Panel adopts amendments to House Bill 1330 to allow limited large in‑state investments, votes to remove mandatory divestment language from China provision

The Appropriations - Government Operations Division on Monday adopted amendments to House Bill 1330 that add a statutory exception allowing the Legacy and Budget Stabilization Fund Advisory Board and the State Investment Board to approve concentrated in‑state investments that would exceed a $25,000,000 per‑holding diversification threshold.

The amendment package — described to the committee by Jody Smith, interim executive director for the Retirement and Investment Office — also keeps other return and benchmarking requirements for in‑state investments. The committee later voted to remove lines that would have mandated direct divestment from certain Chinese company holdings and ultimately decided to hold the bill for further discussions with leadership.

The changes matter because they alter how the state’s legacy fund can deploy private equity and infrastructure dollars inside North Dakota. The amendment inserts a new subsection that mirrors existing return expectations and adds a clause allowing concentrated investments “unless the Legacy and Budget Stabilization Fund Advisory Board approves the strategy allowing concentrated investments for in‑state infrastructure,” according to Smith.

Smith told the committee the practical implication is limited to dollars remaining in the private equity allocation: "We have 600,000,000 under that…