A rancher's take on the legislative session: A visit with Rep. Dori Hauck

In this season we are covering the 69th Legislative Assembly and bringing you issues that are important to agriculture and rural North Dakota. Host Emmery Mehlhoff visits with Rep. Dori Hauck from District 36. Rep Hauck is a rancher from Hebron, North Dakota, and has served in the House of Representatives since 2021. We talk about her experience and service as the vice chair of the House Agriculture committee. 

We also dive into property tax issues and take an in-depth look at her legislation:

HB 1453 - Prohibiting Natural Asset Companies https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/69-2025/regular/bill-overview/bo1453.html

HB 1371 - Retired police officers https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/69-2025/regular/bill-overview/bo1371.html

HB 1207 - Districts and elections for the Beef Commission https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/69-2025/regular/bill-overview/bo1207.html

Join us for this episode. 

Contact Rep. Hauck https://ndlegis.gov/biography/dori-hauck

Email Emmery at emmery@ndfb.org

Subscribe to our Legislative Front to stay up to date with issues this session at https://ndfb.org/news/signup/

Transcript

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[00:11] Emmery: Welcome to Straight Talk with NDFB. I am your host, Emmery Mehlhoff. In this season of Straight Talk with NDFB, we are covering the 69th Legislative Assembly and bringing to you issues that are important to agriculture and rural North Dakota. Join me as I visit with Representative Dori Hauk from District 36. Representative Hauk is a rancher and she serves as the vice chair of the House Agriculture Committee. We talk about what it's like to serve as vice chair, different issues that matter to agriculture, and we cover her legislation dealing with natural asset companies, the Beef Commission, and more. Join us for this episode. 

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[00:57] Emmery: Welcome to Straight Talk with NDFB. I am here today in the House Agriculture Committee on the third floor in the Capitol somewhere with Representative Dori Hauck, District 36. Representative, can you just introduce yourself? Tell us a little bit about yourself and your district.

[01:16] Rep. Hauck: Fantastic. Thank you. Yes, thank you for having me here. So I am Dori Hauck from District 36. I live about 20 miles north of Richardton, so I'm equidistance, when you're on the gravel roads between Hebron and Richardton up there in the no man's land. District 36 runs from Dickinson all the way over to Judson. We have land in Stark County, Morton County, and a little bit in Dunn is what I represent. So this is my second full session. I did come in at a half session back in '21, so this is my second time being here. From the beginning, this session is a little bit fuller, busier, faster. We've got a lot of bills. We've got a lot of things to discuss. My committees, my standing committees are, I am vice chair of Ag, and then I also serve on the Education Committee.

[01:58] Emmery: So you are new to the vice chairmanship this session. And as a relatively new representative, that's, that's a pretty good position to be sitting in. What, talk about what you do as a vice chair on the committee.

[02:12] Rep. Hauck: Yes, I am very new to the whole process. For your listeners with. With term limits, that's going to happen more often where there's going to be right. More of us who have less experience in those leadership roles. So I think that leadership thought highly enough of me and what I was doing to put me into that position. So here I am. 

What are some of the rules basically, to back up the chair and so really knowing what the bills are that are coming, working to make sure that we have the right people in the room to give us the information that we need to make the decisions. So, of course, we're always going I shouldn't say we're always going to have, but we should have people that are for the bills and against the bills. And then sometimes we just need information on what the process is. And not everybody sitting in the room has an agriculture background or understands agriculture. So it's important to have folks there that can give us those background pieces so that we make the right decisions. 

Now my background is I grew up, my grandparents and my parents raised Charolais cattle. So I am from a purebred Charolais ranch. And then we also farmed. So literally have been involved in day one of my life. I was gone for a few years, came back to Richardton, I met a boy and moved back to Richardton and here I am. I am a full time rancher. That is what I do. I volunteer all over town, but I am a full-time rancher. And then my husband has a business in town. I understand the farming piece of it, the agriculture piece of it. But this committee has so much more to deal with than just, you know, what you think of with tractors and ag land. So a couple of the big issues that we were dealing with this morning, the air manipulation or the cloud manipulation, if you want to call it that, that was one of the areas that it affects all of us. But that's being heard in our committee. Tomorrow, I believe we are hearing a bill regarding foreign ownership of land. And they're not necessarily what you think of when you think of the Ag Committee and what we're working on, it's much bigger issues.

[04:04] Emmery: You're really looking at the agriculture sector as a whole. You know, not just the daily operations, but the things that actually affect our property, our taxation, everything. And then occasionally I believe you get tossed a few bills that have nothing to do with ag, just to keep your, keep you on your toes.

