Transcript Highlights:

• Engrossed House Bill 4626, relating to the establishment of a grant program to fund the United States
• The purpose of this bill is to establish a grant program to fund the United States Food and Drug Administration's
• The program is administered by a board chaired by the state treasurer.
• The board is required to administer the program in accordance with state and federal law.
• The program will provide grant funding to employers in the state to be used to afford students aged 14

Keywords: 994, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• of these programs and the need for State of these programs and the need for State support<01:12:
• the state a lot of programs in the state government<02:00:48.119> that<02:00:48.480> help<
• because we connect young people to those programs and other programs throughout the state that have
• because we connect young people to those programs and other programs throughout the state that have
• > state<02:24:05.120> that<02:24:05.680> have programs throughout the state that

Keywords: 928, house, all

Summary: The Finance Committee held a hearing on several bills and announced at the outset that no votes would be taken because the measures would go to divisions later. The first major bill, HB 197, would require the state to pay 7.5% of political subdivision employer pension contributions for teachers, police officers, and firefighters. Representative Mike Edgar, the prime sponsor, argued the state had repeatedly reduced and then eliminated its promised share of retirement costs, shifting the burden to municipalities and property taxpayers. He said the bill would partially restore that commitment and provide relief to local governments, businesses, and taxpayers. Several witnesses testified in support of HB 197, including Representative John Cluder, Bradford selectman Marlene Fryer, the New Hampshire Municipal Association’s Margaret Burns, and Epping representative Mark Fone. Supporters said the bill would help with property tax pressure, school budgets, and municipal hiring, and they emphasized that much of the retirement cost reflects unfunded liability decisions made at the state level rather than by local governments. Committee members questioned whether the bill would change local incentives to control costs and how it would affect hiring and compensation. Burns said the state contribution would function as property tax relief because it offsets existing municipal expenses, and she noted the state is already on a long-term schedule to pay down the retirement system’s unfunded liability. After closing the hearing on HB 197, the committee opened a hearing on HB 97, introduced by Representative Tom Buco. He said the bill would continue funding for delayed and deferred wastewater projects and help municipalities finance expensive wastewater infrastructure, which he tied to housing development and local debt planning. No action or votes were taken on either bill during the hearing.

Transcript Highlights:

• Uh, article two allocates $52 million to the Minnesota State Grant Program.
• on top of old state statutes, new programs on top of old programs, and we never stop and look at what
• of old state statutes, on top of old state statutes, new<03:32:19.880> programs<03:32:21.280>
• been perpetrated in many different programs throughout the state.
• Secondly, it authorizes the State Patrol to establish a volunteer chaplain program.

Keywords: 918, senate, all

Summary: The Senate convened under a call, established a quorum, received the House message on Senate File 4807 concerning benefits for veterans of the secret war in Laos, and voted not to concur in the House amendments, appointing a three-member conference committee. The chamber also received a batch of House files, laid several of them on the table, and adopted committee reports and other routine motions. Senate Resolution 84 was referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration, and Senator Murphy designated special orders for immediate consideration. The main floor debate centered on Senate File 4059, the supplemental finance omnibus bill. Senators described the bill as a slim, supplemental budget focused on urgent affordability needs, including $52 million for state grants in higher education, $15 million for LIHEAP, school district compensatory revenue adjustments, support for public television stations facing federal cuts, Medicaid fraud enforcement, and consumer restitution for scam victims. The Jobs article was presented first, with roughly $4.9 million in Workforce Development Fund appropriations for workforce and job-training programs, including support for rural oncologist training, homelessness-related employment programs, youth training, local news talent development, transportation-related employment assistance, and manufacturing support. Several amendments were offered and debated. Senator Farnsworth offered the A14 amendment to extend unemployment benefits for laid-off Iron Range miners, but withdrew it after being told it would unbalance the bill and after receiving a commitment to continue working on the issue in conference committee. Senator Draheim offered the A18 amendment to redirect Cookie Cart funding to rural hospital maternity training grants; after debate, the Senate rejected the amendment by a roll call vote of 32 ayes and 34 nays. The discussion emphasized competing priorities between youth workforce programs and rural health care needs. The Senate then moved into Article 1 on K-12 education, where Senator Kunesh outlined provisions including anti-grooming language, a district health insurance reporting requirement, extension of a gender-neutral bathroom grant, compensatory hold-harmless aid, operating capital flexibility, literacy aid hold harmless language, and several cost-neutral district fund transfers. Senator Nelson offered the A29 amendment to require school sports teams and participants be designated by biological sex at birth; debate on that amendment began near the end of the transcript, but no final vote was shown before the excerpt ended.

