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Senate committee approves fallback language for soybean market checkoff; pork amendment added
Summary
The Indiana Senate Committee on Agriculture passed Senate Bill 55 with two amendments that clarify how assessment funds would be used if federal checkoff programs end: an amendment to require at least 50% of soybean assessment funds be used for regional, national or international projects, and a pork producers amendment setting an 80/20 allocation under the fallback provision. The bill passed the committee 9–0.
Chairwoman Leising opened the committee by introducing Senate Bill 55, the soybean market development bill, and said the measure included two amendments addressing how state-collected assessment funds would be treated only if a federal program ceased to operate.
Sarah, director of policy and industry affairs for the Indiana Soybean Alliance, explained the primary amendment would add specificity to the board’s approval criteria: "at least 50% of the funds collected must meet that second criteria" prioritizing projects with regional, national or international impact. She said the change was intended to avoid a state windfall and to ensure funds continued to create value for Indiana soybean farmers.
Committee members pressed staff on technical drafting and placement in the bill; staff (Kyle) confirmed the provision could be inserted as a new subsection and would correct page and line numbering for the printed amendment. After discussion, Senator Glick moved to re-amend and the committee took the amendment by consent.
The committee then heard Amendment 5 from Josh Trenary of the Indiana Pork Producers Association. Trenary said pork producers sought a similar fallback mechanism for their federal checkoff, describing a proportional approach that mirrors the soybean amendment. He said Indiana currently receives a substantially smaller state share under the federal pork checkoff and that members were comfortable with an approach that preserves collaborative federal work while retaining a modest in-state share.
With those amendments in place, the committee called the roll. The recorded vote on Senate Bill 55 was nine yeas, zero nays; the committee reported the bill as passed.
Why it matters: The amendments clarify how state-level checkoff assessments would be spent in the unlikely event that federal programs end, addressing members’ concerns that Indiana producers should not receive duplicative or excessive funding if national programs change. The bill does not change current federal checkoff arrangements unless a federal program is discontinued.
The committee advanced SB55 to the next procedural step after unanimous committee approval.
