North Dakota lawmakers call Military Gallery a ‘black eye,’ but will move forward

The North Dakota Senate passed a $20 million construction loan to restart work on the stalled Military Gallery, though several are disappointed no one is being held accountable for the project’s failures. 

Members approved Senate Bill 2407 by a vote of 39-8 on Thursday during a special session called to address the lack of kratom regulation in the state. 

Sen. Dale Patten, R-Watford City, said the Legislature should focus on finding solutions to an unfinished building project on the Capitol grounds. 

“That black eye stays on the Capitol grounds until we do find a solution. Every morning when we get up and we haven’t solved it is like getting punched in the eye again,” Patten said.

The amended bill will be considered by the House on Friday. It unlocks $15 million of funding that had already been earmarked for the project and authorizes a $20 million line of credit to keep construction going while fundraisers renew efforts to seek private donors. 

“I think we need to honor the military,” said Sen. Randy Burckhard, R-Minot. “And it’s too late to go back.”

Sen. Brad Bekkedahl, R-Williston, said he has confidence donations will be able to repay the $20 million line of credit in full. The line of credit is officially due to be repaid by March 31, 2029, but future lawmakers will have the option to extend the deadline. 

Sen. Ron Sorvaag, R-Fargo, said the fundraising firm for the project “failed at their job” so far. But he said he still supported the bill as the best option.

“Could the state get stuck paying for that? Absolutely,” Sorvaag said. “They fundraised but they didn’t collect any money. Why would they now? I don’t think there’s any guarantees, except for the fact that it’s in the spotlight now.”

Sen. Jose Castaneda, R-Minot, said it is his intention that future lawmakers will extend the deadline for as long as it takes for private donations to repay the loan from the Bank of North Dakota. The only additional cost on taxpayers should be potentially paying the interest that accrues over time, he said. 

New $20M loan recommended for Military Gallery to restart construction

The $78 million project’s funding will remain evenly split between the state and private donors, so long as the $20 million construction loan is repaid. But that balance would be disrupted if private fundraising doesn’t pick up. 

“The state will have an exposure of $59 million,” said Sen. David Clemens, R-West Fargo. 

Insufficient oversight

Legislative leaders emphasized the special session was not the appropriate venue to hold officials accountable for past mistakes on the project. Bekkedahl said this week it is a time for “resolution, not recrimination.”

But that can’t be a permanent attitude, multiple lawmakers said. 

“We have to look back to have accountability,” Castaneda said. “Something needs to be done because this was atrocious and unacceptable.”

While Castaneda supported the bill, other lawmakers said they opposed it because it didn’t hold officials accountable for the project’s failures and did not create enough new oversight.

“We’re doing an incredible disservice to our constituents,” said Sen. Sean Cleary, R-Bismarck. “This is just kind of a lose-lose situation at this point.”

Clemens, a veteran, said many members of his family have served in the country’s wars going back nearly a century. He said he is grateful for the state’s veterans, but wouldn’t support the bill out of respect to taxpayers. 

“As we move forward, I believe we owe the taxpayers of North Dakota an apology for not being better watchmen. I apologize, and to the best of my ability, will work to see that it never happens again,” Clemens said. 

The bill places oversight of the project in the hands of the Capitol Grounds Planning Commission, which includes four lawmakers. The State Historical Society will also be required to report quarterly to the Legislature’s Budget Section on the status of construction and fundraising progress.

Sen. Jonathan Sickler, R-Grand Forks, said he understands the project is at a standstill and a solution needs to be found. But he said in an interview he wants to see accountability from those involved in the project’s key decisions in the wake of the July 3 pause of construction. 

“That’s a clear sign something has gone wrong,” Sickler said. 

Sickler said he is particularly concerned about what he has heard about apparent disagreements among project leaders as to whether construction should have begun when it did in the summer of 2025. 

“Particularly as we look at agency budgets, I suspect there will be a strong amount of attention paid to how agencies performed during this process, and there will be additional due diligence done as part of that,” Sickler said. 

Military Gallery construction project stalls with fundraising lagging in North Dakota

House to vote Friday

The bill appears to have support among the Republican majority in the House, according to representatives’ comments during a caucus meeting Thursday. 

“I think we’ve landed in a good spot. We’re being good stewards. We’re not spending more money than we appropriated this session, and we’re giving our contractors the ability to move forward,” said Rep. Glenn Bosch, R-Bismarck, one of the key lawmakers involved in drafting the amended bill. 

Rep. Don Vigesaa, R-Cooperstown, said the pause in construction was costing the state $157,000 per month, and something has to be done to get the project moving again. He added that he is optimistic about the update provided Wednesday. 

“There’s a lot of potential fundraising that’s going to be coming in, and I love the fact that this construction loan doesn’t have an end date. So they can keep paying on it as long as it takes,” Vigesaa said. 

Rep. Brandy Pyle, R-Casselton, said the bill shows their commitment to North Dakotans, that lawmakers believe in the military and that the state of North Dakota has confidence the fundraisers will get the job done.

“It’s not the fundraisers’ fault that the shovel went in early. But they’re kind of getting blamed for it, and I don’t think that’s fair,” Pyle said.

North Dakota Monitor reporter Jacob Orledge can be reached at [email protected].