1.    The department of health and human services, in cooperation with the North Dakota long term care association, shall administer the long-term care nursing scholarship and loan repayment grant program. The purpose of the program is to provide matching funds to nursing facilities for the facilities to use in recruiting and retaining nurses by providing scholarships to nursing facility staff and other individuals to obtain a nursing education and by assisting in the repayment of student loans for licensed nurses employed in a nursing facility. The department of health and human services shall adopt rules necessary to administer the program, including rules establishing criteria regarding eligibility for and distribution of program grants.

2.    An applicant for a program grant shall establish that the applicant:

a.    Is a licensed nursing facility; b.    Has available matching funds equal to the amount of the grant request; and c.    Meets the eligibility criteria established by rule.

3.    An eligible applicant may receive a program grant not exceeding five thousand five hundred dollars in the first year of the biennium. Any funds appropriated by the legislative assembly for the grant program which are remaining after the first year of the biennium may be distributed to eligible applicants in the second year of the biennium in any amount determined by the department of health and human services.