Agriculture commissioner outlines HB1009 request and program inventory, flags staffing and trade-office needs

Doug Goehring, North Dakota agriculture commissioner, told the House Appropriations Committee's Government Operations Section that House Bill 1009 reflects a broad workload spanning regulation, marketing, animal health, pest control, and grant programs across the state.

"Good afternoon, mister chairman and members of the House Appropriations Committee," Goehring began as he outlined the department's organizational chart, program booklets provided to committee members, and the primary items in his budget request.

Why it matters: Agriculture is one of the state's largest industries. The department's budget covers regulatory programs (pesticides, feed, livestock inspection), large grant and marketing programs (Ag Diversification Development Program, bioscience grants, trade-office support), and animal-health work (disease surveillance, traceability and responses to high-path avian influenza).

Major points presented

- Scope and materials: Goehring provided committee members binders and program booklets covering dozens of programs the department runs or oversees, including the Specialty Crop Block Grant, the Agricultural Products and Utilization Commission (APOC) reports, the Ad (ag diversification) program, bioscience grants, farm-to-school, apiary and pollinator programs, food-distribution grants and more.

- Organizational summary: The department described multiple divisions and program portfolios. Examples cited in testimony: Administrative Services (16 programs); Plant Industries (34 programs), which licenses beekeepers and maintains a GIS of colonies (Goehring said the department maps about 20,900 sites); Livestock Industries, Meat and Poultry Inspection (state facilities and custom plants); Animal Health (including traceability and disease eradication work, distribution of ~470,000 official identification tags); and Pesticide and Fertilizer programs (inspections, registration and Project SafeSend collections).

- Staffing and vacancies: Goehring said the department had about 80 FTEs on staff and asked for two additional FTEs in his request (one of which the governor's executive budget included). He reported turnover across the current biennium and said, at the time of the hearing, six positions were open.

- One-time and notable requests: Goehring cited multiple one-time requests and program appropriations committee members had asked about, including: $25 million for the Ag Diversification Development (ADD) program, $3 million for APOC, $650,000 for the bioscience innovation grant program, $1 million for resilient food-systems or food-distribution grants, and funds to restore trade-office capacity (he requested additional operating funding for the trade office to get it back to steady operations).

- Bill tracking and transfers: Goehring said the department supports two transfer bills (House Bill 1026 and House Bill 1027 in his account) to move oversight of certain bonding and fund programs from the Insurance Department to the Office of Management and Budget (risk management). He also discussed a prospective low-carbon fuel program to replace a countercyclical ethanol program; Goehring said the proposal would transfer $6 million from an existing program and seek an additional appropriation (a figure of roughly $30 million was discussed in committee comments) to support carbon-capture investments at ethanol facilities.

- Animal health and avian influenza: The state veterinarian (Dr. Ethan Anders, noted by Goehring) and the department provided updates on high-path avian influenza investigations and traceability. Goehring said pasteurization mitigates food-safety concerns for dairy products and that animal-health and emergency responses remain active workstreams.

Committee exchanges and follow-up requests

- Representatives asked for program-level outcomes and metrics. Representative Bosch asked how the department evaluates program success; Goehring said some programs have explicit metrics in program reports and that he would prepare additional materials addressing "so what" (the practical outcomes) for legislators.

- Representative Meyer asked for a breakdown of bioscience grant awards; Goehring said the committee materials include project lists and funding allocations and he would provide further detail.

- Discussion of the trade office budget and staffing: Goehring said the state's trade office is a public-private partnership and that restoring stable state funding (he mentioned $160,000 as current or baseline funding and said he requested additional dollars to restore capacity) would improve the office's ability to support exporters.

Ending

Goehring closed by offering to provide more detailed program metrics and to return as needed; multiple committee members asked for follow-up documentation on specific line items, grant awards and staffing numbers. The transcript includes no formal committee votes on HB1009 in the provided excerpt.