Michael Motschenbacher

Voted for House Bill 1283, which would have stopped the state employee health plan charging for follow-up breast scans. It applied to the public employees' group insurance program, not to private plans. One kind of scan takes a closer look at something a mammogram has already found. The other screens for cancer in women at higher risk. Both include scans such as breast ultrasound and breast magnetic resonance imaging. For either one, the plan could not have charged a deductible, a copay, or any other share of the cost. On a high-deductible plan tied to a health savings account, that would have applied only after the federal minimum deductible was met. The bill was written as a trial for that plan, with a report back to the legislature and an end date. The North Dakota House passed it 66-26, but the Senate rejected it 22-24 and it did not become law.

February 25, 2025Supports Healthcare Affordability

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 8, 2026

Voted for Senate Bill 2159, which lifts a ban on nuclear waste research at the state energy research center. The center was barred outright from work leading to the search for, storage, treatment or disposal of high-level radioactive waste in North Dakota. Under the act it may now do that work. It needs approval from the industrial commission, and must consult the state's advisory council on high-level radioactive waste. The work is limited to waste kept above ground. The North Dakota House passed it 57-32, and it became law.

April 9, 2025Opposes Environment and Public Health

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 8, 2026

Voted for House Bill 1058, which sets the state's first rules for aboveground fuel tanks. It covers tanks that hold refined petroleum, and puts them under the state environment department. Some tanks are left out. A farm or home tank for fuel that is not sold is out, and so is a tank of heating oil used on the same property. Septic tanks are out, and so are pipelines that federal law already covers. The act also lets the department pick the yearly registration deadline. A late payment still costs twenty-five dollars per tank each month. The North Dakota House passed it 66-24, and it became law.

April 7, 2025Supports Environment and Public Health

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 8, 2026

Voted for House Bill 1600, which sets up an immigration law clinic at the University of North Dakota school of law. The school must employ one full-time staff attorney for the clinic. That attorney may not have more than sixty matters open at any one time. Legal work may be done remotely if that suits the client, and the school may charge small fees to run the clinic. The act provides four hundred thousand dollars in one-time funding for the two years beginning July 1, 2025. It also orders a report to the next legislature on how the clinic is working. The North Dakota House passed it 64-29, and it became law.

April 21, 2025Supports Immigration

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 7, 2026

Voted for House Bill 1585, which would have made police report people they believed were in the country illegally. An officer with probable cause to believe that would have had to report the person to federal immigration officers as soon as practical. The report could have gone to immigration and customs enforcement or to customs and border protection, through a tip line or an online form. An officer who did not report would have committed an infraction. The North Dakota House rejected it 41-50, so it did not become law.

February 7, 2025Opposes Immigration

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 8, 2026

Voted for House Bill 1225, which adds a new felony level for reckless endangerment with a firearm. Recklessly creating a substantial risk of serious injury or death was a class A misdemeanor. It rose to a class C felony only where the circumstances showed extreme indifference to human life. Under the act it is a class B felony if the person uses a firearm. The class C felony for extreme indifference stays, and so does the misdemeanor for other cases. The act also widens the habitual offender rule. A past felony used to count toward a longer sentence only if it was a class C felony or worse, or carried a maximum of five years or more. The act drops those limits, so more past convictions can count. The North Dakota House passed it 72-21, and it became law.

April 21, 2025Supports Public Safety and Crime Control

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 8, 2026

Voted for House Bill 1341, which makes assaulting a hospital worker a felony. Simple assault is normally a class B misdemeanor, but it is a class C felony when the victim is one of a listed group doing their job, such as a police officer, a firefighter or emergency medical staff. The act adds hospital workers who are giving essential patient care to that list. The North Dakota House passed it 68-21, and it became law.

April 7, 2025Supports Public Safety and Crime Control

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 8, 2026

Voted for House Bill 1411, which would have banned extreme risk protection orders across North Dakota. Those are often called red flag orders. They let a court keep guns away from someone found to be a serious danger to themselves or others. The bill would have barred any rule, law, local ordinance, executive order or court order that does this, whether by stopping the person owning or buying a gun or by taking guns they already hold. It carried a penalty for breaking that ban. The North Dakota House rejected it 39-53, so it did not become law.

