House panel hears PNA budget request, pilot program seeks continuation after COVID funding ends

The House Appropriations Committee's Human Resources Division opened a hearing on House Bill 1014, the appropriation for the North Dakota Protection and Advocacy Project (PNA), where agency leaders asked legislators to fund two additional staff positions, cover an expected retirement payout and continue a COVID‑funded assistive‑technology pilot that they say helps people move from institutional settings into independent community living.

My name is Veronica Zitz. I'm the executive director at the North Dakota Protection and Advocacy Project, Zitz told the committee as she summarized the agency's mission and legal authorities, noting that PNA is federally mandated and referenced state and federal statutes and rules that undergird the work.

PNA provides protective services, advocacy and legal help to people with disabilities, and it reported rising demand: it provided case‑level services to 1,771 clients in the most recent federal fiscal years (up from 1,668 over the prior two‑year period), handled more than 6,000 information and referral requests and reached about 17,266 people through education and training. Zitz said protective‑services cases — investigations of alleged abuse, neglect or exploitation — make up about 63% of the agency's caseload.

Why it matters: committee members pressed the agency for data about caseload trends, staffing and geographic service coverage because PNA's requests would expand its…