The Appropriations — Education and Environment Division on Oct. 12 agreed by consensus to move $10 million in general funds into the statewide homeless grant administered through the Housing Finance Agency and to transfer $25 million in State Investment Fund (SIF) money to the Housing Incentive Fund, and then voted to place Senate Bill 02/1930 on a "do not pass" track while moving selected provisions into the budget.

Committee members said the changes would put funding into existing agency lines rather than creating a standalone bill. Chairman Sorvaugh opened the committee discussion and asked members to consider the interim committee's recommendations, including the two funding amounts and a change to the bill's study language.

The committee's action followed testimony from David Flor, executive director of the North Dakota Housing Finance Agency, about staffing and program administration. Flor described two requested FTEs — a loan specialist and an accountant — and said the loan specialist is needed because "our loan growth would continue" and the agency is short on servicing capacity. On the accountant role he said the current employee "has been with the agency for 30 years and she is, she's what you call it a unicorn. I mean, she knows her job better than anybody does." The committee adopted the two FTEs that both governors had included in their budgets by consensus earlier in the meeting.

Committee members debated several sections of SB 02/1930. The chair proposed three budget actions: place $10 million into the homeless grant as general funds, put $25 million of SIF into the Housing Incentive Fund (HIF) rather than the bill's $200 million proposal, and change the bill's legislative management study language from "shall study" to "shall consider" to give Legislative Management discretion. Committee members moved those language and funding items into the budget by consensus; the chair then asked for a separate motion to recommend a "do not pass" on the bill itself. Senator Scheible moved that motion; the committee carried it on a recorded voice roll call (all present voting aye).

Members also approved a one‑time, pass‑through amendment to provide $150,000 for a Native American homelessness liaison to be administered as a passthrough grant (Native, Inc. was discussed as the likely provider). Senator Scheible described the role as a coordinator to "connect services to natives" and to travel statewide; he said the money would come from the $10 million homeless allocation.

The committee stressed that the $10 million and $25 million allocations are intended to be placed directly into existing agency lines rather than requiring the bill to implement them, and that Legislative Management should retain latitude on whether a statewide study is necessary.

Votes at a glance: the committee recorded a roll call when it moved to recommend "do not pass" on SB 02/1930. The chair called the question and the committee recorded the following: Chairman Sorvaugh — Aye; Senator Connolly — Aye; Senator Thomas — Aye; Senator Meyer — Aye; Senator Shively — Aye. The motion carried.

The committee left detailed line‑item amounts and program language to staff to place in the housing finance budget lines and indicated members would revisit other budget sections (mineral resources, administrative items) at a later meeting.

Ending: Committee leadership said tonight's consensus moves were intended to put funds where agencies can spend them immediately and to avoid parking large multi‑year sums in a separate statutory appropriation. The committee recessed and planned to reconvene for remaining budget work later in the day and again on Friday morning.