Committee hears HB424 on service‑animal documentation; Department advises against state form, panel discussion urged

Representative Jerry Stringham introduced HB424, a bill that would direct the Department of Agriculture, Markets, and Food to create forms businesses could use to request information about service animals and would establish a committee to study protection of business owners from accommodating customers who present fraudulent or untrained animals.

Stringham said the problem had arisen in hotel and restaurant settings and that businesses wanted a straightforward way to reduce confusion. "House bill 4 24 is called directing the Department of Agriculture, Markets, and Food to create forms for businesses to request information about service animals and establishing a committee to study the protection of business owners from requests to accommodate customers with fraudulent or untrained service animals," he told the committee.

Multiple witnesses and agency representatives told the committee federal law sharply limits what businesses may ask. Karen Rosenberg, policy director for the Disability Rights Center, told the committee that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) permits only two questions when it is not obvious that an animal is a service animal: whether the animal is required because of a disability and what task the animal is trained to perform. She said the ADA expressly prohibits requiring documentation or proof of service‑animal status. "Requiring a form at all would violate the ADA because that's documentation and public accommodations are prohibited from requiring documentation," Rosenberg said.

Commissioner Sean Jasper of the Department of Agriculture told the committee the department was not an appropriate agency to create the proposed form and would not create one that violated federal law. He told lawmakers, "I don't think a form could be created such as this that would meet the federal law," and said he would decline to create a form that would violate the ADA.

Representatives of the Governor's Commission on Disability and the Disability Rights Center offered to help craft educational materials and guidance for businesses and law enforcement; Chuck Saia of the governor's commission noted the commission and the secretary of state's office already produce a decal businesses may post about misrepresentation being illegal. Several committee members said they were open to a study committee to gather stakeholders, standardize guidance, and, if appropriate, request federal guidance or congressional action.

Ending: The hearing closed with broad agreement that businesses need better training and clear, legally permissible guidance; the Department of Agriculture declined to produce a mandatory form and committee members signaled support for a study group to work with the Attorney General's office, disability advocates, and business groups.