The Senate Education Committee voted to give House Bill 1064 a due pass after discussion over how North Dakota should treat out‑of‑state postsecondary institutions that lack membership in the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC‑SARA). The committee recorded a 5‑yea, 1‑nay vote on the bill as it was presented to the committee.

Committee members debated two competing approaches: the version passed by the House, which added a path for certain institutions to be exempted from the NC‑SARA membership requirement, and a university system proposal that would replace that language with an appeals process administered by the State Board of Higher Education. Senator O'Shea moved the university system replacement language but the motion died for lack of a second. Senator Axman then moved a due‑pass recommendation, which passed 5‑1.

Claire Gunwell, director of academic affairs at the North Dakota University System Office, described the university system’s preferred approach as preserving an objective membership standard while allowing institutions denied NC‑SARA membership to seek exemption and a fuller review. "There has been some institutions that have tried to offer those programs without having written disclosure saying that the student wouldn't be eligible for licensing in North Dakota," Gunwell said, describing concerns the system reviews during its current institutional review process.

Committee discussion focused on what criteria should control exemptions. The House amendment language would allow an exemption only where an institution receives Title IV federal student aid and has an institutional financial responsibility composite score of 1.5 or higher, while the university system’s proposal would create an appeals process that could consider additional factors such as accreditation, professional licensure eligibility and other indicators of institutional quality.

Gunwell told senators the university system now reviews roughly 40–60 out‑of‑state applications a year and that about 90% of those applicants currently are approved to operate in North Dakota; she said only about 10 are denied, and only one of those denials was solely due to a parent‑company composite score. Committee members repeatedly raised concerns that relying only on NC‑SARA membership and the composite financial score could miss other risks to students, such as accreditation problems or disclosure failures.

The committee recorded the bill’s final committee outcome as a due pass; the record shows a 5‑yes, 1‑no tally. The committee did not adopt the university system replacement language because the motion lacked a second.