[04:21] Rep. Hauck: So this session, you are so right. This session, with the level of bills that we have, we have more bills than we have... I don't know if that's a record that we're supposed to strive for, but it's more bills than we've ever had. And so to level out some of the load for other committees, Ag had some space and so yes, we did hear some bills that we normally don't get, but that was to take the load off of some of the other committees. But it's been a fun.... every once in a while to have those different ones. We had one regarding the Peace Corps and so, yes, it's nice to have a little different breath.

[04:57] Emmery: Yeah. So then as the vice Chair, you step in as the chair when the chair has either another hearing or is absent or is testifying on a bill of his.

[05:08] Rep. Hauck: Absolutely. And so that was, I guess, the piece that I was most worried about was procedure is important. And if we don't do the procedure right in, in here in the committee room, it kind of makes everything fall apart later down the road. So we have to make sure that we're doing the motions correctly, whether we are adopting amendments, not adopting amendments, passing the bills through correctly to take them to the floor. If we don't do the procedure right here, it, it messes it up all the way down the line. So they do give us a little manual to, to follow so that when we get a little bit lost on parliamentary procedure, that we've got some backup. We've got great legal interns and clerks in our room that definitely help us and keep us on the right track.

[05:48] Emmery: Yeah, well, I mean, it, it makes sense. I mean, making the laws of our state makes sense to have some formality there and say, hey, you know, you can't just, Chairman or, or anybody can't just say, okay, this bill is going to go through. You have to have the procedure and you have to have the steps to make sure that it's legal and valid.

[06:05] Rep. Hauck: Yes.

[06:05] Emmery: Like anything, if that gets violated, then it's invalidated.

[06:08] Rep. Hauck: Right. And, and I think it's nice that we have the accountability of the, of the public. They can be watching us. Everything is recorded, everything is, you know, on, on live stream in real time. And, and so it's nice that all that information and procedure is all there out there for everybody to see, to make sure that they understand that we have done everything properly.

[06:30] Emmery: That's something that hasn't always been the case. I mean, the visibility of the video just being in the committee rooms, that hasn't always been the case. Like it's always been available of the floor, but just the increased video of each committee room and then even the opportunity that individuals have to testify online is really, I would say, increase the level of public or outside involvement in the process.

[06:52] Rep. Hauck: For sure. And I actually appreciate that. I was one of the people when I first found out about what the cost was to put all the video cameras into the rooms, I was, I was like, my goodness, I don't think that that's necessary, but I use it all the time, even as a legislator. When when we get done here in our committee rooms, if there's a bill coming up on the floor in the next two or three days that I don't fully understand. I get to go back and look at the, what happened in the committee room and I get to watch all the testimony. And so I'm even looking at it, I know other legislators are looking at it just to get a better understanding of, of what we're voting on before we get there. Yeah, incredibly helpful.

[07:26] Emmery: So there's lots of different topics around the Capitol. What are some of the bills that you have sponsored this session?

[07:33] Rep. Hauck: I believe I, shouldn't say I believe I, I'm fairly confident that I brought five bills, but I have lost track of my own schedule. One of the bills that I presented this morning, which I think is very important to the egg producers and your listeners, is the concept of natural capital accounts or natural asset companies. About four or five years ago, there was a, there were several executive orders that came down through the Biden administration trying to put a valuation on ecosystem processes. And so it took me about six months to understand what that meant. But one of the executive orders put out a directive to the Office of Management and Budget to put a valuation on photosynthesis, pollination, sunlight and carbon, some carbon bios. 

And so things that have never been owned before, things that happen naturally and nobody probably should own, but they were, that was their directive, was to make that happen. And after two years we discovered, and when I say we, I follow a couple of organizations that are very heavily in private property rights. So after following that for about two years, it was discovered these companies weren't really out there to make money. They were out there to transfer a lot of the management of our private lands into federal management and not allow human use on those lands. So it would lock it down and not let you hike or hunt or fish or graze them or do any kind of mining because they don't feel that that is sustainable activity. 

So their next step, once they kind of put evaluation on these ecosystem processes such as photosynthesis and pollination, they put together a letter where they created comp, they wanted a new asset class at the New York Stock Exchange level. So they proposed a rule to the SEC (Securities Exchange Commission). The SEC proposed a rule that they could create this new asset class. And our Attorney General, Drew Wrigley, back in, I believe it was 2023, he was one of 25 attorney generals that put together a letter. It's like a five or six page letter really pushing back on this whole concept. And those attorneys generals, those states, along with a push from a couple of other organizations, the SEC pulled their application and did not allow these natural asset companies to become a publicly traded organization or even be recognized by the SEC. That was enormous. That was a huge win to, to make this process stop. 

