The Appropriations - Education and Environment Division on Tuesday gave the Bank of North Dakota (BND) provisional approval for limited spending authority for employee training and agreed to a small tweak in the board’s grant allocations.

What the committee approved
Committee members concurred with a provision allowing the Bank of North Dakota to spend up to $50,000 per biennium for employee training sessions, including modest purchases of food and nonalcoholic beverages associated with those events. The committee requested the bank present an update in the next biennium about how the authority was used.

The committee also accepted an agency request to increase the bank’s pass‑through funding for the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at the University of North Dakota from $1.5 million to $1.9 million to align with matching federal funds. The bank had also sought a technical change affecting several confidentiality and PACE program items; staff will refine statute language as needed.

Why it matters
Bank officials said the $50,000 authority would cover in‑state training and associated modest costs and asked that it be considered on a one‑time basis for the biennium. The SBDC adjustment reflects an available federal match that the bank said would expand small business assistance capacity across the state.

Next steps
Staff will prepare long‑sheet language and statutory fixes for the bank’s confidential‑records language and the PACE fund adjustments. The committee asked the bank to report back on training use and to provide any additional statutory language needed to effect confidentiality and spending changes.