load and focus efforts," Novstrup said.  Current and former lawmakers say there can be a variety of motivations for walking back a bill or a resolution. Sometimes they are introduced as placeholders, in case there might be a need later in the session for a major amendment, a process known as a hoghouse at the South Dakota Capitol. These "just in case" vehicles typically, but not always, come from Republican leaders. Sometimes bills are simply ahead of their times. Sometimes they are intended to send political messages and are never meant to be passed. Sometimes they reflect a sponsor's deepest beliefs. And sometimes they are duplicates or result from misunderstandings. In the 1980s and 1990s, it was common for the House and Senate sponsors of a bill to introduce two identical versions, so that each chamber could consider the original version. That practice has become rare. Each lawmaker has her or his own story to tell about why a bill was withdrawn. Republican Sen. Sue Peterson holds the record for most withdrawals in any one session. She withdrew five bills this year. They included: Senate Bill 160, which sought to make violations of state election laws a petty offense. Senate Bill 168, which sought to prohibit non-disclosure agreements in settlement cases involving the Associated School Boards of South Dakota Protective Trust Workers Compensation Pool. Senate Bill 182, which sought to require every permanent or emergency administrative rule proposal to receive the approval of an elected official such as the governor before submission to the Legislative Research Council. Senate Bill 183, which sought to establish requirements that state agencies must follow when applying for federal grants, including a requirement that the grant application have the governor's consent. Senate Bill 210, which sought to clarify the Legislature's Interim Rules Review Committee's oversight of emergency rulemaking. It would have provided that an emergency rule couldn't take effect without the committee declaring the rulemaking process complete at an emergency meeting. KELOLAND News asked Peterson about them. "SB 182, 183 and 210 were a package of bills related to executive branch processes," Peterson said. "The executive branch indicated to me that they are already doing some of these things internally and are working on others. As a courtesy to the new administration I withdrew these bills this year to allow them time to implement their processes and procedures. "SB 160 was an election integrity bill very similar to one proposed by Attorney General Marty Jackley in 2023," Peterson said. "In working with the attorney general, we determined that a more in depth review of Title 12 is needed prior to implementing the provisions of SB 160." She continued, "In addition, over twenty new election integrity bills were introduced this session that contain provisions potentially duplicating certain provisions of SB 160. I withdrew this bill in order to allow for a review of Title 12 in the interim, and ensure that there is not duplication or conflict with bills signed into law this year." As for SB 168 relating to non-disclosure agreements for insurance pool arrangements, Peterson said, "This bill was withdrawn because I had other bills that were requiring more time than I had anticipated and took precedence.” Peterson was prime sponsor of 13 bills this session; one became law: Senate Bill 116, which strengthens penalties for street racing. Altogether, she has withdrawn 10 bills in her nine years as a state lawmaker. That puts her second on the all-time list. Rep. Phil Jensen has withdrawn 17 bills Number one on that list is Republican Rep. Phil Jensen, now in his 17th year as a lawmaker. He used the withdrawal rule 17 times, including twice this year: House Bill 1224, which sought to punish the Huron school district by taking away its state aid funding. House Bill 1269, which sought to authorize display of certain flags on public property. Its final sentence said, "A flag representing a political viewpoint, including gender, political ideology or party, race, or sexual orientation may not be displayed on public property." For what it's worth, Peterson was the lead Senate sponsor of HB 1269. Jensen's defunding-Huron bill led to House leadership removing him as vice chair of the House Education Committee. He was prime sponsor of six House bills this year. None of them managed to get through the House, much less reach the governor's desk or become law. KELOLAND News contacted Jensen by email and text for his views, but he didn't respond. Here's a look at 15 other bills and resolutions which Jensen withdrew in past years: House Bill 1167 (2024) dealt with legal rights of