Hoping to stop "power hour" drinking excesses, the North Dakota Senate has approved legislation that orders bars to wait until 8 a.m. to serve any customer who has just turned 21 years old.

Senators voted 40-5 on Friday to endorse the change. Gov. John Hoeven is expected to sign it, and the bill will become law shortly after he does so later this month. Normally, the new laws approved by the Legislature do not take effect until July or August.

State law requires North Dakota bars to stop serving alcohol at 1 a.m. The legislation is targeted at so-called "power hours," where customers begin drinking just after midnight on their 21st birthdays and see how much they can consume until closing time.

The Minnesota Legislature is considering a similar bill. Lawmakers in both states have been influenced by two recent "power hour" drinking binges in Fargo and Moorhead, Minn., in which one 21-year-old suffered acute alcohol poisoning, and another drank himself to death.

An earlier North Dakota bill, approved by the Legislature and signed by Hoeven, specifies that in bar time, a person's 21st birthday does not arrive until 3 a.m. The provision is part of legislation that would allow local governments to extend closing time for their bars to 2 a.m.

However, the 8 a.m. time in Friday's measure will supersede the earlier bill, because the Legislature approved it later, said Sen. Joel Heitkamp, D-Hankinson.

"Whichever law gets enacted last is the one that becomes law," Heitkamp said. "This would, in effect, be the one. It takes it to 8 a.m."

The Senate's vote Friday is the final legislative vote on the measure. It now goes to the governor's office.

The bill is SB2067.