Senate panel revises Attorney General budget: adds cybercrime agents, restores salary equity and keeps vaping registry language with higher fee

The Senate Government Operations Division on March 28 amended House Bill 1003, the Attorney General’s budget bill, to add law-enforcement positions for cybercrime work, restore a proposed attorney salary-equity package and keep language establishing an electronic vaping registry while increasing the application fee to $2,000.

The committee’s change package, presented by budget analyst Levi and discussed with Chief Deputy Attorney General Claire Ness, adds two Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) cybercrime agents and $161,000 in one-time equipment money to support them. The amendment specifies those agents would be based in the Grand Forks area; the city of Grand Forks has pledged about $148,000 in equipment, training, travel and office space for the two positions, committee members said.

Committee leaders also restored an attorney-equity request the House did not include. The equity package totals about $291,000: roughly $254,317 from the general fund and $37,460 from other funds (about $16,000 federal, $16,000 from the Attorney General Refund Fund and roughly $4,500 from the lottery operating fund). Claire Ness told the committee the increases would primarily target junior and mid-level attorneys using the office’s tiering system and that the request was intended to reduce turnover.

Why it matters: the changes alter several funding sources and personnel authorizations that affect how the Attorney General’s Office provides victim services, cyber investigations and litigation support. Committee members stressed the Refund Fund balance will be tight in the next biennium if ongoing costs are shifted there.

Details of the long-sheet amendment

- FTE and position changes: The amendment removes three vacant, base-budget attorney authorizations but preserves the net reduction as two attorneys plus one paralegal (a lower-cost mix). It retains tobacco-compliance auditors included in the House version. Two additional BCI cybercrime agents are added for Grand Forks; one BCI agent would be added conditionally for guardianship work if Senate Bill 2029 passes. The long sheet also removed a proposed victim-witness advocate position (that item was identified earlier as an executive staff officer in the draft).

- Funding-source shifts: The Senate proposal reversed some House moves that transferred salary and operating funding from the Attorney General Refund Fund into the general fund, putting those items back into the Refund Fund for this biennium. Committee members and the chief deputy warned the refund fund’s balance is uncertain because recent opioid settlement proceeds were appropriated to the Department of Human Services in an earlier session, and future incoming settlement receipts are unknown.

- Litigation and gaming funds: The House had proposed authorizing a $2.0 million transfer from charitable gaming revenues for Attorney General litigation and operating expenses; the Senate version removed that transfer. Separately, the committee adjusted litigation-fund language so the litigation pool would receive $5.0 million from the State Investment/Settlement fund (SIF) in the coming biennium plus a $3.0 million deficiency appropriation carried forward from the current biennium, yielding an $8.0 million target that committee leaders described as matching the House intent.

- One-time items and removals: The Senate amendment removed a retired law-enforcement-dogs program the House included. It added $161,000 in one-time funding for BCI cybercrime equipment and removed a $2.0 million one-time gaming transfer the House had placed in the bill.

Vaping registry and fee change

A prominent policy item in the amendment is language creating an electronic smoking (vaping) fund and a registry for manufacturers. Lobbyists and industry representatives from Altria Client Services and the Vapor Technology Association testified at the committee. Altria’s representative described the registry as a mechanism to mirror cigarette-directory-style oversight; vapor-industry representatives warned such registries in other states have produced litigation and could limit legitimate products if federal premarket approvals remain slow.

Committee members debated whether the registry fee should be left as in the House language or raised. Senators Dwyer and Sickler asked for more information from state agencies and industry; after discussion the committee agreed to keep the registry language in the bill and increase the application fee to $2,000 (the committee left open the question whether the fee is a one-time or recurring charge to be resolved in conference).

Votes and next steps

Senator Sickler offered the amendment as discussed; Senator Dwyer seconded. The committee voted to adopt the amendment as described. Committee staff said additional technical edits would be finalized in a formal amendment document and that contingency language in the bill remains tied to the passage of related policy bills: the Guardianship BCI position is contingent on passage of Senate Bill 2029, and the $685,000 in human-trafficking victim grants is contingent on Senate Bill 2330. The panel said it would address any remaining clean-up language when the formal amendment is available.

Quotes

"The refund fund is uncertain. We don't know what these class action cases are going to bring in," Claire Ness, chief deputy attorney general, said when discussing limits of the Attorney General Refund Fund and the risks of shifting ongoing obligations into it.

"City of Grand Forks is contributing $148,000 for the 2 agents in the form of furniture, computers, certain forensic equipment, training and travel costs," Senator Seycla said when noting local support for the Grand Forks cybercrime positions.

Ending note

Committee members said the Senate amendment aims to preserve necessary investigative capacity while balancing statewide budget constraints and left several items contingent on companion policy bills or conference adjustments. The committee carried the amendment on a roll call and will consider the bill as amended when the formal amendment language is posted for final action.