South Dakota Cattlemen’s Legislative Report

SDCA is Monitoring the following bills:

HB 1096 seeking to prevent enforcement of a future “mandate” of electronic identification by USDA, will be heard in House Ag and Natural Resources Committee next week. If passed, the bill would not prevent the APHIS Administrator from approving RFID tags as the form of official identification for cattle moving interstate. It would restrict the state of South Dakota from expending any funds for the enforcement of mandatory electronic identification tags for the purposes of livestock identification, defaulting such enforcement to USDA. SDCA see these and other concerns with HB 1096 as impeding the use and implementation of electronic identification.

Status: Hearing in House ag and Natural resources February 17

---

---

SDCA position: oppose.

HB 1325 seeks to clarify the classification of agricultural land according to soil type with emphasis on the Class 4 soils

---

---

Status: Passed House 64-3

SDCA position: support.

HB 1276 seeking $300,000 to SD Dept of Ag and Natural Resource and GF&P for ariel predator control.

Status: sent to House Appropriations with a do pass recommendation by the House Ag and Natural Resources Committee.

SDCA position: support.

HB 1092 requests a one-time appropriation of $1.25M to develop an ag cyber security program between SDSU and DSU dedicated to agriculture that will provide research, programming and communication for the critical food and ag sector that we represent. Eleven organizations, including SDCA, supported the bill.

Status: referred to House appropriations with a hearing February 22.

SDCA position: support.

SB 54, to appropriate $30 million to expand the cyber program at DSU. The committee also approved SB 55, to appropriate $50 million in federal fund expenditure authority to the Governor’s Office of Economic Development to be used for grants for the continued expansion of broadband, SB 130, which allocates $50 million for the Board of Regents to partner with T. Denny Sanford, Sanford Health, and the City of Sioux Falls to develop an Applied Research Lab in Sioux Falls.

Status: The Senate Appropriations committee unanimously approved

Please do not hesitate to contact SDCA if you have questions or comments regarding legislative issues.

–South Dakota Cattlemen’s Association