people who decided against receiving COVID-19 injections. The legislation which would have allowed those people to sue their employers for damages if the employer terminated, demoted, disciplined or took other adversarial action against the employee based on that decision. House Bill 1170 (2024) sought to allow a licensed distiller to sell and ship distilled spirits directly to a consumer. House Resolution 7002 (2022) sought to celebrate Black History Month. The resolution included statements arguing that the U.S. Constitution was not a pro-slavery document, as well as recognizing Republicans for positive steps regarding African-American rights and pointing out how Democrats at times stood in the way of African-American rights. House Bill 1157 (2021) sought to tell the state Board of Education Standards that it shall not allow instructional standards and curricular materials that promote the overthrow of the U.S. government or "(p)romote division between, resentment of, or social justice for a race, gender, political affiliation, social class, or identifiable group of people." House Bill 1158 (2021) sought to "prohibit the use of curricular materials that promote racial divisiveness and displace historical understanding with ideology." The legislation specifically named the "1619 project" assembled by staff of The New York Times newspaper. House Bill 1213 (2021) sought to appropriate $250,000 to what then was known as the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources to contract with the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology to assemble an inventory of known abandoned mined lands in the Black Hills. This came in part because of underground subsidence that led to problems in a Black Hills housing subdivision. Senate Bill 86 (2020) sought to allow the South Dakota Department of Social Services to "request that an employee of the Division of Child Protection Services be accompanied by a law enforcement officer during the time the employee is conducting an initial family assessment for the purpose of investigating a report of child abuse or neglect." Senate Bill 87 (2020) sought to "add information required to be provided to a woman receiving an abortion." Specifically it would have allowed the woman to "request to view the aborted fetus after the abortion is performed up until the time the hospital, clinic, or medical facility disposes of the aborted fetus," Senate Bill 93 (2020) dealt with transgender children. Specifically it would have allowed a parent to "refuse consent for the provision of any health care service to a minor child if the parent reasonably believes that the service would induce, confirm, or promote the child's belief that the child's gender is different from that which it was at birth or that the gender with which the child identifies is different from that which it was at birth." Senate Bill 107 (2018) sought to repeal licensing requirements for barbers. Senate Bill 201 (2018) sought to prohibit certain persons and organizations from entering the campus of any public institution of higher education or postsecondary technical institute. It said, "No institution of higher education under the authority of the Board of Regents and no public postsecondary technical institute may allow on institution or institute premises any person or organization with documented ties to any person on the specially designated nationals and blocked persons list compiled by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the United States Department of the Treasury." Senate Concurrent Resolution 8 (2017) asked that the Legislature "respectfully" request that the South Dakota attorney general appoint a special prosecutor to pursue all losses that the South Dakota taxpayers sustained as a result of the GEAR UP and EB-5 scandals. Senate Bill 164 (2015) sought to require that all South Dakota students take the citizenship test required of immigrants and correctly answer at least 70 of the 100 questions in order to receive a high school diploma. Senate Bill 133 (2014) sought to prohibit political subdivisions from restricting firearms, to assert the sovereignty of the State of South Dakota with regards to the regulation of arms and weapons, and to provide recourse and penalties for violations. It would have beefed up penalties for violations of existing laws to Class 5 felonies punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Senate Bill 148 (2014) sought to "ensure that parents may direct the rearing of their children without undue governmental infringement." Peterson's five other withdrawn bills in prior years were: House Bill 1139 (2023) sought to legally recognize the "fundamental right" of a parent. Peterson