Four weeks down, three to deadlines

This week marks the fourth week of the 2026 Minnesota Legislative Session, and in some ways it feels like twice that long with so many committee attention-grabbing hearings. Most of the contentious committee meetings have focused on the fraud debate, gun limits, restricting activities of Federal agents (ICE) and assessing impacts on the state budget as a result of various Federal funding cuts or changes.

In committees impacting agriculture, we’re also seeing our share of controversial topics arise, including:

• A proposal to require a mandatory EIS for livestock operations over of a certain size
• Proposed restrictions on the use of neonicotinoid-treated seeds
• Proposed bans on certain pesticides from use in Minnesota including paraquat herbicide
• Proposals to divert funds previously appropriated to the MN Department of Agriculture for “farm to food” programs and food-shelves

Other bills and issues that Minnesota Milk is working on in a more productive way include:

• Farmer-Lender Mediation Program sunset extension
• Reforms to DNR water appropriation permitting processes
• Recapitalization of the Rural Finance Authority with $50M
• Pass Through Entity Tax (PTET) and other farm-business deduction conformity to the Federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act
• Uncapping funding for Beginning Farmer Tax Credit program
• DAIRI: making new dairy farms that have online since 2022 eligible for the Dairy Margin Coverage enrollment grant funding

At this point in the Session, very few bills have made it to the House or Senate floor yet, and most everything is being debated in committees. Remember that House committees are still evenly divided, and who chairs the committee alternates with the GOP co-chair setting the agenda one day and the DFL co-chair setting the agenda the next day. As readers might guess, this sets up a big contrast for the topics and bills that are heard within the same committee, from one day’s meeting to the next in the House.

Committee work on specific bills will start to shift to floor debates by the full House and Senate as the Legislature enters its Spring/Easter Break on March 27, which also coincides with the first and second (concurrent) committee deadline by which bills must have made their way through all relevant committees and to the Ways & Means Committee in the House and the Finance Committee in the Senate.