Transcript Highlights:

• Finance and Administration, Department of Transportation, and Legislative Finance Committee.
• Board of Finance is at the Department of Finance as well.
• Of $30 million for the Governor's Summer Reading Intervention Program that she talked about in her State
• of the State Address.
• Again, the Governor talked about those issues in her State of the State. So, Mr.

Transcript Highlights:

• Today we have some investments as a state in terms of youth programming.
• Today we have some investments as a state in terms of youth programming.
• Today we have some investments as a state in terms of youth programming.
• Today we have some investments as a state in terms of youth programming.
• I track all 50 states and Canadian provinces' adoption subsidy or adoption assistance programs.

Keywords: 1187, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• program."
• program changed my life. program changed my life.
• <00:52:20.559> across<00:52:21.119> state different programs across state different
• programs across state government<00:52:22.640> why<00:52:22.960> we<00:52:23.200> aren't
• She said this bill is what the state can do in the meantime, to help members understand these programs

Keywords: 1183, house

Transcript Highlights:

• There's no cost to the state.
• program [clears throat] Uh that program [clears throat] proved<00:08:46.440> to<00:08:46.560>
• There's no cost to the state. Um and up. There's no cost to the state.
• commit as much state funding to it. commit as much state funding to it.
• uh I'm not a member of the Finance uh I'm not a member of the Finance Committee<00:36:58.680>

Keywords: 1187, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• This program is a matching program.
• You know, it's going to vary from state to state, but there are a lot of case studies from other states
• It will be directed solely to the fund for the state program on access to and creating boat ramps.
• some of our other programs. some of our other programs.
• to finance. to finance.

Keywords: 928, house, all

Summary: The committee held a public hearing on SB 63, a bill described by Senator Tim Lang and other supporters as a technical correction to the rooms and meals tax distribution formula. Lang said the bill would clarify that the Division of Travel and Tourism’s 3.15% promotional allocation is taken from gross rooms-and-meals revenue before the 30% municipal reimbursement fund is calculated, which he argued restores the intended 2009/2021 structure and avoids an unintended loss to tourism marketing. Committee members raised questions about whether the bill actually changes section one or instead addresses DRA’s interpretation, and whether the measure could be affected by the budget process or HB 2. Jessica Keeler of Ski New Hampshire testified in strong support, saying the bill would preserve the promotional budget formula that had been in place since 2009 and that the 2019 revision effectively reduced the promotional allocation by placing the municipal share first. She said tourism promotion has helped increase visitation, revenues, and jobs, and warned that without a fix, the joint promotional program and other tourism efforts could be cut in future budgets. She also said the bill would not change the current year’s tourism budget but would matter for future cycles. Mike Summers of the New Hampshire Lodging and Restaurant Association also supported SB 63, calling it a correction to the 2021 changes and arguing that state tourism marketing is essential because small businesses cannot reach distant markets on their own. He said the industry has benefited from state promotion, especially after COVID, but is now facing softer occupancy rates, lower Canadian visitation, and financial strain from debt and operating costs. Summers said the industry cannot make up for major tourism budget cuts on its own and urged maintaining or increasing travel and tourism funding. No vote or final action was taken at the hearing.

Transcript Highlights:

• of Commerce, some housing programs over to housing finance agencies.
• But again, this program, no state dollars.
• But here in the state.
• Same with the single-family program and the homeless programs.
• She's our finance lead.

