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Ag policy bills moving through Minnesota Legislature

Omnibus agriculture policy bills are moving through both chambers of the Minnesota Legislature.

Democratic Farmer Labor (DFL) Lead of the House Ag Finance Committee Jeanne Poppe says the legislation would extend deadlines for a handful of programs scheduled to sunset later this year.

“One thing is the Minnesota Ag Education Leadership Council.  We’re taking away the sunset because it has been a successful program and everybody wants to see that continue.  So we won’t have a sunset on that.”

The bills also prevent the Farmer-Lender Mediation program from expiring before 2022.

Poppe tells Brownfield there’s been fairly strong bipartisan support on ag policy issues thus far.

“I think the only thing that raised some issue was the treated seed and how (the government) should look at it.  It’s not included in the policy bills; we don’t have reference to that.”

She says the House and Senate ag policy bills contain more similarities than differences, and Poppe expects the legislation to progress smoothly through conference committee.