However, there they were still under a directive from these executive orders. So there were still federal agencies that were trying to figure out a way to make this continue to happen. And one of the examples is in Montana, where there's already federal lands set aside. And I'm going off the top of my head, but I want to say it was about 2 1/2 million acres. 3 million acres is what that was. They came in with conservation easements and grabbed another 2 million acres. So they almost, you know, time and a half their acres that they have control over what the private landowners. And this was all private land that got put into conservation easements. What the landowners didn't realize was there is verbiage in there stating that they no longer have management of their land. So they cannot graze it, they cannot hay it, they can't fish on it. It locked that down in a very negative way. And it's been about four years since all of this has kind of come about and we are realizing that this is all a take-land-out-of-production scheme. 

So I'm, I've been working with the, our Secretary of State and our Department of Agriculture to make sure that we have language put together that prohibits these companies from coming into North Dakota and unbeknownst to landowners taking away their right to manage their land. Currently, according to the, the North Dakota Game and fish, currently 93% of North Dakota land is still held under private, private property, which is enormous. Yeah, I, I was actually surprised. I, I love that number. Yeah, I really love that number. And so what can I do as an advocate for private property rights? What can I do to make sure that that continues to stay that way? And I feel that this is one of those ways. I just need to make sure that the verbiage is correct so that when they change their words again, because they've changed it twice now, they'll come in with some different words again and make sure that I've got the language as such that the Secretary of State can prohibit them from coming in and doing business here and still allowing conservation to happen, because we know that's important. But we've got to find a balance between working lands, conservation and private property rights.

[12:29] Emmery: Yeah, that's awesome. I mean, you think about those. Things like that just happen in nature. Photosynthesis. I mean, all the things that you were talking about, even, I mean, honestly, even the CO2 off of our cattle like all of those things have always worked together. So to try to capture that and control it is just like a sign that maybe technology or maybe the people, you know, are going a little too far. They think they can control it may.

[12:57] Rep. Hauck: May have been one step too far. Yes. Little Tower of Babel going on. And, and I'm so glad that somebody recognized it, brought it to more people's attention. And like I've said for the last year and a half, I can't thank Drew Wrigley enough for seeing that coming. Somehow that he got tipped off and jumped on right away to make, to push back, saying we don't want this in North Dakota was a big deal. Because that I think raised the awareness in the whole state amongst all the agencies to say watch out for these kinds of things that might be coming.

[13:30] Emmery: Yeah.

[13:31] Rep. Hauck: And they're not going to do it in your face. It's going to come in, in a sneaky way. And so I'm glad that there's more agencies that are... have their eyes open and are watching for it.

[13:41] Emmery: You had a bill too regarding the Beef Commission. Correct?

[13:45] Rep. Hauck: So the Beef Commission, since it was established, really has had appointment process for the nine seats that, that are available. And it's an okay process. The way that the appointment process works is the, the governor's office has about 150, just over 150 boards and commissions that they are responsible for placing people on. So there are people sitting in those positions in that boards and commission's office that get portfolios. So they might have 15 to 20 portfolios. Somebody has the Beef Commission is their one portfolio out of their 20. So when there are seats that are up, they get applications and the application requires that they have several referrals. And so those... that portfolio, that person who is working that portfolio has to vet those referrals and the person. And so I just feel that it's more of a subjective process when we're going through an appointment process. And I would love to see it be an elective process. 

So I worked over the last couple years because this bill did come before us last session as well, and there were some problems with the bill. And so I've spent the last two years kind of cleaning up those and trying to make the districts. I did break it down into nine districts and it'll be messy for the first few years because we want to have that institutional knowledge or that rolling history. So it'll take a couple years, but eventually it'll be three of the districts every year would be elected so that you've got a three year term, if that makes sense. 

So, and we staggered it. We, we did our best to try to leave some of the folks who were recently appointed. We kind of picked where they were at right now and said, okay, we'll keep, keep those people in their positions. And, and they're like the last ones to get elected so that they get their full three terms that they were just recently appointed to. So you know, we, we tried to work hard to make everything as equal as it could be, but it's similar to our redistricting that we do at the legislative level. It's a domino effect. 

So the districts, the way that I put them together was using information from 2022 as to how many cow calf pairs are in the county. And that can fluctuate. So we did put in the bill that every seven years it could be relooked at to see if the counties are still equitable as far as how many cattle. Cow calf pairs. Not cattle, but cow calf pairs are in each county and make sure that it still looks right. But I did talk at length to, to a couple other organizations. I visited with Nebraska. Nebraska actually uses a, an elected process for their Beef Commission. And I said, well, how often do you go back and redo the, the districts? And she goes, we never have. The producers are fine with the way that they are. So they really haven't ever gone back and, and readjusted their districts. So it's almost all of our... I think we've got one commodity in North Dakota, grain commodity, that is a hybrid. They have an elected and board, but all of the rest of our commodity products are elected. And so I would just like to see the Beef Commission be the same.

[16:57] Emmery: What about any other pieces of legislation that you have that you would like to touch on?