Summary: The committee met as the Regulatory Division budget section and first reviewed the North Dakota Housing Finance Agency’s budget and program update. Legislative Council outlined the agency’s base budget and historical funding, and Housing Finance staff reported on homeownership lending, housing incentive fund (HIF) awards, and homeless grant spending. Agency officials said the five new FTEs approved last session are mostly filled, with one homeless program manager still open. They described strong demand for HIF, noting that September 2025 multifamily requests exceeded $73 million while only $25 million was available, and that single-family and homeless programs are also heavily subscribed. Members discussed the agency’s local loan servicing workload, interest-rate benefits, down payment assistance, and the need to coordinate housing discussions with Commerce and site-preparation efforts. The agency asked that HIF, single-family, and homeless funding be maintained or increased, and committee members emphasized accountability and statewide access for homeless prevention and rapid rehousing funds. The Department of Mineral Resources then presented its budget and agency initiatives. Staff reported that the department is on track financially, that most of the five new reclamation-related FTEs are hired, and that litigation costs tied to oil and gas matters are expected to continue appearing late in the biennium. The director reviewed ongoing modernization and organizational efforts, including the North Star IT project, succession planning, training, and rulemaking for oil and gas and critical minerals. Members asked about longer laterals, spacing, and production trends; the department said operators are increasingly drilling three-, four-, and even an initial five-mile lateral, which is helping keep North Dakota oil production relatively flat even as rig counts ease. The director also discussed oil price volatility tied to Middle East conflict, hedging practices among producers, gas capture remaining around 95%, and the likelihood that current production levels will stay near flat unless prices or geopolitical conditions change significantly. An update on the enhanced oil recovery grant program followed. The Industrial Commission’s grant administrator said the full $25 million appropriation was allocated in the fall to six projects, and because the oil and gas research fund also had carryover and biennial tax revenue, total awards reached about $45.1 million. The projects are expected to run two to four years, with meaningful results not likely until mid-2026 or later. Members questioned whether the public would have access to the research findings and how accountability would be maintained; staff said the grants are reimbursement-based, require regular status reports, and will culminate in public final reports. The committee also heard from the North Dakota Pipeline Authority, which updated members on natural gas transmission projects, especially WBI Energy’s proposed Bakken East pipeline. The authority said the project has advanced through a nonbinding and then binding open season, with WBI now securing survey permissions and moving through regulatory and landowner processes, while other related gas transmission projects near Minot and Epping are also in development.

Transcript Highlights:

• We, you know, back in February '23, we received some. emergency funding from the State Board of Finance
• We returned about $170,000 last year to the State Board of Finance that we did not use for training and
• We did that as the only nursing program in the state, and so I'm particularly proud of that and our staff
• That's one reason that the State Board of Finance appropriated that money for us to basically retrain
• We do have some issues in our nursing programs across the state that we need to address at the state

Transcript Highlights:

• Just a comment of gratitude on our last page for those youth programs: the Boys State, the Girls State
• Girls State is here today with us, and Boys State was here with us last year, and that program every
• associated with each county's paramedic service program, and also states that funds are to be audited
• annually by the state auditor.
• Roster to the Department of Finance and the State Fire Prevention Commission to aid in the processing

