AN ACT to amend and reenact subdivision xx of subsection 2 of section 12-60-24 and section 54-11-16 of the North Dakota Century Code, relating to criminal history record checks by the state treasurer for individuals with access to federal tax information.
SB 2073 updates North Dakota law governing criminal history record checks for people who handle federal tax information on behalf of the state treasurer. The bill amends the Century Code to require the state treasurer to conduct statewide and nationwide background checks not only for applicants and employees, but also for independent contractors who have access to federal tax information.
The bill also changes the timing for repeat checks, extending the recheck interval from every five years to every ten years. The nationwide check must still be performed under the existing procedures in section 12-60-24, preserving the state’s current process for obtaining and reviewing criminal history information.
The bill narrows and clarifies the state treasurer’s authority and obligations under sections 12-60-24 and 54-11-16 of the North Dakota Century Code by expressly including independent contractors among the covered individuals. It expands the class of persons subject to background screening while reducing the frequency of mandatory rechecks from five years to ten years, which may lower administrative burden for the treasurer’s office and affected workers while still maintaining access controls for federal tax information.
The available voting record shows strong, unanimous support: the Senate passed the bill 47-0 and the House passed it 90-0, with only a few absences. No committee transcript was provided, but the final votes suggest the measure was viewed as a routine administrative and security update rather than a controversial policy change.
No notable opposition appears in the available record. The only substantive policy choices reflected in the bill are whether independent contractors should be included in the background-check requirement and whether the recheck interval should be ten years instead of five. Because the bill passed unanimously and no committee debate is available, there is no evidence of organized contention over those points in the materials provided.