Tim Mathern

Voted for 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 Senate passed it 29-18, and it became law.

April 21, 2025Supports Healthcare Affordability

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 7, 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 Senate passed it 34-13, and it became law.

April 10, 2025Supports Immigration

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 7, 2026

Voted for 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 Senate passed it 28-18, and it became law.

February 20, 2025Supports Social Programs and Welfare

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 7, 2026

Voted for House Bill 1497, which lets some younger children start an approved four-year-old program. A child normally has to be four before August first of the year they enroll. Under the act a school district may also take a child who turns four before December first, if the district decides the child is ready. That decision has to weigh things like development milestones and school readiness, and it follows a request. The act also lets a teacher in the program be either licensed or approved in early childhood education by the state's teaching standards board. The North Dakota Senate passed it 28-19, and it became law.

March 14, 2025Supports Public Education Quality

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 8, 2026

Voted for 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 Senate passed it 34-13, and it became law.

March 13, 2025Supports Civil Rights

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 7, 2026

Voted for House Bill 1178, which requires every school district to adopt a policy letting a student who is old enough to vote leave campus to do so. It covers general, special and primary elections. A district may set conditions, such as how long the student may be away or a set time to go and vote. The North Dakota Senate passed it 24-23, and it became law.

March 7, 2025Supports Civil Rights

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 Senate passed it 29-18, and it became law.

April 14, 2025Supports Corporate Accountability

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 7, 2026

Voted against Senate Bill 2069, which makes an online notice count when a newspaper does not print one. When the law calls for a notice in a newspaper, the paper must also post it on the statewide legal notices website at no extra charge. The act lets a state agency ask for that posting right away. The newspaper association must then give a sworn statement that it went up. If the paper never prints the notice, the online posting counts instead. The North Dakota Senate passed it 32-15, and it became law.

April 16, 2025

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 8, 2026

Voted against 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 Senate passed it 26-20, and it became law.

April 9, 2025

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 8, 2026

Voted against House Bill 1500, which protects the right to rebuild a home that no longer fits current zoning. Counties, cities and townships must let such a home be repaired or rebuilt even when it is damaged beyond half its value. The owner has to apply for a permit within six months and start within a year, and the lot must touch a public road. The rebuilt home may not take up new ground, be bigger, be taller, or cut off-street parking. It may not break building, fire, sanitary or health rules, create a safety risk, or push onto a road or a neighbor's land. Making the building larger still has to meet zoning. Floodplain rules still apply, so the area keeps its national flood insurance. The North Dakota Senate passed it 31-16, and it became law.

March 26, 2025

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 8, 2026

Voted against Senate Bill 2355, which would have put intelligent design into the state's science standards. The state schools chief would have had to add it to the science content standards for elementary, middle and high school by August 1, 2027. The chief would also have had to give teachers materials presenting intelligent design as a workable scientific theory for how all life was created, and training on teaching it. The North Dakota Senate rejected it 22-25, so it did not become law.

February 24, 2025

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 8, 2026

Voted against Senate Bill 2350, which would have closed public employee discipline records to the public for a time. Open records law already keeps a public worker's medical records private. It also shields some personal details held in a staff file. The bill would have added records of how a worker performs, and any discipline against them, to what the public may not see. That would have lasted three years, or until the worker left the job, whichever came first. It would not have applied to records that are part of an internal investigation, or that a police agency asks for when hiring. The North Dakota Senate rejected it 22-25, so it did not become law.

February 24, 2025

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 8, 2026

Voted against Senate Bill 2258, which requires a state agency enforcing one of its own rules to say what gives it the authority to do so. When the person the rule is being enforced against asks, the agency has ten days to point to the specific statute or rule its action rests on. This covers enforcement through a notice, a determination, an order or a similar action. The North Dakota Senate passed it 30-17, and it became law.

February 24, 2025

Source: legiscan.com · researched September 7, 2026