February 25, 2025Opposes Gun Control

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 8, 2026

Voted for House Bill 1583, which would have widened the crime of running a false political ad. It is already a crime to knowingly publish an untrue or misleading claim about a candidate or a ballot measure. The bill would have covered a publisher who ran the claim with reckless disregard for whether it was true. That means not checking would no longer be a defense. The bill also would have named websites, social media and other electronic means among the ways of publishing the law reaches. The North Dakota House passed it 55-34, but the Senate rejected it 11-36 and it did not become law.

February 18, 2025Supports Election Integrity

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 8, 2026

Voted for Senate Bill 2307, which would have made libraries and schools keep sexual material away from minors. It would have set out what counts as a public library. Libraries and schools would have needed written safety rules and filtering software. The local prosecutor could have reviewed libraries, school districts and state agencies to check they complied, and the bill carried a penalty. It also reworked how the state defines obscene material. That test asks whether an ordinary person in North Dakota would find the material is mainly about sex and has no real literary, artistic, political or scientific worth. The North Dakota House passed it 49-45, but the Governor vetoed it, and the Senate's attempt to override the veto failed 25-20, so it did not become law.

April 14, 2025Opposes Civil Rights

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 8, 2026

Voted for House Bill 1456, which would have let public schools bring in chaplains. A school district could have hired a chaplain, or taken one as a volunteer, to give support, services and programs to students, staff or parents, but only as the school board authorized. A chaplain would have counted if a national or state chaplaincy body certified them, or a religious body endorsed them. They would not have needed a teaching license from the state board. The district would have had to run a criminal background check first. The North Dakota House rejected it 35-46, so it did not become law.

February 14, 2025Opposes Civil Rights

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 8, 2026

Voted for House Bill 1145, which would have required the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools and colleges. Every school district would have had to put up a display in a prominent spot in each school's cafeteria, and the state board of higher education would have done the same on each campus. The bill set the size, said the text had to be the main thing on the poster, and set out the wording to use. It also would have let a college teacher put the Ten Commandments up in their own classroom without asking anyone's permission. The North Dakota House rejected it 38-53, so it did not become law.

February 12, 2025Opposes Civil Rights

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 8, 2026

Voted for Senate Bill 2339, which bars a court from holding an electric utility strictly liable for wildfire damage. Strict liability means a person can win a claim without proving the utility was careless. Under this act a court may not use that standard when someone claims a utility caused a wildfire. It covers public utilities, rural electric cooperatives, city-owned utilities and transmission providers. The act also lists what a wildfire prevention plan should contain, such as clearing dry or dead plants near power lines and upgrading equipment. Making and filing such a plan is voluntary. The North Dakota House passed it 62-28, and it became law.

April 18, 2025Opposes Corporate Accountability

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 7, 2026

Voted against House Bill 1318, which limits when a pesticide maker can be sued in North Dakota for failing to warn about health risks. It applies to a pesticide registered with the state agriculture commissioner or with the federal Environmental Protection Agency. For those products, a label the Environmental Protection Agency approved now counts as meeting any state duty to warn or to label about health or safety. A label that matches that federal agency's latest human health review counts the same way. So does one that matches how the federal agency classifies the product for cancer risk. The act says this holds despite any other state law. It also reaches duties to warn that come from court rulings, not only from statutes. The North Dakota House passed it 51-40, and it became law.

April 16, 2025Supports Corporate Accountability

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 7, 2026

Voted for House Bill 1496, which would have set how warm a landlord must keep a rented home. State law already tells a landlord to keep a home fit to live in and supply running water and reasonable heat. It never said what reasonable heat means. The bill would have set it at sixty-eight degrees Fahrenheit or more from October first through April thirtieth. For the rest of the year it would have been a temperature that suits the season. The North Dakota House passed it 70-19, but the Senate rejected it 11-35 and it did not become law.

February 11, 2025Supports Corporate Accountability

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 8, 2026

Voted against Senate Bill 2213, which sets math teaching standards for new teachers. The state teaching board must make sure someone seeking a license to teach secondary math shows competence in direct and explicit math instruction. The act extends that duty to elementary teachers as well. A candidate meets it either by training from an approved program or by showing mastery of the topics the act lists. The board may give a provisional license for up to two years to a candidate who does not yet meet the standard. The act also covers math curriculum, teacher training, and screening and help for students who are behind. The North Dakota House passed it 63-30, and it became law.

