The Senate Government Operations Division heard testimony on House Bill 1016, the budget for the Adjutant General, with lawmakers questioning which personnel and projects the House funded and which requests remain unresolved.

Lawmakers pressed agency leaders for details about new full‑time positions the House did not fund. Brigadier General Jackie Huber, Deputy Adjutant General for the North Dakota National Guard, told the committee the agency had requested two FTEs to pilot a “next generation leader” program — described by Huber as “to create a junior ROTC like program” to begin in the Bismarck Public School District — and that the House did not provide funding. Huber asked the panel for an opportunity to bring additional supporters and program partners to describe the proposal in more depth.

The committee also discussed staffing tied to new and upgraded facilities. Huber said the Dickinson Readiness Center, which will hold a ribbon cutting in late June, requires a standard operating model of three staff — a physical plant director, a custodian and a general trades position — and that the House partially funded two of those posts; the department is seeking full funding for the full biennium. Huber said the North Dakota Veterans Cemetery averages “over 600 burials a year” and the House funded two FTEs there (an administrative position and a grounds position) to reduce reliance on temporary hires.

Department of Emergency Services Homeland Security Division Director Darren Hanson described the Watch Center, a state effort to provide continuous emergency coordination. Hanson said the agency requested enough permanent staff to reach eight FTEs, the minimum standard for a 24/7, 365 operation. He told the committee the center now operates with six permanent positions plus two temporary hires and that “we were only able to get to 6. We actually have 2 temps right now who we've been bringing in, to get us to that 8.” Hanson said the Watch Center provides plume modeling and alert support, law‑enforcement‑level information sharing (vetting by BCI), and automated monitoring tools that search the open and dark web for threats; he described the center as a “force multiplier” for local emergency managers.

Lawmakers probed funding sources. Agency fiscal staff and Jennifer Sheath, division chief for fiscal and administrative services, explained that much of the Adjutant General’s added base funding reflects federal grant authority, state special funds and internal realignments rather than new general‑fund increases. On disaster response and recovery, staff said the department projects substantial ongoing federal grant obligations for open disasters and had requested additional base authority — including discussion of $26 million in federal and special funds tied to open disaster projects and a $2 million disaster relief fund appropriation that the agency asked be built into ongoing authority rather than treated only as one‑time funding.

Committee members also pressed the agency about construction and insurance needs. Huber and Colonel Cody Volkta, director of installations, explained the House funded $2.5 million from SIF for design of a Williston Readiness Center; Volkta gave a construction estimate of about $29 million for a roughly 35,000‑square‑foot facility and said federal military construction dollars, if available, would likely not arrive until well into the next decade. Huber also said a Camp Grafton fire revealed that the department's facilities are underinsured; the department cited a Nardev [sic] assessment that, for example, put replacement value for the Raymond J. Bond Readiness Center far higher than its current insured amount and requested funding to bring insurance to replacement value and to create consistency across the estate.

No formal votes on the Adjutant General budget occurred during the hearing; committee members directed staff and agency leaders to provide follow‑up materials and indicated further hearings would be scheduled.