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Committee advances some animal‑health bills, rejects amendments to increase emergency funds
Summary
The House Agriculture Finance and Policy Committee moved House File 979 to Ways and Means and passed House File 601 to Ways and Means. Two amendments that would have added specific emergency funding (A1 on HF979 and A1 on HF1101) failed on recorded roll calls (6–7). House File 1101 and House File 271 were laid over for later consideration.
The House Agriculture Finance and Policy Committee acted on several bills tied to animal health and depredation during the hearing following industry and agency testimony.
House File 979: Chair Gerry Anderson moved House File 979, a vehicle bill intended to provide a legislative vehicle for future appropriations to support the Board of Animal Health and related programs. Representative Anderson moved the bill to be re‑referred to the Committee on Ways and Means. The committee approved the motion and sent HF 979 to Ways and Means by voice vote.
Amendment A1 (to HF 979): Representative Hansen offered an A1 amendment that would have placed specific appropriations in the bill, including an increase to the Agricultural Emergency Account and funding for board operations. A roll‑call vote was requested and recorded. The tally was 6 ayes and 7 nays, so the A1 amendment failed. The roll‑call record in the hearing transcript shows: Anderson — no; Harder — no; Hansen — yes; Smith — yes; Akbaje — yes; Burkel — no; Frederick — yes; Gander — no; Jacob — no; Lawrence — no; Lee — yes; Nelson — no; Vang — yes.
House File 11 01 (agricultural emergency account): Chair Anderson moved HF 1101, which would add funds to the agricultural emergency account. The bill was discussed and Representative Hansen again offered an A1 amendment to transfer existing dairy-related funds into the ag emergency account. The amendment failed on a roll call with the same 6–7 split as above. HF 1101 was laid over for possible inclusion in an omnibus bill.
House File 601 (depredation shortfall): Representative Jerry Burkel moved HF 601 to refer it to Ways and Means. The bill provides a near-term appropriation to address depleted depredation accounts; committee discussion indicated the bill’s intent was to provide $250,000 for fiscal year 2025 (reported in committee discussion as $125,000 each for elk and wolf). The committee voted and the motion carried; HF 601 was re‑referred to Ways and Means for further action.
House File 271: Representative Burkel presented HF 271, a bill to set up a depredation appropriation for the next budget cycle. Members laid HF 271 over; the committee did not take a final action on it during the hearing.
Why it matters: Committee action advances short‑term funding for depredation claims (HF 601) and establishes vehicles for the Board of Animal Health and the agricultural emergency account (HF 979 and HF 1101). The failed amendments demonstrate division within the committee over whether to place explicit appropriation amounts in the bills at this stage.
Recorded roll-call tallies: The hearing transcript contains two recorded roll calls on A1 amendments (one on HF 979 and one on HF 1101). Both recorded amendments failed 6–7. The committee used voice votes to advance HF 979 and HF 601 and laid HF 1101 and HF 271 over for later consideration.
Next steps: HF 979 and HF 601 go to the Committee on Ways and Means for fiscal review. HF 1101 and HF 271 were laid over; committee staff and sponsors indicated further negotiation on exact appropriation levels and program conditions would follow.
