Don Morgan, CEO of the Bank of North Dakota, speaks during a meeting of the North Dakota Industrial Commission on March 17, 2026. (Photo by Jacob Orledge/North Dakota Monitor)
BISMARCK, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) – North Dakota is reopening a low-interest loan program to serve as a financial lifeline for federal employees in the state going unpaid during the partial government shutdown.
The program, run by the state-owned Bank of North Dakota and implemented through local banks, is designed to help approximately 200 Transportation Security Administration agents, around 50 Customs and Border Protection agents and any other affected federal employees who reside in North Dakota.
“It’s the right thing to do,” said Gov. Kelly Armstrong, chair of the Industrial Commission that oversees the Bank of North Dakota. “We have the mechanism to do it. They missed their first full paycheck last week.”
The Furloughed Federal Employee Relief Program was initially created last October to aid an estimated 9,200 federal employees in the state during what ended up as a 43-day shutdown of the entire federal government. The program provided nearly $1 million in emergency loans.
The program will reopen Thursday to aid employees of the Department of Homeland Security, which has been without funding since Feb. 14. The program offers 2% loans to any who reside in North Dakota and banks with a financial institution that has at least one physical location in the state.
Borrowers can draw funds periodically in alignment with their regular pay schedule. The maximum loan amount is six months’ salary and the maximum term is eight months.
Armstrong, a former congressman, said “there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight” to the partial government shutdown.
“When we start losing these employees at TSA and CBP in North Dakota, it’s really hard to backfill them,” Armstrong said.
TSA agents work at commercial airports in Fargo, Grand Forks, Bismarck, Minot, Dickinson, Jamestown and Williston.
Federal employees are typically repaid any earnings missed after a government shutdown ends, allowing them to repay the low-interest loan from the state.
The Industrial Commission will reach out to TSA and border patrol offices directly to ensure federal employees are aware of the program.
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