701-566-9300Officially one-fourth of the way through this session and it seems that velocity is accelerating. By that I mean hearings are piling up and so are judgements that need to be made by the committees and, of course, then by the floor in each house. There are so many bills that want to use bonding and part of the earnings of the Legacy Fund that it will be a heavy lift for Appropriations committees and leadership to understand the ramifications. I know that for now, no one knows what is going to happen to that genre as chairs of committees have acknowledged. Anyway, Agriculture committees on both sides are finishing up the bulk of their work this Thursday and Friday with policy bills. HB1437 is the tiling bill that comes from the convocation of all sides to the issue and we will be testifying in support. The effort to have uniform regulations concerning waste water (drain fields for sewage included) is a big deal for all rural residents and is addressed in bill 1183 in House Political Subdivisions at 3:30. We submitted testimony in favor because our growers are largely live in the country and our state needs this uniformity to reduce friction amongst health regulators and installers in each county. We have a board member and livestock producer testifying in opposition to the beef checkoff bill – HB1487. The Ag Coalition has unanimously opposed this bill and you can watch in House Ag on Friday morning if you wish.
