701-566-9300As bills are being agreed upon and others are being killed, in some ways things slow down as one would expect. You see signs of it as legislators from some committees begin to loiter in the hallway, take longer lunches or whatever. On the other hand, the concentration of issues going into depth as they head to Conference committee makes for plenty of consternation. People call in debts, lean on friendships, ask for things.
We have most of our issues still out there, although snagging and clearing (2139) seems to be okay for now. 2346, the grain licensing bill, is absolutely being discussed and results are up in the air about what will survive. 2345 is the animal feeding bill which continues to be controversial as amendments to curb local control of setbacks as well as other issues are going to conference committee. 2315, the automatic posting bill has to pass the House floor if it wants to go to conference. The last iteration has hunters carved out (regular posting will be used in 2019) as a committee has until August first of 2020 – about 16 months – to figure out what no one has been able to for the last 30 years or so this issue has been before the legislature. If they get nowhere, all land will be automatically closed. OOOKAY, then.
Crush plant discussions are continuing at high levels, but they let me in the room anyway. The Lt. Governor is becoming very active on this and he has said he and the Governor are going to be working these next two years to get value added projects going in agriculture and energy. Thanks for reading and I will be getting back to you soon.
