North Dakota Legislature 2027: Session Opens Jan. 5, Prefiling Dec. 18

North Dakota’s 2027 legislative session begins Tuesday, Jan. 5, and legislators must prefile bills by Friday, Dec. 18, 2026, according to the North Dakota Legislative Council’s tentative 2027 deadlines. The council’s list has 20 dated rows. The table below gives each with its weekday and legislative day, and a free printable tracker keeps them in order.

The list is marked tentative, so dates can change. Its footer reads “June 2026.” A footnote says a Joint Rule (JR) reference to the agency and Supreme Court filing deadline, changed in House and Senate Rules (H/SR) during the 2026 special session, “inadvertently was overlooked,” so the Nov. 25 deadline may be revised. The Legislative Assembly’s home page also describes the session as tentatively scheduled to run from Jan. 5 to April 30, 2027.

North Dakota legislative session 2027 deadlines by date

A legislative day begins at 7:00 a.m. under House and Senate Rules 104, so the day numbers count those periods rather than calendar days. The table follows the council’s wording in plain English. House Rules (HR) and Senate Rules (SR) apply to their own chamber; H/SR means both.

Date	Weekday	Legislative day	Milestone	Rule
Nov. 25, 2026	Wednesday	-	Executive agencies and the Supreme Court file bills with the Legislative Council	H/SR 402(2), JR 208
Dec. 1-3, 2026	Tuesday to Thursday	-	Organizational session
Dec. 11, 2026	Friday	-	Legislators submit health insurance mandate bills to the Legislative Council	JR 211
Dec. 18, 2026	Friday	-	Legislators prefile bills	H/SR 401(3)
Jan. 5, 2027	Tuesday	1st	Session begins, with the Tribal-State Relationship Message, State of the Judiciary address and State of the State address
Jan. 6-7	Wednesday and Thursday	-	No floor sessions; standing committees meet
Jan. 11	Monday	3rd	After this date, each representative may introduce no more than five bills	HR 402(1)
Jan. 18	Monday	8th	Representatives’ deadline to introduce bills; after this date each senator may introduce no more than three bills, and a Senate bill with an appropriation clause cannot be introduced; Martin Luther King Day	HR 402(1), SR 402(1)
Jan. 25	Monday	13th	Senators’ deadline to introduce bills	SR 402(1)
Jan. 28	Thursday	16th	Deadline to introduce resolutions, except constitutional amendments and study resolutions	H/SR 402(1)
Feb. 8	Monday	23rd	Rereferrals of bills in the house of origin to the Appropriations Committee	H/SR 329(4)
Feb. 12	Friday	27th	Deadline to introduce constitutional amendments and study resolutions	H/SR 402(3)
Feb. 15	Monday	28th	George Washington’s Birthday
Feb. 23	Tuesday	34th	Bills and resolutions reported out of committee in the house of origin	H/SR 509
Feb. 26	Friday	37th	Crossover date for bills and resolutions	JR 203
March 1-2	Monday and Tuesday	-	Recess
March 3	Wednesday	38th	Reconvene from the crossover break
March 26	Friday	55th	Rereferrals of bills in the second house to the Appropriations Committees; Good Friday	H/SR 329(4)
April 7	Wednesday	63rd	Bills and resolutions reported out of committee in the second house	H/SR 509
April 30	Friday	80th	Session limited to 80 legislative days

When do North Dakota bills have to be introduced?

Prefiling closes first: Friday, Dec. 18, 2026 (H/SR 401(3)). Once the session opens on Jan. 5, each representative may introduce no more than five bills after day 3, Monday, Jan. 11, and the representatives’ deadline is day 8, Monday, Jan. 18. Senators follow on day 13, Monday, Jan. 25, and after Jan. 18 each senator may introduce no more than three bills. A Senate bill with an appropriation clause cannot be introduced after Jan. 18.

Resolutions have a separate clock: Thursday, Jan. 28 for most, and Friday, Feb. 12 for constitutional amendments and study resolutions.

What is crossover in the North Dakota Legislature?

Crossover is the date set for bills and resolutions to move from the chamber where they started to the other one. Joint Rule 203 sets it for Friday, Feb. 26, 2027, legislative day 37, and bills and resolutions must be reported out of committee in the house of origin by Tuesday, Feb. 23. The chambers recess March 1 and 2 and reconvene Wednesday, March 3. In the second house, bills and resolutions must be reported out of committee by Wednesday, April 7.

Why does North Dakota’s session open on Jan. 5?

Article IV, Section 7 of the Constitution has the Legislative Assembly meet at the seat of government in December after the election for organizational and orientation purposes, then recess until noon on “the first Tuesday after the third day in January,” and no later than Jan. 11. Jan. 3, 2027 is a Sunday, so the first Tuesday after it is Jan. 5. The organizational session runs Tuesday through Thursday, Dec. 1-3, 2026.

How long can the 2027 session last?

The council’s list limits the session to 80 legislative days, ending Friday, April 30. The Constitution says no regular session may exceed 80 natural days during the biennium, and defines a natural day as 24 consecutive hours. Because a legislative day ends at 7:00 a.m. the next day, the two counts are different measures.

For the last session, the Legislative Assembly’s page says it convened Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025 and adjourned Saturday, May 3, 2025. The council’s footnote adds that in 2025 the House and Senate were in session on Martin Luther King Day and George Washington’s Birthday, and that generally both chambers have met on Good Friday. The list shows those days, Jan. 18, Feb. 15 and March 26, 2027, as legislative days 8, 28 and 55.

Print the North Dakota Legislature 2027 session tracker

The free tracker lists every dated row in order, from the Nov. 25 agency deadline to the April 30 limit, with a box to check off each. Pair it with a December 2026 calendar, a January 2027 calendar or an April 2027 calendar. Other legislatures have their own schedules: see the Montana Legislature 2027 session and the Utah Legislature 2027 session.