Summary: The Joint Finance Committee met to review and vote on the fiscal year 2027 Grants and Aid Act, which was expected to be pre-filed as Senate Bill 337. Members first reviewed Section 1, covering county seat payments, paramedic operations, senior center allocations, senior center transportation, and Homeland Security grants. They approved Section 1 after discussion of how senior center transportation is being moved from DART to grant-in-aid and how some organizations can appear in both the senior center formula and the general aging category. The committee then worked through Section 2, which included one-time appropriations and the various grant categories for aging, arts/historical/recreation, economic housing or labor services, family and youth services, health or disability services, and neighborhood and community services. Members discussed several specific items, including New Castle County reassessment-related funding, Friends of Cooch’s Bridge, Slaughter Neck Community Action Organization, Plastic-Free Delaware, Love, Inc. of the Delmarva, and the Southern Delaware Horse Retirement Association. One aging line for Slaughter Neck was reduced back to flat funding after members questioned a large increase, and the revised category total was adjusted accordingly. Each of the Section 2 subcategories was then adopted. Section 3, covering fire companies and public service ambulance companies, was approved with increases across apparatus, ambulance, rescue truck, aerial truck, rescue boat, substation, and insurance rebate equalization funding. Section 4, for veterans organizations and youth programs such as Boys State, Girls State, and Trooper Youth Week, was also adopted. The committee then approved the epilogue sections, which included eligibility, audit, payment, and reporting rules; special provisions for the Wilmington Senior Center contingency; conditions tied to several one-time appropriations; withholding funding from Merri-Dell Volunteer Fire Company pending a corrective report; and reprogramming $1,485,000 from a prior SMART food program appropriation toward SNAP/WIC-related food access initiatives. The meeting ended with remarks thanking staff and noting that it was likely the last JFC meeting for two members, followed by adjournment.

Transcript Highlights:

• The Commissioner said every state has a housing finance agency, all created around the same time when
• housing finance agencies, and that he has worked closely with neighboring states.
• > a<01:08:36.480> housing<01:08:36.880> finance >> Uh, every state has a housing
• finance >> Uh, every state has a housing finance agency.<01:08:38.159> uh<01:08:38.319>
• programs funded by state appropriations programs funded by state appropriations may<01:34:48.800

Keywords: 1187, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• That's not how families manage their finances. That's not how Californians manage their finances.
• The state has never had more money in the history of the state.
• The state has never received more money in the history of the state.
• Lisa Rosenzinski with the Department of Finance.
• State finances are, you know, detailed, and we need experts here to help us translate that.

Keywords: 988, house, all

Transcript Highlights:

• Modeled after successful legislation and a program that's been implemented in the state of Nebraska,
• This program is going to go a long ways for recruitment and retention of police officers in the state
• that's been implemented in the program that's been implemented in the state<00:02:03.920> of<
• When was that implemented, and how do you measure success in the program that is in the state of Nebraska
• We want to make as much of an investment as we can in this program and get folks to come to the state

Keywords: 1183, house

Transcript Highlights:

• expired property tax programs and aids. expired property tax programs and aids.
• Those tax increment financing plans are still reported under this amendment to the State Auditor.
• park in the state as well.
• state highways. state highways.
• <01:31:49.360> And tax increment financing. And tax increment financing.

Keywords: 1187, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• I contacted um the in of this program.
• So that's why we use state house. I'll So that's why we use state house.
• okay a certain number of non-state okay a certain number of non-state entities.<00:34:02.000>
• It is looking at how the department is managing the program and how they're overseeing the state, and
• the department is managing the program the department is managing the program and<00:50:05.280><

Keywords: 1189, house, all

Summary: The committee first accepted the minutes from the April 4 meeting, then moved to a discussion of potential audit topics and follow-up on prior performance audits. Christine Young, Director of Audits, and Jay Henry, performance audit supervisor, walked members through a spreadsheet showing the status of roughly 30 performance audit reports from the past 10 years, including the number of observations, whether agencies concurred, how many observations were fully addressed, and when each report was last updated. They explained that “fully addressed” only means the agency addressed the observations it agreed with, and that some reports include rejoinders when the audit office disagrees with an agency’s response. Members also discussed how some audits have been updated and others have not, including an example from the prescription drug monitoring program, which moved from the Board of Pharmacy/OPLC to HHS and was recently updated after staff contacted HHS. A major focus was the mental health workforce licensing audit, which was described as having little or no follow-up in the spreadsheet. Several members said this was especially concerning given the ongoing mental health crisis and argued that the committee should require a response. The committee agreed to start by sending letters to the chairs of the boards listed under that audit, asking the chair or designee to appear at the next meeting or respond in writing about what has been done and what remains unresolved. Members noted that the current process is voluntary and self-reported, which can lead to long delays or no response, especially for boards that meet only monthly and may have changed membership or leadership since the audit was issued. The committee also discussed other audit follow-up issues, including the liquor commission division of enforcement and licensing, which staff said was farther along than its percentage suggested, and a recently released human rights report that was not yet due for update. Members raised the possibility of using future budget reviews to ask agencies what they have done about old audit findings. In addition, the committee briefly discussed future audit topics, including a possible audit of local school districts related to special education, and staff explained that the statute allows the LBA to audit a limited number of non-state entities over a five-year period. The motion to authorize the chair and LBA to draft and send letters to the mental health workforce licensing boards passed by show of hands with one abstention. The next meeting was tentatively set for June 6 in State House 100, with staff to confirm the room and schedule.

