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Minn. House Ag Committee lays over HF1704 DE3 after policy, budget walkthrough and contested broadband language
Summary
The House Committee on Agriculture Finance and Policy on March 10 reviewed House File 1704 DE3, a biennial agriculture finance amendment that would raise the ag budget base by about $17 million and add targeted appropriations for meat inspection, county ag inspectors, a biofertilizer incentive and other programs; committee members laid the amendment over after extended testimony and debate over broadband installer language.
ST. PAUL — The House Committee on Agriculture Finance and Policy reviewed House File 1704 DE3 on Monday, March 10, a biennial agriculture finance amendment that the committee laid over after a detailed fiscal and policy walkthrough and extended public testimony.
The DE3 amendment would raise the agriculture budget’s base by roughly $17,000,000 in the FY 2026–27 biennium and makes a host of targeted appropriations and transfers, including one‑time and base increases for meat inspection, livestock processing, county agricultural inspectors, a biofertilizer incentive program and other programs administered by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA), the Board of Animal Health and the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute (AURI). Committee members and a dozen testifiers debated the bill’s funding priorities and a controversial change to last year’s broadband installer law that was placed in the agriculture omnibus.
The committee’s fiscal analyst, Ken Sabry of House Fiscal Analysis, led a line‑by‑line presentation of the amendment’s spreadsheet, noting the bill’s net general‑fund impact over base is $17,070,000 in FY 2026–27 and $7,810,000 in FY 2028–29. Highlights he cited included a one‑time $2,000,000 appropriation for county agricultural inspectors, a $1,250,000 annual appropriation for the biofertilizer innovation and efficiency program in FY 2026–27, $850,000 annually for additional meat inspection capacity, and an increase to AGRI allocations that includes “up to” and designation language for farm‑to‑school and other programs.
"If all of us on the Ag Committee would maybe agree that we would like to see Ag getting a little bit bigger piece of the overall Minnesota State budget," Representative Gerry Anderson, who moved the DE3 amendment, told the committee in his opening remarks while describing the bill’s scope and priorities.
The amendment also cancels a prior green fertilizer appropriation, reduces some…
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