House OKs bills to launch advanced‑technology grant programs and a compute credit center

The House unanimously passed two bills Friday that set policy to encourage advanced technology research and grant programs while deferring funding decisions to department budgets later in the session.

What lawmakers did: House Bill 14‑48 would create an Advanced Technology Review Committee, an Advanced Technology Grant Program and an Advanced Technology Grant Fund, with language prioritizing artificial intelligence, machine learning and quantum computing proposals. House Bill 12‑65 creates a virtual State Information Technology Research Center and a Compute Credits Grant Program to provide processing resources (compute credits) for development projects. Both bills passed 88‑0 and 90‑0 on final passage after appropriations language was amended to remove immediate funding and allow funding discussions to continue in Commerce and Information Technology budgets.

Representative Bosch, speaking on the floor, said the bills set policy and a framework to encourage proposals and that funding discussions will be handled in the second half of the session with Commerce and IT budgets. The appropriations committee unanimously supported moving the policy forward while stripping the direct appropriations to allow more detailed budgetary review.

Representative Bosch (first reference at 04:39:38): “The appropriations committee unanimously supported HB 14‑48 as amended; funding was amended out of the bill with the understanding that further funding discussions could take place in the commerce and IT department budgets.”

What’s next: The bills now head to the Senate as policy frameworks and could return to the House with funding proposals later in the session. Supporters pitched the measures as a way to position North Dakota to attract research and development projects tied to AI and other advanced computing work.

Ending: The measures were approved with bipartisan support; funding remains subject to later appropriation actions.