attempted a similar concept through a slightly different approach that same year in House Bill 1237, which she also withdrew. House Bill 1245 (2021) sought to extend under specific circumstances the requirement that the Legislature's Government Operations and Audit Committee review each state agency at least once every three years. Her provision stated, "If the Governor declares a state of emergency and the committee determines that circumstances preclude it from conducting an adequate performance management review according to the established schedule, the committee may extend the schedule for review by up to one hundred eighty days." House Bill 1281 (2020) was a placeholder measure that sought to send state government funding to the dual-credit program where high school students earn college credits. House Bill 1271 (2019) sought to change how some insurance plans covered autism spectrum disorders. Pischke, Haugaard have 8 withdrawn bills Next on the list for were Republican Sen. Tom Pischke and Republican former Rep. Steven Haugaard, with eight apiece. Pischke offered multiple reasons for why legislation might be withdrawn. "They found out someone else is bringing the same legislation," Pischke said. "They found out more information. Maybe the legislation was brought forward in the past and they didn’t realize the results. Maybe someone told them some unintended consequences, and they didn’t like those. Maybe someone else is bringing the same legislation the same year or in the future." "The possibilities are really endless," he said, then offered a few more. "They ended up working with the administration to figure out a solution that wouldn’t require a new law, possibly through rule-making authority. They intended the legislation to get the attention of someone, but never really intended to actually run the bill." " The measures which Pischke withdrew were: Senate Joint Resolution 503 (2024) wanted the Legislature to call for "for a convention of states under Article V of the Constitution of the United States, to impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, to limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and to limit the terms of office for members of Congress and other federal officials." House Concurrent Resolution 6002 (2021) called for legislators to behave in such a way that "never, under any circumstances, causes a question to be raised about integrity or preservation of the public trust." House Bill 1148 (2020) sought to substantially revise protection orders. House Bill 1100 (2019) was a placeholder regarding landowner rights. House Bill 1101 (2019) was a placeholder regarding the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department programs. House Bill 1108 (2018) sought to require written consent for someone to resell or redisclose a person's personal information from state motor-vehicle records. House Bill 1208 (2018) sought to reduce the obligor's hardship threshold for child support to 40% from the 50% already in law. House Bill 1212 (2018) sought to establish shared parenting plans for minor children in divorce proceedings or from a relationship. Haugaard, who last served in 2022, said he would need to review each of the bills he withdrew as to why. But, as a general observation, he said that placeholders are commonly used to potentially address unexpected issues that develop during the session. "Also, it is not unusual to find that priorities shift during a legislative session and other bills can become far more important and time consuming," Haugaard said. "As a result, I have set aside some bills to focus attention elsewhere." Then there's also the challenge of having limited -- and often overworked -- resources: The Legislative Research Council's full-time staff of 32 draft hundreds of bills at the request of 105 lawmakers. "Also bear in mind that the Legislature has very limited staffing and our LRC staff work tirelessly to meet the needs of the legislative members," Haugaard said. "Even as speaker of the House, I had little to no personal staff assigned to assist me. Oftentimes I would use my own resources to pay for assistance and expenses to get the work done."  