AN ACT to provide an appropriation for defraying the expenses of the retirement and investment office.
House Bill 1022 is an appropriations measure for the North Dakota Retirement and Investment Office for the 2025-27 biennium. It provides a total special-funds appropriation of $16.55 million, including funding for salaries and wages, operating expenses, contingencies, and a new-and-vacant FTE pool. The bill also authorizes one full-time equivalent increase, bringing the office from 34.00 to 35.00 FTEs.
The bill includes $250,000 in one-time funding for information technology consulting, identified as not part of the office’s base budget for the next biennium. It also directs the office to report to the Seventieth Legislative Assembly on how that one-time funding is used. In addition, the bill restricts spending from the new-and-vacant FTE pool, allowing transfers to salaries and wages only through the Office of Management and Budget under the guidelines established in House Bill 1015.
HB1022 affects state spending authority for the Retirement and Investment Office and does not create or amend substantive retirement law. Its legal effect is to appropriate special funds for agency operations, set staffing and budget parameters for the biennium, and impose reporting and transfer restrictions tied to one-time and vacancy-related funding. The bill primarily impacts the Retirement and Investment Office, the Office of Management and Budget, and the legislative appropriations committees that will review the one-time IT consulting expenditure in the next budget cycle.
The bill appears to have been broadly supported and noncontroversial. It passed the House 83-10 and the Senate 41-6, indicating strong bipartisan approval for the agency budget. The absence of committee transcript debate or recorded objections suggests the measure was treated as a routine appropriations bill rather than a contested policy proposal.
Any contention likely centered on the size and structure of the appropriation rather than the existence of the funding itself. The main points that could draw scrutiny are the $250,000 one-time IT consulting expense, the addition of one FTE, and the use of a new-and-vacant FTE pool that cannot be spent directly but may be transferred under HB1015 procedures. No specific opposition arguments are recorded, but such items are the most likely areas of legislative concern in an agency budget bill.