Committee members on the conference committee for House Bill 13 69 agreed to remove a planned infusion into the common school construction revolving loan fund for the current biennium and to lower maximum loan tiers so the existing fund can assist more projects without new appropriations.

Representative Richter moved to "0 out the sum on line 23 page 15 and then reduce the tiers funding from, 30,000,000 to 20,000,000 and from 15,000,000 to 10,000,000." The motion was seconded and approved by roll call.

Several lawmakers explained the rationale. Representative Vickers said leaders reviewed fund activity and proposed pausing new deposits so revolving loans can continue to function as designed: "just take a pause and let's just let it continue to have these loan funds play out and work as they were designed to do." Senator Shively said that if no new infusion is made, the committee should lower loan tiers so the fund can help more than one school per year, offering specific tier suggestions and noting the Bank of North Dakota's experience with average small‑school loans around $8–9 million.

Committee members also discussed a separate carve‑out in Senate Bill 2149 that had reserved up to $20,000,000 in the Bank of North Dakota loan fund for a school project tied to the Grand Forks Air Force base. Members agreed to remove that reserve from the revolving loan fund and asked counsel to draft language to provide up to $20,000,000 from the Coal Development Trust Fund instead, so the loan fund is not required to hold those dollars. Mr. Chambers and committee counsel confirmed that language would need to be drafted and could be included in this bill to remain germane.

Senator Beard raised that the prior bill had included an emergency clause to ensure timely availability of funds during construction season and asked whether this bill also should carry an emergency clause. Several members indicated they would not object to adding an emergency clause to remain consistent.

The committee directed counsel to draft amendment language reflecting the zeroed transfer, the lowered tiers (large projects: $30,000,000→$20,000,000; small projects: $15,000,000→$10,000,000), and the alternative funding mechanism for the Grand Forks project (up to $20,000,000 from the Coal Development Trust Fund). The committee will reconvene when council is ready with the language.