Haugaard's eight withdrawn measures included: House Bill 1212 (2022) sought to prohibit state and local governments and private employers from disclosing information regarding a person's COVID-19 vaccination status. This came two years after the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe. House Bill 1247 (2022) sought to reduce the state sales and use tax rate to 4% from the 4.5% rate that was in effect at the time. The Legislature in 2023 reduced the rate to 4.2%. House Bill 1251 (2022) was a placeholder regarding lobbyists. This came in the wake of a dispute over clothing worn by a lobbyist while Haugaard was House speaker. House Bill 1190 (2020) was a placeholder for possible changes in revenue reporting. House Bill 1191 (2020) was a placeholder for possible changes in legislative authority. House Bill 1192 (2020) was a placeholder for possible changes in criminal justice laws. House Bill 1134 (2019) sought to change when elected officials could begin serving their terms. Haugaard ran for governor in 2022. House Bill 1212 (2015) sought to expand the definition of abusing a minor to include those who had been conceived but not yet born. Haugaard raised another point: "When I served on the Rules Review Committee I found there were many issues that could have (or) should have resulted in corrective legislation, but, again, there was not enough time or staff to address all of those matters," he said. He'd like to see that crunch fixed. "It is my understanding that South Dakota has the smallest legislative staff of any state in the nation," Haugaard said. "I don't think that is a badge of honor for us and it should change, so we can deliver the best for South Dakota, and save millions of tax dollars in the process." At A Glance Here's a year-by-year look at all of the withdrawn bills and resolutions since the rule change in 2014. To see the complete list of withdrawals each session, click on the year, shown in blue. 2025  House 18 bills – Garcia 2, Weisgram 2, Overweg, Kull, Mulally, Hughes, Walburg, Lems, Fitzgerald, Phil Jensen 2, Al Novstrup, Mortenson, Schwans, Rehfeldt, Uhre-Balk,   Senate 12 bills – Sydney Davis 2, Sue Peterson 5, Liz Larson 2, Hohn 2, Kevin Jensen.  2024  House 22 bills – Krohmer 2, Drury, Jack Kolbeck, Deutsch, Callies, Massie, Blare 2, Kevin Jensen, Shorma, Carl Perry 2, Venhuizen, Eric Emery, Phil Jensen 2, Scott Moore, Wittman, Rehfeldt, Heermann, May. Two resolutions – Mulally, Krohmer.  Senate 16 bills – Tobin 2, Duhamel, Rohl 2, Schoenbeck, David Johnson, Sydney Davis, Reed, Foster, Nesiba, Frye-Mueller, Bordeaux, Schoenfish, Zikmund, Stalzer. One resolution – Pischke.  2023  House 14 bills – Blare, Perry 4, Fitzgerald, Lems, Deutsch, Pinnow, Weisgram, Sjaarda 2, S. Peterson 2.  Senate 3 bills – Regents, Dept. Of Education, Bolin. Three resolutions – Bordeaux, Schoenbeck, Frye-Mueller.  2022  House 21 bills – Milstead 2, Deutsch, Weisgram, Chase, Spencer Gosch, Weis, Bordeaux 2, Haugaard 3, Soye, Jon Hansen 4, Tidemann 2, Odenbach, Howard. Two resolutions – Phil Jensen, Spencer Gosch.  Senate 5 bills – Frye-Mueller, Tobin, Klumb, Johns, Castleberry.  2021  House 17 bills – Deutsch, Willadsen, Bordeaux, Lana Greenfield, Sue Peterson, Duba 2, Chaffee, Phil Jensen 3, Hansen, Ernie Otten, Charlie Hoffman 2, Howard, Soye. One resolution -- Pischke  Senate 1 bill – Wheeler.  2020  House 21 bills -- Johns, Brunner, Pischke, Randolph 4, Jon Hansen, Haugaard 3, Chaffee, Miskimins, Livermont, Howard 2, Reimer, Jamie Smith, Sue Peterson, Spencer Gosch, Sullivan. Senate 14 bills – Lance Russell, Monroe, Klumb, P. Jensen 3, Brock Greenfield, Nesiba, Stalzer, Lake, Wiik, Bolin, V.J. Smith, Langer. One resolution – Castleberry.  2019  House 20 bills – Bartels, Reed, Lake 2, Pischke 2, Tim Rounds, Frye-Mueller 2, Haugaard, Spencer Gosch, Bordeaux, Pourier, Kevin Jensen, Qualm, Lana Greenfield, Finck, Marty, Karr, Sue Peterson. One resolution – Weis.  Senate 6 bills – State Treasurer, Lance Russell, Schoenbeck 3, Stace Nelson.  2018  House 13 bills – Ahlers, Pischke 3, Johns, Wismer, Hawley, Frye-Mueller, Brunner, Rasmussen, Spencer Gosch 2, May. One resolution – Leslie Heinemann.  Senate 9 bills – Phil Jensen 2, Wiik, Nesiba, Solano, Jack Kolbeck, Brock Greenfield, Curd, Langer. One resolution – Kennedy.  2017  House 14 bills – Chief Justice, House Appropriations, Kent Peterson 3, Mark Mickelson, Ahlers, Goodwin, Brunner, Livermont, Leslie Heinemann, Don Haggar, Campbell 2. One resolution – Don Haggar.  Senate 6 bills – Deb Peters, Bolin, Stalzer, Lance Russell, Cronin, Heinert. One resolution – Phil Jensen.  2016  House 4 bills – Alex Jensen, Schoenbeck, Lana Greenfield, Tulson.  Senate 5 bills – Betty Olson, Cory Brown 2, Holien, Buhl O’Donnell.  2015  House 8 bills – Hickey 2, Partridge, Latterell, Zikmund, Don Haggar 2, Haugaard.  Senate 11 bills – Agricultural Land Assessment Task Force 2, Ewing, Holien, Betty Olson, Monroe, Deb Peters, Billie Sutton, Brock Greenfield, Phil Jensen, Tieszen.  2014  House 2 bills – Wick, Bartling. One resolution – Lance Russell.  Senate 8 bills – E. Otten, Tieszen, P. Jensen 2, Lederman, Holien, Tidemann 2.  Source: South Dakota Legislative Research Council records. ...read more read less