April 24, 2025

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 8, 2026

Voted against House Bill 1216, which changes how a health plan counts help that someone else pays toward a person's drug costs. A plan works out how much the person has paid toward a deductible, a copay, or a yearly out-of-pocket maximum. It must now count money paid for that person by anyone else, such as a drug maker's coupon. A plan may not design its benefits around whether that help exists. The rule covers a drug with no generic version. It also covers a drug that has a generic, if the person got the brand through prior authorization, a step therapy protocol, or an appeal. On a high-deductible plan tied to a health savings account, the rule starts only after the person meets the federal minimum deductible. The act also extends the rule to self-insured health plans, and it takes effect January 1, 2026. The North Dakota House passed it 56-37, and it became law.

April 24, 2025

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 7, 2026

Voted against Senate Bill 2352, which lets the child of a woman in prison live with her at the Heart River correctional center. It applies to a child aged eighteen months or younger, who stays under the mother's care and general control. The state must hire staff and write policies to run it. Those policies have to weigh the child's safety, how long the child may stay, and treatment and other prison needs. The North Dakota House passed it 48-42, and it became law.

March 26, 2025

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 7, 2026

Voted against House Bill 1475, which would have made school breakfast and lunch free for every student. The state schools chief would have paid back school districts, private schools and tribal schools that served meals to students in kindergarten through grade twelve at no charge. The payment would have matched the federal free meal rate for each meal served, minus any other federal or state money the school already got for that meal. A school would have had to apply to take part. The North Dakota House rejected it 39-54, so it did not become law.

February 24, 2025

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 8, 2026

Voted against House Bill 1114, which caps what a person pays out of pocket for insulin. A health plan may not charge more than twenty-five dollars, at any one pharmacy or supplier, for a thirty-day supply of covered insulin. That cap holds no matter how much or what type the person needs, but it applies separately at each pharmacy, so filling prescriptions at two pharmacies can cost up to twenty-five dollars at each. A separate twenty-five dollar cap, also per pharmacy, applies to a thirty-day supply of covered supplies for taking insulin, such as meters, test strips and lancets. A plan may not use a deductible, a copay, or any other cost sharing to push the price above those caps. Two limits apply. On a high-deductible plan tied to a health savings account, the caps start only after the person meets the federal minimum deductible. The rule does not cover Medicare Part D drug plans. The act also makes the state employee health plan follow the same rule. The North Dakota House passed it 59-27, and it became law.

February 20, 2025

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 7, 2026

Voted against House Bill 1217, which repeals the state law that made it a crime to willfully transfer a body fluid containing HIV. That section was written around a single medical diagnosis. The act repeals it outright and puts nothing in its place. The North Dakota House passed it 50-43, and it became law.

February 19, 2025

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 7, 2026

Voted against House Bill 1455, which would have made the state consult tribes about bills that affect them. Each session, the head of the Indian affairs commission would have read every bill introduced. The director would have marked the ones that touch tribal matters. For each of those, the director would have had to talk with the chair of every tribe before the committee hearing. The bill said consulting means working with tribal governments directly, and going to them for their views rather than waiting. The North Dakota House passed it 63-28, but the Senate rejected it 7-40 and it did not become law.

February 18, 2025

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 8, 2026

Voted against House Bill 1478, which would have written a right to birth control into state law. It covered a wide range of methods. Those included the pill, the implant and the coil, emergency contraception, condoms, injections, patches and spermicides. The bill also reached the same drugs when used for other health reasons. It named treating endometriosis, ovarian cysts, heavy periods, migraines and acne, and guarding against cancer of the womb and ovaries. The bill carried a penalty. The North Dakota House rejected it 27-66, so it did not become law.

February 12, 2025

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 8, 2026

Voted against House Bill 1477, which would have written a right to fertility treatment into state law. It covered treatment, testing, medicine and monitoring, including genetic testing. It also covered ways of causing pregnancy other than sex. Those included in vitro fertilization, insemination, and donated eggs or embryos. The bill carried a penalty. The North Dakota House rejected it 34-59, so it did not become law.

February 12, 2025

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 8, 2026