[17:02] Rep. Hauck: So the other bill that I brought was regarding our police officers actually. So it would make an adjustment to the folks that are able to retire. So peace officers have sort of like the teaching industry that they've got a rule of 85, but they really aren't eligible for retirement until 55. And there's this gap between when they retire at 55 and when they can collect Medicare. So I brought a bill to ask the state after 20 years of service, if they've put in 20 years of service in the state of North Dakota and they're 55 and they're going to retire, that they could get their health insurance paid for until they collect Medicare. I've been made aware that there are some police officers that maybe hang on for a few extra years because they aren't able to afford health insurance once they. I mean, at 60 years old, health insurance is really expensive and to be out on your own. And so that was one of the other bills that is still kind of working through the system and. And we'll see how that one goes.

[18:02] Emmery: So you've been serving in the House since 2021. How would you rate this session compared to other ones just in..I mean, you mentioned that there's more legislation than ever before, which I think we've said that the last couple sessions as well. I think I've said that a few times. But more legislation than before. I mean, new governor. Yes, a lot of talk about different issues.

[18:25] Rep. Hauck: Yes, the biggest issue that came before us was the property tax reform. And we know that it can't just be like a returning of payment to the taxpayer, like we have to actually do some reform. We know that the process is broken. And as a Legislature, how, how do we address that? Some of the things are a little bit out of our control, in my opinion. And the way that I see it, your cities and your counties are not really ruled by what happens at the legislative level. It's based on your populations. And so if your county's budget is out of control, that is at a county level, it didn't have much to do with what the state is. None of your property tax end up in Bismarck. I mean, when I say Bismarck, I mean at the capitol. It doesn't come to this building. It stays in your, your county or in your city. And so when you've got out of control spending, it's something happening at your local level. 

So on that note, how does the Legislature help? It's hard. It's not a one size fits all situation. So one of the bills that came before us was to put a 3% cap on growth of the budget at the political subdivision level. Is that fair? What if, what if somebody, what if a political subdivision right now is doing a great job with their budget and now they have a water main break and it costs them 5% over and now we've capped them at 3% and they can't even raise the dollars that they need to fix something. So it's very difficult for me to support something like that when every single political subdivision is different. 

So that being said, I think that the piece that's broken is the assessment piece. So if there's something that the Legislature can do to hone in on that and say the valuations of homes going up 50% in three years seems unrealistic. And how do we tackle that? I slightly out of my wheelhouse, but I know that that is something that is being discussed and tried to work through and find an answer. And we've got like I think 45 days yet to fix that, to find, see if we can find a solution. We are bound by our constitution that it's we're here for 80 days. So I know that there's about 50 tax bills that are specifically targeting property tax and they're kind of working through those today, tomorrow and, and Monday. Appropriations deadline is Monday, so they've got to work through those. But it was an eye opening thing that we need to focus on. And so I think every other decision that's happening, we're in the back of our mind always thinking of how is this affecting the taxpayer. I think that that is more of a focus than maybe has been the last session and a half. And I that's all my background that I have on this is the last session and a half. But it feels like every decision that is on the back of our minds every time.

[21:31] Emmery: I suppose you're probably glad that you're not the vice chair of House Finance and Tax.

[21:36] Rep. Hauck: So glad. So, so glad.

[21:39] Emmery: I mean that really is something that affects every person in North Dakota. Well, the taxpayers. And, and, and you're right. Like how do we, how do we pay for everything? How do we assess taxes fairly like you were saying, the assessment process. And then how do you take the homeowners, the commercial property owners and then the agricultural landowners, all of those parties into account and, and how all of the pieces of the puzzle fit together and everything else, the different interests and everything. I mean that really is what makes, I guess that's probably what motivates 50 bill, 50 pieces of legislation on one topic for sure. You know, it's the first time that we've really seriously considered a substantial type of property tax reform. And so it's just interesting to see all the ideas fly and people just running around thinking of, okay, the Legislature before has given money to counties. It hasn't changed anything. It hasn't, hasn't fixed the spending issues, it hasn't fixed the taxpayer problem. How are we going to fix it? And I'm excited and hopeful for, for what you guys are going to come up with.

[22:42] Rep. Hauck: So yes, you're exactly right. And that's the difference. There's a difference between relief and reform. And I've heard it over and over and I've seen the numbers and we give that back to the political subdivisions. And that that hasn't worked. That isn't keeping the property taxes down. And so, yes, it has to be reform and not just relief.

[23:01] Emmery: Yeah, for sure. Well, thank you so much, Representative Hauck, for visiting with me today. And thank you for champion Agriculture and for serving as the vice of our House Agriculture Committee. So thank you very much.

[23:14] Rep. Hauck: Thank you.

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[23:17] Emmery: You've been listening to Straight Talk with NDFB. To keep track of all of the issues this Legislative Assembly, visit us at ndfb.org and subscribe to our Legislative Front. As always, if you have any questions, contact us at emmery@ndfb.org.

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