North Dakota House approves $20 million loan for stalled Military Gallery

The North Dakota House passed a bill Friday providing a loan to continue construction of the stalled Military Gallery project on the State Capitol grounds.

Gov. Kelly Armstrong told reporters he anticipated signing the bill by the end of Friday.

The proposal is an amended version of Senate Bill 2407 and the product of discussion and amendments in the joint House-Senate budget committee. It encompasses a $20 million line of credit from the state-owned Bank of North Dakota and removes conditions attached to $15 million in alread- approved state funding for the project.

The bill passed in a 71-22 vote.

The planned 70,000-square-foot Military Gallery addition to the North Dakota Heritage Center and State Museum in Bismarck is a public-private partnership involving the State Historical Society and the North Dakota National Guard Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports military members, veterans and their families.

Construction began on July 10, 2025, despite organizers not being at their fundraising goal. When some large pledges didn't materialize, money ran out and the work was stopped this past July.

Officials involved in the project have said the situation was caused by beginning construction too early, difficulties raising funds in an exhausted donor environment because of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, and an inability to secure bridge funding officials believed to be available to the project.

Rep. Austen Schauer, R-West Fargo, said he did not question the vision behind the project but was concerned with how it was managed, saying the Legislature failed to build a "solid financial structure" for the project.

"We must ask a fundamental question: How did we get here? ... A public-private project cannot assume that private fundraising will materialize because a project is worthwhile. Good intentions are not a financial plan," Schauer said.

Rep. Bill Tveit, R-Hazen, a veteran, agreed with Schauer and said there must be accountability to ensure the situation does not happen again.

"Someone needs to be held responsible for pushing the button prematurely with the few guidelines that they had. And unless we hold those people responsible, this will reoccur," Tveit said.

Despite the concerns with the project, Schauer encouraged lawmakers to pass the bill.

"I understand why this bailout bill is being considered and should be approved as nobody wants to see a major project sit idle," Schauer said. "Nobody wants to waste money already invested and nobody wants to abandon a project that many of us believe in."

Schauer, Tveit and other lawmakers during the special session have called for the body to address the mismanagement that led to the project stalling during the 2027 regular legislative session.

Armstrong said he was glad a bill was passed to support continued construction of the gallery and to place the project under the control of a committee that has more elected officials on it to provide better accountability moving forward.

"I think there should be some tough hearings and some tough, tough questions asked," Armstrong said. "How we got here is a journey, and not a particularly great one, and that's the truth. But from here on, this is the most responsible way to deal with taxpayer dollars."

Sen. Sean Cleary, R-Bismarck, proposed a bill for the special session, not chosen by legislative leaders for introduction, that would require a public improvement project such as the Military Gallery to have 75% of private funds secured before the project could break ground.

He has said he plans to bring the bill forward during the 2027 regular session.

Armstrong called the special legislative session in response to what he called a public health crisis surrounding the substance kratom. Five bills in total were approved for introduction during the session — one of which regarded funding of the state's planned military gallery. The others addressed regulation or banning of kratom, the state's resident property tax credit and NDAs for industrial projets, including data centers.