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• Jones said she thinks current navigators have adequate training, though she would comply with any new regulations.
• "It would make the process a bit more complicated," Jones said. "It's not for me to say whether it's necessary or not."
• Novstrup said he hopes the program would pay for itself with the registration fees.
• "We're doing a very minimal amount of regulation, and that minimal amount of regulation should cost a very small amount," Novstrup said.
• House Minority Leader Bernie Hunhoff signed on as a co-sponsor to the bill but has since decided that he won't vote for it.
• The Democrat from Yankton said he recently worked with a navigator to set up insurance for his business.
• "I think it's unnecessary regulation, the more I learn about it," Hunhoff said. "We're all trying to keep government simple and reduce duplication and unnecessary paperwork and regulations. This seems to be just an unnecessary burden on the whole system. "
• Novstrup said he decided to propose the measure after reading that U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had said the federal government does not require background checks for health care navigators, but the states could do so.
• "Secretary Sebelius handed us the particular responsibility to make sure that that particular profession was registered or regulated and licensed," Novstrup said.
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• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard is appointing Lynne Valenti to be the next secretary of the state Department of Social Services.
• Valenti has been the department's deputy secretary since 2011. She will replace Kim Malsam-Rysdon, who is leaving the Department of Social Services to join the governor's office as a senior adviser.
• Daugaard says Valenti will be a strong leader because she cares about the department's mission to protect children, serve people with behavioral problems and give a helping hand to those who need it.
• Valenti joined state government in 1998, working as legal counsel for the Human Services Department and the Human Resources Bureau before moving to the Social Services Department. She is a graduate of the University of South Dakota and the New England School of Law.
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