North Dakota
Port: As the federal government teeters on edge of shutdown, North Dakota has no vote
MINOT — Barring some late-breaking legislation, the U.S. federal government will shut down within hours.
As this drama unfolds in Washington, North Dakota has no voice in the U.S. House of Representatives. The legislative body where, per Article I, Section 7 of the U.S. Constitution, all bills raising revenue must originate.
As I write this, Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican,
is confident
they’ll avoid a shutdown despite funding agreements getting scuttled twice in recent days. Once thanks to agitation from billionaire Elon Musk and once again thanks to a group of House Republicans who refused to agree to raise the national debt ceiling without significant spending cuts.
Given the turmoil in the House Republican caucus and the narrow margins of the Republican majority, any potential deal may pass by only a scant few votes. Which is another way of saying that, in this fraught moment, no side in the debate has any votes to spare.
But a vote from North Dakota won’t be among them. That’s because former U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong resigned his seat in the House on Dec. 14 so he could be sworn in as governor on Dec. 15, which
Article V, Section 5
of the North Dakota Constitution requires. Meanwhile, Rep.-elect Julie Fedorchak is waiting in the wings, but she was elected to the next Congress, not this Congress, so she cannot be seated.
I actually spoke to Armstrong about this drama
in April.
Given the resignations of other House Republicans, it seemed at that time the GOP could lose control of the House before the current Congress ended. Armstrong was confident that the party would replace members through special elections between now and then and he was right. The GOP held onto its majority, slim as it is.
As for Armstrong’s vacancy? “After June 11, we will be keeping the speaker’s office informed,” he also told me at the time, referring to the primary election.
“It’s confusing for folks because they don’t know who is our representative right now,” Fedorchak told me when I spoke to her about it.
She’s feeling flummoxed because there is nothing she can do. Fedorchak was not elected in a special election to replace Armstrong in this Congress. She was elected to fill North Dakota’s at-large seat in the next Congress.
By law, she cannot be seated in this Congress. The next Congress won’t be seated until January. Also, unlike senators, members of the U.S. House can’t be appointed. Outside of holding a special election, there’s no mechanism to fill Armstrong’s vacancy.
This circumstance isn’t anything Armstrong or Fedorchak can remedy. What’s caused it is constitutional law and dysfunction in Washington. North Dakota’s constitution necessitated Armstrong’s resignation from the House so he could be sworn in as governor. The U.S. Constitution prohibits North Dakota from appointing an interim replacement.
Alyssa Goelzer/The Forum
“This isn’t even really a budget fight,” Armstrong spokesman Mike Nowatzki told me. “It’s a CR fight. Congress should do its job and not govern by crisis.”
“He informed them when he was running for governor that this was a possibility. It shouldn’t surprise them that he had a hard out on Dec. 14,” Nowatzki added.
Which may be something for the Legislature to consider going forward. Can the new governor be sworn in at a later date? The timing is already awkward. The state constitution also mandates that lawmakers begin their regular session in January after an election. It also requires an organizational session in mid-December, complete with a budget address from the governor. This year, that was Doug Burgum, who was obliged to deliver an executive budget to lawmakers
as a lame duck just days from leaving office.
Armstrong’s feeling “is that having the governor be sworn in on the day before a legislative session wouldn’t be a good idea,” Nowatzki told me, referring to a possible delay in the swearing-in.
“It’s already a mad scramble,” Nowatzki added. “It would be exponentially more difficult.”
The situation with North Dakota’s at-large House seat is unusual. But the outgoing governor delivering a budget as a lame duck? That happens every time we get a new governor.
This timeline could be reshaped to serve the public better, but that’s easier said than done. Moving the swearing in date to a later time might mean moving the legislative session to a later start. I don’t sense there would be much appetite among lawmakers to do it, and even if there were, it would be a change to the state constitution that would have to be ratified by a vote of the people.
Meanwhile, in Washington, as Republicans fight with Democrats (and other Republicans) over the budget, North Dakotans have no official say in the matter.
