The Senate approved House Bill 1003, the appropriations bill for the Office of the Attorney General, which adds funding for a full-time tobacco settlement compliance officer and increases resources for cybercrime investigations, human-trafficking prevention, and victim services.

"We would ask the chamber to adopt the conference committee report for 10/2003," said Senator Sickler, chairing the conference committee on the bill. The conference committee recommended replacing the Senate-adopted amendment with a new conference amendment. Lawmakers adopted the report and the bill passed final passage by a vote of 45 yes to 2 no.

Senator Sickler and other conferees described the new full-time equivalent position as a preventive measure to ensure North Dakota continues to meet evolving standards under the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) governing tobacco-company payments and enforcement. North Dakota currently receives about $20 million per year from the tobacco settlement, roughly $40 million per biennium, most of which is deposited in the community health trust fund, the sponsor said.

Sickler said these enforcement standards have been refined through arbitration panels in other states and gave examples: arbitration decisions have found states out of compliance (cited examples from 2021) and recent panels have examined multiple factors including data collection, verification, inspection and staffing. Current state staffing for MSA enforcement consists of a lawyer in the Attorney General's Office who handles the health and human services portfolio part time and a part-time paralegal; the bill would fund a full FTE tobacco settlement compliance officer at a fully loaded cost the conferees estimated at about $120,000 per year.

"For that $120,000, we protect not only the $20,000,000 that we get every year from the settlement, but also substantially lower the risk of litigation," Sickler said, describing arbitration timelines and legal costs the state could face if found noncompliant. The committee framed the position as an insurance policy against protracted arbitration and potential funding losses.

The bill as passed contains appropriations for additional priorities identified by the Attorney General's Office, including cybercrime resources, human-trafficking prevention funding and victim services support. Final passage tally: 45 yes, 2 no.

The conference committee report was adopted earlier in the floor sequence; the engrossed bill amends sections of the North Dakota Century Code related to compensation, witness expenses and transfers involving the tobacco settlement trust fund, and it includes reporting and exemption language. The transcript records committee discussion and sponsor explanation; specific hiring dates, start-up timelines for the new FTE and detailed reporting schedules were not specified on the floor and will follow executive-branch hiring and budget implementation processes.