Senate Ag & Natural Resources panel restores most Agriculture reappropriations, adds Quivira reporting proviso
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Summary
The committee voted to restore reappropriations and 5.7 FTEs for the Department of Agriculture while excluding a $635,432 water-quality buffer item; it also approved a proviso requiring annual Department of Agriculture reporting on spending tied to Quivira National Wildlife Refuge mitigation.
The Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee voted to restore nearly all previously deleted reappropriations for the Department of Agriculture and to add back 5.7 full-time equivalent positions, the panel’s chair announced after committee discussion.
The action, led by Senator Titus, followed a presentation by Luke Drury, senior fiscal analyst with Legislative Research, who summarized special-committee recommendations that had removed added FTEs, reappropriations and enhancement requests. Titus said the 5.7 FTEs were filled in the normal course of business and recommended they be reinstated; the recommendation was accepted without objection and added to the committee report.
Why it matters: restoring reappropriations preserves funding the agencies say is already encumbered or committed, and the committee framed its changes as corrective actions for items that were removed during an interim special committee review.
Key details: the committee voted to reinsert the department’s reappropriation requests listed on its summary pages with one explicit exclusion — the Water Quality Buffer Initiative, a $635,432 carryover appropriation that Titus said the department no longer uses. For a separate item, Titus requested reappropriation of $195,250 in unspent State General Fund (SGF) for a weights-and-measures vehicle that the agency had already begun purchasing; that reappropriation was accepted without objection.
The committee also approved proviso language requiring the Department of Agriculture to report annually on funds spent to mitigate impairment at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge. Titus described that proposal as a transparency measure, noting the state has put roughly $3,000,000 into CREP and an additional $3,000,000 toward an augmentation project related to Quivira. The proviso would require more fiscal specificity and send those reports to both the committee and the House agriculture panel.
Context and next steps: Senator Francisco successfully moved to restore conservation-district aid from SGF (roughly $1.7 million) tied to Senate Bill 36; the committee agreed to recommend that the funding be ongoing. The committee’s recommendations will be forwarded as part of its report to Ways and Means for FY2026 and FY2027 consideration.
The committee adjourned after scheduling a noon reconvening to finish remaining water-office business.