North Dakota
Challengers declare victory after ND Supreme Court rules against Legislature’s attempt to alter term limits
BISMARCK — A constitutional ballot measure to amend the state’s term limits law as proposed by the Legislature will not appear on November’s ballot, the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled Thursday, siding with petitioners who argued the Legislature exceeded its authority and violated the state constitution in proposing the changes.
“The people’s voice was heard,” Grand Forks County Commissioner Terry Bjerke said in reaction to the news.
Bjerke was a member of the sponsoring committee behind the successful 2022 effort to pass a term limits initiative, which amended the state constitution by capping legislative term limits to eight years in the House and eight years in the Senate. The amendment, which became article XV of the state constitution, also included a clause barring the Legislature from making constitutional changes to term limits.
During the 2025 session, however, lawmakers narrowly approved Senate Concurrent Resolution 4008, in which the legislature proposed Constitutional Measure 1, a ballot measure to amend the term limits language to allow legislators to decide in which chamber they want to serve their 16 years, and to repeal the clause limiting the legislative assembly’s authority to propose an amendment to alter or repeal term limits.
Bjerke and former Minot legislator Oley Larsen brought the lawsuit challenging the validity of the Legislature’s action in January, and the state Supreme Court
heard oral arguments in the case
this spring.
“Those term limits may only be altered by a measure proposed by the people rather than the Legislative Assembly. And yet a few years later, the Legislative Assembly is doing what they are prohibited from doing,” attorney Zachary Wallen argued on Bjerke and Larsen’s behalf.
Tanner Ecker / The Bismarck Tribune
The Legislature’s attorneys argued the clause prohibiting legislative proposals to alter the constitutional term limits language “infringes on our republican form of government” by “limiting the people’s ability to vote on amendments proposed by their elected officials.”
Justice Jon Jensen seemed skeptical of that argument during the April 2 hearing, questioning whether a second vote was appropriate.
“The public did speak on this. The public spoke on it when it passed the original constitutional amendment and they said, ‘Legislature, you don’t even get to propose a change.’ They have already spoken on it,” Jensen said. “You want a second shot, or a second bite at the apple, not a first one, a second.”
In Thursday’s ruling, all five justices sided with Bjerke and Larsen.
“We … conclude the Legislative Assembly’s adoption of S.C.R. 4008 violated N.D. Const. art. XV … and declare S.C.R. 4008 and Constitutional Measure 1 void … We enjoin the Secretary of State from placing Constitutional Measure 1 on the November 2026 general election ballot,” the ruling said.
Bjerke thanked the legal team that worked on behalf of their lawsuit, and said he was grateful the court reached the conclusion it did.
“I’m thrilled that what the people voted on and approved has been validated,” Bjerke said.
He added that the Legislature had “multiple opportunities” to address term limits prior to 2022’s initiated measure and chose not to, and gave a nod to the country’s coming milestone and the process by which voters expressed their support for term limits.
“We’ve lasted 250 years,” Bjerke said. “I have two words for those elected leaders who think they aren’t: everyone’s replaceable.”
North Dakota
Fargo woman convicted in North Dakota fraud case now faces charges in Minnesota: A deeper dive
FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) – A North Dakota woman who was sentenced to 180 days in jail in Cass County for defrauding healthcare providers and Medicaid programs is now facing additional fraud charges in Minnesota.
Christine Marie Pryor, 55, pleaded guilty in November 2024 to theft by deception involving more than $50,000. She was sentenced to first serve 180 days with a 3-year sentence suspended. She received credit for 44 days already served.
Pryor was ordered to pay $82,584.78 in restitution to Southeast Human Services in Fargo, where she worked between 2018 and 2019.
How the scheme unfolded
According to court documents, Pryor worked at multiple healthcare facilities in North Dakota and Minnesota between 2018 and 2023, using the identities and credentials of three licensed professionals without their knowledge. She submitted fraudulent Capella University diplomas and transcripts to gain employment.
Investigators say Pryor admitted she searched state licensing websites for therapists who shared her first name, then used those therapists’ last names and license numbers when applying for jobs.
