Republican Lawmakers kill bill to ban data center NDAs

BISMARCK — The North Dakota Republican Senate killed Senator Tim Mathern’s (D-Fargo) bill to ban nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) for data centers.

Senator Ryan Braunberger (D-Fargo), candidate for Secretary of State, said, “Even though NDAs aren’t enforceable under current statute, citizens still feel that these projects are happening in secret. Oftentimes they don’t hear about the projects until after they are far into the permitting process and have little recourse to stop them. This leads citizens to distrust the process. The Ban on NDAs would have beefed up our open records laws, allowing for stronger recourse against entities violating current statutes, and would have provided more trust in government.”

Senator Jamie Selzler (D-Fargo) remarked, “North Dakotans have made it incredibly clear that they want transparency in the data center industry. The bill that Republicans defeated today would have done just that. Elected officials should work out in the open on the people’s business, not in secret and behind closed doors. While this idea lost today, Democrats will come back in the regular session to again make the case that an open government is the best government.”

CONTACT:
Laura Dronen
Communications Director
laura.dronen@demnpl.com