A conference committee on House Bill 1369 approved amendments Thursday that change loan limits from the Coal Development Trust Fund and add a 2% loan carve-out for Air Force bases.

Senator Scheibe said the bill’s Section 3 creates a “co development loan fund” and “provides a 2 percent loan up to $20,000,000 for an Air Force base.” He said that loan is a 20-year obligation “not a revolving loan” and that repayments would return to the Coal Development Trust Fund.

The committee also amended Section 4 to lower tiered maximum loan amounts for qualifying projects. The committee moved one tier from $30,000,000 down to $20,000,000 and another from $15,000,000 down to $10,000,000. The draft also includes language that, when fund balances exceed a set amount, projects would be eligible for loans covering up to 80% of project cost subject to a referenced maximum loan amount of $16,000,000.

Members said the amendments include effective dates and an emergency clause, and committee staff removed a prior Section 7 from the bill text. Committee discussion referenced Senate Bill 2149, passed earlier, which contained language related to Air Force bases; the conference changes were described as cleaning up overlapping language between the measures.

Committee members noted the Coal Development Trust Fund balance available for loans; one speaker said the fund balance was “like $49,000,000” available. The committee discussed that the Air Force carve-out applies to Air Force bases generally and cited Grand Forks and Minot as possible eligible installations.

After brief discussion the committee adopted the amendments and then voted to give House Bill 1369 a favorable recommendation as amended. The chair announced the motions passed following a roll call.

The committee did not specify implementation steps beyond the bill text or provide a detailed loan-application process during the discussion; staff and members noted the need to read the bill text for full program mechanics.