Senate committee advances extensions and staffing funds for farmer‑lender mediation program
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Summary
The committee advanced two bills to preserve and staff Minnesota’s Farmer‑Lender Mediation program: SF 3583 would extend the program’s sunset five years; SF 3584 requests about $150,000 for staffing amid rising mediation demand. Witnesses said mediations help keep farms solvent and require no new base funding.
Senator Putnam introduced legislation to extend and bolster Minnesota’s long‑running Farmer‑Lender Mediation program, telling the committee the state is facing an acute farm‑economy stress that makes the program especially necessary. "This program sits people down with the farmer and the bank and works out a way to solve the loans and keep the farmers on the land," Putnam said.
The mediation program allows farmers with debt greater than $15,000 to seek state‑facilitated negotiation with lenders instead of filing for bankruptcy or facing foreclosure. Whitney Place, director of government affairs and agricultural outreach at University of Minnesota Extension — which houses the mediation program — told the committee the program handled about 1,700 mediations last year and that roughly 90 percent resulted in mutually agreeable solutions. Place said the fiscal note reflects anticipated program costs but that existing higher‑education special appropriations already cover those expenses and that no additional baseline funding is required to continue the service.
Hunter Peterson, public policy specialist for the Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation, and Stu Lohrey, government relations director for the Minnesota Farmers Union, gave examples of farmers who used mediation to pause enforcement or restructure obligations and urged passage. "This program will help save family farms," Peterson said. Lohrey shared cases where mediation provided 90‑day breathing room that allowed farmers to reorganize their operations and remain productive.
Senator Putnam told the committee there are letters from the banks discussed in the packet indicating a willingness to negotiate, and he described SF 3583 as a straightforward extension that changes the sunset date. He said SF 3584 would provide a small staffing appropriation — about $150,000, as described in testimony — to maintain program capacity as mediation requests increase (testimony indicated a rise to three‑to‑four times last year’s sessions). Whitney Place characterized the staffing request as modest relative to the potential economic and social costs of farm failures.
The committee moved both bills to the Committee on Finance by voice vote. The committee chair recorded an "Aye" on both SF 3583 and SF 3584, and the measures were referred to finance for further consideration.
What happens next: Both bills were referred to the Senate Committee on Finance for fiscal review and possible appropriation decisions.
