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Committee considers funding to stand up North Dakota Center for Aerospace Medicine to support pilots' mental health
Summary
Legislators discussed House Bill 1612 to provide seed funding to establish a North Dakota Center for Aerospace Medicine at the University of North Dakota to expand mental‑health and aviation‑medicine services for pilots; the committee reduced the original $2 million proposal to $500,000 and recorded committee support.
Representative Matt Ruby presented House Bill 1612, a proposal to provide state grant funding to expand a University of North Dakota program offering aerospace‑medicine and mental‑health services aimed at pilots and student aviators. The bill’s proponents said the program seeks to reduce career‑ending consequences for pilots who seek mental‑health care and to provide a protocol the FAA can examine for broader adoption.
Ruby and witnesses described the proposal as a continuation and expansion of services UND already provides to its students through student health. Representative Landon Bail (identified in committee testimony) said the state does not yet have a named North Dakota Center for Aerospace Medicine; the appropriation would stand up that center and expand telehealth services statewide. Bail and the sponsor emphasized that the FAA is "at the table"—the agency, they said, is observing and engaging with UND’s program and could use the state model to inform national practice.
Committee members asked how medical certification and return‑to‑fly determinations would be handled, noting that a pilot’s medical certificate (not the pilot license) governs airworthiness. Representative Kempnick asked how a medical examiner or Aviation Medical Examiner (AME) would clear a pilot to return to flight duty, and commenters said the appropriation would not remove existing medical standards but would provide a statewide path for evaluation, treatment and data collection to shorten extended grounding periods.
The bill arrived in committee with a requested $2,000,000 appropriation; the sponsor offered to reduce the request and the committee voted (recorded in committee materials cited in the hearing) to lower the funding to $500,000 to maintain and expand services already begun by UND. Committee discussion noted that United States Air Force and other aviation communities, plus UND’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences, are stakeholders. Supporters said the approach is novel nationally and that federal funding (including potentially FAA or other federal grants) could follow if the state creates an operational model.
Members emphasized that $500,000 is seed funding and that specialized clinicians and Aviation Medical Examiner resources require additional funding over time. Representative Ruby and Representative Bail said UND has already invested resources to start the program and that the appropriation is intended to help scale telehealth and statewide outreach.
Committee discussion concluded with the sponsor and UND representatives encouraging the committee to support the concept; the bill will proceed in the legislative process with the committee’s recommended amendment to the appropriation level.