Transcript Highlights:

• <00:03:38.400> meetings going to have all day Finance meetings going to have all day Finance
• It's a Skills Path program.
• It's a Skills Path program.
• legislators in the state legislators in the state 100<00:14:29.759> are<00:14:30.000>
• um the impact it's having on our states um the impact it's having on our states is<00:26:55.799>

Keywords: 1187, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• We know some other states have had state-based programs with varying levels of success.
• We’ve also seen some reinsurance programs be more successful in other states.
• Chair, basically realigns our state assistance program with our federal program and essentially says
• Uh, we are a very rent-burdened state. Uh, we had to put a restriction on who can join the program.
• Chair, there is some relatively small state program administrator costs associated with establishing

Keywords: 1187, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• either on the floor or in finance either on the floor or in finance if<00:22:00.240> the<
• Senate File 4531 is in finance.
• The amounts were adjusted finance.
• <00:35:53.680> The file 1580 uh is also in finance. The file 1580 uh is also in finance.
• more information on finance, not less. more information on finance, not less.

Keywords: 1187, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• So we can talk about the finances and how we want to finance it. I get that.
• or state programs to be used to, again, get to the goal of more housing.
• or state programs to be used to, again, get to the goal of more housing.
• Agency, their programs could be used to put on... houses then, like Housing Finance Agency, their programs
• agency their programs could be used to put on houses then like housing finance agency, their programs

Keywords: 908, all

Summary: The committee first heard Senate Bill 2265, which would provide the Fargo National Cemetery with up to a $3 million line of credit to help fund improvements such as indoor bathrooms, parking, a family gathering area, an office, a hearse garage, and a veterans gallery. Supporters said the cemetery has expanded rapidly since 2019, has already conducted about 1,000 burials, and needs better facilities for families and the Honor Guard; they also said the project would be subject to federal VA approval and, once completed, would be taken over by the VA. Members raised questions about the project’s cost, timing, funding sources, whether the bill should be a grant instead of a line of credit, and whether a chapel should be specifically included. No vote was taken on SB 2265 during the excerpt. The committee then took up Senate Bill 2230, which would have the Secretary of State mail active voters a guide on ballot measures at least 45 days before an election, with objective summaries, fiscal impacts, and arguments for and against each measure. Secretary of State Michael Howe said the office already receives many questions about ballot measures and would post the same information online and at polling places, while emphasizing the need to keep the material objective and consistent with election-law restrictions. Members generally supported the idea as a voter-education tool, and the committee adopted a due pass motion on SB 2230 by a 19-0 vote. Finally, the committee heard Senate Bill 2256, which would provide one-time state support for the NDSU Research and Technology Park in Fargo to expand its role in commercialization, robotics, precision agriculture, and defense-related technology. Park CEO Brenda Weiland explained that the park is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit spun out of NDSU, governed by a board with both university and industry representation, and that the new model is intended to bridge the gap between research and market-ready products without competing directly with private industry. Members asked about ownership, intellectual property, the planned partnership with Carnegie Mellon’s robotics center, and how the park would use the funding; the discussion focused on contracts, licensing, and the park’s intent to build technical capacity and attract companies. The excerpt ends before any vote on SB 2256.