Committee advances S.60 to create agriculture resiliency fund; leaves revenue, emergency-declaration and opt‑in details unresolved

A legislative committee voted to report out S.60 on Wednesday, creating an Agriculture, Food Resiliency, & Forestry fund intended to help farmers and forest‑product operators recover from weather‑related losses and other qualifying events, while leaving several key design choices for later work.

Committee members said the bill establishes a vehicle to receive public and private funds and federal aid but did not finalize whether the statute should include a dedicated state revenue source, whether award eligibility should be conditioned on a formal declaration of emergency, or whether the program should allow an opt‑in premium or registry for producers.

Representative Bassam, a member of the committee, proposed creating a separate committee bill solely to establish a dedicated revenue source for agricultural funding so the revenue discussion would not block passage of S.60. "Should we make a committee bill that is just a dedicated revenue source to support agricultural funding and not tie it to the bill?" Bassam asked, arguing a separate vehicle would let the policy move forward while the funding question is developed.

Members repeatedly…