North Dakota lawmakers took their oaths of office, elected their presiding officers and were assigned desks and parking spaces as the Legislature's organizational session began Monday.

"Just remember, people, if you didn't like the seat that you got, think about the person that you ran against. Where are they sitting?" newly elected House Speaker David Monson, R-Osnabrock, told other representatives.

Sen. Tom Fischer, R-Fargo, was elected as the Senate's president pro tempore, even though Senate Republicans, at a meeting beforehand, forgot to discuss his pending nomination. Fischer defeated Sen. John Warner, D-Ryder, for the position.

"I'm at a loss for words, which is something that is usually not attributed to me," Fischer said.

The House speaker presides during the North Dakota House's daily floor sessions, during which representatives debate and vote on legislation. The lieutenant governor normally presides during the Senate's floor sessions, but the president pro tem fills in when he is absent.

The majority party in the House and Senate decides who is elected as House speaker and Senate president pro tempore. House Republicans have 58 seats to Democrats' 36. In the Senate, the GOP has 26 seats to Democrats' 21.

The organizational session ends at midday Wednesday, after Gov. John Hoeven delivers his budget recommendations to a joint session of the Legislature.

On Monday, newly elected state senators and representatives were sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Carol Ronning Kapsner in the Senate and Justice Dale Sandstrom in the House.

Today's business includes reports from the Legislature's interim study committees; remarks from the Legislature's Democratic and Republican floor leaders on legislative ethics; briefings on legislative rules; and training sessions on the laptop computers and software that lawmakers will use during the 2009 session.

Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate also are holding regular caucuses of their own members. On Monday, the new House GOP majority leader, Rep. Al Carlson, R-Fargo, told a meeting of House Republicans that a projected state surplus of more than $1 billion would make the 2009 Legislature more difficult.

"It's a lot easier to govern when you're broke," Carlson said. The 2003 Legislature, he said, "was a pretty easy session for us, because it wasn't hard to say no, because we didn't have any money. It's a little different today when you're sitting with a significant surplus in the bank."

Legislators will have to work to restrain spending growth and ensure that budget increases can be maintained into the future, Carlson said.

"We must remember that limited government, reasonable spending, funding the priorities are important things to us," Carlson said. "If we spend all the money, I don't want to be the one that has to go back and ask the taxpayers to pay more the next time."