BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The North Dakota Legislature will challenge Gov. Doug Burgum over his veto powers.

The bipartisan Legislative Management Committee voted Thursday to pursue the litigation in the state Supreme Court, after meeting behind closed doors to talk about strategy.

The Republican-led Legislature adjourned on April 27, 2017 and Burgum used his line-item veto during the following week to change parts of several spending bills.

Legislators contend the governor violated his veto powers by deleting words or phrases that would have changed the intent.

Burgum says in a statement that the intent of the vetoes “was to protect executive branch authority, preserve the separation of powers and prevent spending of scarce state resources without full legislative review.”

He says the lawsuit isn’t a “prudent use of taxpayer dollars.”

 

Gov. Doug Burgum released the following statement Thursday after Legislative Management decided to proceed with litigation over the governor’s veto authority.

“As I’ve stated before, the intent of these vetoes was to protect executive branch authority, preserve the separation of powers and prevent spending of scarce state resources without full legislative review,” Burgum said. “While we don’t believe this lawsuit to be a prudent use of taxpayer dollars, we will respond accordingly to any legal action that attempts to infringe on executive branch authority. In the meantime, we remain squarely focused on reinventing government and being as efficient as possible with taxpayer dollars as we carry out the duties of the executive branch.”