House passes omnibus agriculture, broadband finance bill

After tabling the omnibus agriculture and broadband finance bill following about 8 hours of debate Friday, the House took the bill up again Saturday and made short work of it, passing it in just under 40 minutes by a vote of 111-20.

Rep. Mike Sundin (DFL-Esko), sponsor of SSHF8, repeated his theme from the day before that the bill would protect the state’s food supply, and serve consumers and producers alike.

The agriculture bill would appropriate $139.4 million from the General Fund for the 2022-23 biennium, an increase of $12.7 million over base. It would appropriate:

• $118.7 million to the Department of Agriculture;
• $12.1 million to the Board of Animal Health; and
• $8.6 million to the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute.

[MORE: View the spreadsheet]

The bill now goes to the Senate, where Sen. Torrey Westrom (R-Elbow Lake) is the sponsor.