By Karli Johnson and Nicole Rolf, Montana Farm Bureau Federation

 

The pace in Helena is changing in week 13 with the House and Senate spending time catching up on floor work. After the death of the divisional water court bill HB 886 last week in the House, MFBF worked to again share their support for HB 775: Repeal on sunset of Water Court actions in Senate Natural Resources. More director and board confirmations were also heard this week, along with a new resolution and a bill that MFBF opposed.

Monday and Tuesday was a “confirmation palooza” in the Capitol. Two water judge appointee confirmations were heard in Senate Judiciary Monday morning and MFBF was happy to share their support for Judge Stephen Brown and Judge Bina Peters. Both judges will bring an important level of expertise in water law to the water court system. MFBF also supported the confirmation of Sonja Nawakowski for the Director of the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in Senate Natural Resources. MFBF applauds Director Nawakowski’s leadership philosophy that supports economic opportunities on the land as well as land stewardship and we look forward to continuing our work with her in the agriculture world. Along with these confirmations, appointees for the State Milk Board, Board of Livestock, and the Livestock Loss Board had their confirmation hearing in Senate Agriculture. MFBF supported all the appointees with three of them holding MFBF memberships. Appointments to the boards are: Milk Board- Brian Beerman, Ken Bryan, Staci Ketchum, W. Scott Mitchell, Travis Stroh; Board of Livestock- Jake Feddes, Greg Wichman; Livestock Loss Board- Doreen Gillespie, Joe Kipp, Jordan Mannix. The Senate confirmations for this week were all passed on Thursday.

HJ 29: Joint resolution recognizing the strong bilateral relationship between Montana and Taiwan sponsored by Rep. Brandon Ler (R) HD 33 was heard in Senate Business and Labor on Tuesday and was supported by MFBF. Last year, MFBF members and staff were given the opportunity to visit Taiwan on the Governor’s trade mission and learned about the importance of Montana’s ag commodities in the country. Taiwan is one of Montana agriculture’s most important foreign trade partners, with almost one billion dollars flowing between us annually, and helps strengthen Montana’s position on the global trading stage. This resolution simply celebrates the partnership we have with Taiwan that dates to 1988. Taiwan is a long-time buyer of Montana wheat and are expanding their purchases of American beef. We look forward to continuing this important relationship.

HB 848: Provide funding for regional rail authorities sponsored by Rep. Denise Baum (D) HD 45 was heard in Senate Business and Labor on Wednesday. HB 848 would create and fund an account to support the establishment of passenger rail services on the southern rail in Montana.  While MFBF is neutral on the subject of passenger rail, our farmer members are concerned with the funding source for this account. The bill takes $2 million of the rail car tax generated by freight rail out of the general fund and transfers it to the passenger rail account. Currently, 80% of the wheat grown in Montana is exported, with roughly 100 million bushels per year leaving our western coast, destined for Asia. Most of the grain is shipped to ports via rail and the railroads pass on the rail car tax to their customers, making farmers passive payers of this tax. Since Montana’s agriculture goods make up such a large portion of the railcars leaving the state, we would rather see these funds going to better options to serve farmers using the railways for their commodities.

Nicole Rolf is the Senior Director of Governmental Affairs and a rancher from Miles City, Montana.  Nicole works closely with our Congressional delegation on national issues affecting Montana agriculture. Additionally, this is her ninth Montana Legislative Session, lobbying in Helena on behalf of MFBF members. Nicole can be contacted at nicoler@mfbf.org.

Karli Johnson is the State Governmental Affairs Coordinator and a rancher from Choteau, MT. This is Karli’s first session lobbying on behalf of Montana Farm Bureau although she can be known as an old hand at testifying on Grizzly Bear bills before she came onto staff. Karli will focus on water and wildlife issues throughout the legislative session while also serving as the Northwest Regional Manager. Karli can be contacted at karlij@mfbf.org.