The Kansas Legislature continued to hold hearings on bills of interest to KLA members as they near the end of the regular session. KLA staff provided testimony on several bills, while others were advanced by committee.
Foreign ownership of land - The House Committee on Commerce, Labor and Economic Development placed the contents of HB 2766 into SB 172 with amendments. KLA testified in opposition to the bill in its original form, but acknowledged it would remove opposition with an amendment to prevent divestment of existing agricultural businesses. In its original form, the bill prohibited “countries of concern” from acquiring interest in real property in the state of Kansas within 150 air miles of military installations. In the bill, “countries of concern” include six currently listed as foreign adversaries to the U.S. by the federal government. The original bill also was retrospective and would have required divestment of businesses such as Syngenta and Smithfield Foods. Syngenta’s wheat breeding program is in Geary County and Smithfield has two further pork processing plants in Kansas employing nearly 1,000 workers. The committee adopted a KLA-supported amendment to allow companies, such as those mentioned above, to continue operations if they have undergone review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and were determined not to be a security threat. The adoption of the amendment resulted in KLA no longer opposing the bill. It was approved by committee.
Amendment to IGUCA and LEMA law - KLA testified in support of HB 2634 in the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources, which would add additional corrective control to the local enhanced management area (LEMA) and intensive groundwater use control area (IGUCA) law. The new corrective control would allow a producer to exceed the annual allocation of a water right if they do not exceed their total authorized allocation over the determined conservation period. KLA testified the bill could provide livestock facilities and producers more flexibility under a LEMA or IGUCA, while also advancing groundwater conservation. This specifically would help solve common water-use distribution issues facing feedyards and dairies.
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Categories: Kentucky, Livestock, Dairy Cattle