ST. PAUL – State Rep. Paul Anderson, R-Starbuck, has landed a spot on a conference committee that will prepare a package of agriculture provisions for final passage in the Legislature.
Anderson is the lead House Republican on agriculture. He said he hopes the joint House-Senate conference committee can make significant improvements to the bill (S.F. 1955) and make it worthy of bipartisan support after an initial partisan-line House vote April 20.
In particular, Anderson said the conference committee should address new fees and regulations included in the preliminary bill that would make Minnesota’s farmers less competitive and less profitable. Another area of concern, according to Anderson, is the bill would change the Board of Animal Health, increasing it from six members up to 11, with at least one member coming from each of Minnesota’s congressional districts.
“I’m grateful for this appointment so I can keep working to make this bill better,” Anderson said. "As a farmer myself and big supporter of the ag. industry in our state, it was unsettling to have such major concerns over this bill I had to vote against it on initial passage. Now we have a chance to clean it up and bring a better bill back to the floor for final passage. Minnesota has a long history of bipartisan ag. bills and it is my hope we can live up to that expectation again this year. I look forward to working to make that happen.”
Anderson also said he will work to ensure some legislation he supported in the preliminary package is retained for final passage. This includes establishing a grain indemnity fund to protect farmers in the event they deliver grain to an elevator which files for bankruptcy before the farmer is paid. He said he also supports language providing financial support for Minnesota’s dairy farmers to sign up for the federal Margin Protection Program for Dairy.
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