At Southeast Human Services, where she worked as a Licensed Addiction Counselor, Pryor earned $55,584.82 while providing therapy services to approximately 150 patients. She also opened her own counseling center, NIAM Brain Injury Center, in Fargo between 2020 and 2021, and worked at The Lotus Center in Moorhead, Minnesota, from 2021 to 2023.
Court documents say the three licensed professionals whose identities were used told investigators they had no knowledge of Pryor’s actions and did not give her permission to use their information.
Two additional charges against Pryor in North Dakota, unauthorized use of personal identifying information, were dismissed on motion of the state.
Additional charges in Minnesota
Pryor is also facing charges in Minnesota. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced on Tuesday charges against Pryor in Clay County District Court for six theft offenses and six identity theft offenses related to defrauding Minnesota’s Medicaid program of more than $150,000.
According to the Minnesota complaint, Pryor claimed to provide psychotherapy and alcohol and drug counseling services to Medicaid recipients despite having no license or credentials to do so. Prosecutors allege she used the credentials and identities of three licensed professionals while claiming to provide Medicaid-funded services to 169 clients.
The Minnesota charges were filed as part of National Health Care Fraud Takedown Day, a joint effort involving the Department of Justice and more than 40 state Medicaid Fraud Control Units.
Copyright 2026 KVLY. All rights reserved.
North Dakota
NCAA Set to Change Unpopular Football Rule Just in Time for North Dakota State’s FBS Jump
North Dakota State playing in the FCS playoffs and College Football Playoff in back-to-back years? It’s likelier than you think.
That’s because on Wednesday, according to a report from Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports, the NCAA Division I cabinet voted to repeal a rule that effectively barred teams transitioning from FCS to FBS from playing in postseason games in their first FBS seasons. The Bison are making that move along with Sacramento State in 2026.
The reported change has been a long time coming; the rule has hampered teams from immediate bowl eligibility for decades. Its good intentions of dissuading teams from rashly making the FCS-to-FBS leap have been rendered obsolete in recent years by the fact that programs generally arrive in FBS more prepared than ever before.
Consider the number of new FBS teams that have had to work within the provision in the past decade alone
That list includes: Liberty (home for the holidays at 6–6 in 2018), James Madison (8–3 in 2022 under coach Curt Cignetti, and barely able to play in a bowl at 11–1 in ’23 due to a lack of bowl-eligible teams), Jacksonville State (8–4 in ’23 before backing in like the Dukes), Missouri State (7–5 in 2025, also backed in) and Delaware (6–6 in ’25, ditto).
James Madison in particular became a cause célèbre in ’23 because it started the season 10-0, climbing as high as No. 18 in the AP Poll in mid-November. Then-Virginia attorney general Jason Miyares bandied about suing the NCAA before the Dukes lost 26–23 to Appalachian State, an event that caused the program to back off and accept a bid to play Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl. James Madison lost that game 31–21, by which time Cignetti had left for Indiana.
There was a time when the FCS-to-FBS jump was an imposing one, and the NCAA did not want to incentivize making it lightly—not even a proud Florida A&M program could make a mid-2000s attempt at a jump stick. However, the Flames, Dukes and other teams have shown it’s not so great a climb for programs with the right resources and management.
Now the Bison and the Hornets stand to benefit.
How far can North Dakota State and Sacramento State go in the near term?
The Bison opened 12–0 last year before a shock loss to Illinois State in the FCS playoffs’ second round, so that question may answer itself. North Dakota State does not play a single Power 4 team—a potential strength-of-schedule albatross if it has designs on really surging. A potential roadblock: the fact that the Bison have to visit the Mountain West’s two favorites, UNLV (Oct. 10) and New Mexico (Oct. 24).
It’s a different story for the Hornets, a 7–5 squad a year ago whose move to the FBS is widely seen as a gamble on their growth potential. Sacramento State also does not play a major-conference team, but has a breakneck travel schedule ahead of it—the Hornets will visit Ypsilanti, Mich.; Bowling Green, Ohio; Muncie, Ind.; Mount Pleasant, Mich. and Honolulu. Combine that with a first-year coach—Oakland native and ex-MC Hammer choreographer Alonzo Carter—and it could be a long FBS debut in California’s capital.
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