Hearing on SB 2247 and SB 2365

March 2, 2007
One page broadcast fax

TO:   North Dakota Elevator Managers and Allied Members

 IMPORTANT HEARINGS NEXT WEEK  --  ACTION ITEMS

The House Ag Committee will hold a hearing on SB 2247 on Thursday March 8 at 8:30 a.m.   This is the Pulse Growers’ bill that exempts from obtaining a roving grain buyer’s license any buyer who purchases from a ND licensed entity “grain that has been cleaned and processed and has had value added to it”.  NDGDA has been opposed.  Companies like ADM, Cargill, CHS, Columbia Grain, FGDI and Louis Dreyfus are bonded and licensed.  Why carve out unclear exemptions for buyers in a relatively new industry?  ND Administrative Code rule 69-07-01-14 (page 162 of your 2006 ND elevator directory) already says that one who purchases from a licensed entity grain that has been “substantially altered by processing” need not be licensed.   A waiver idea is being discussed, but unless and until that bears fruit the NDGDA position remains opposed to this bill.

SB 2365, study on grain grading procedures at grain elevators, will be heard in the House Ag Committee on Friday March 9 at 10 a.m.   NDGDA is opposed to this as unnecessary, costly and intrusive.  Few complaints are registered with the PSC and a procedure to resolve disputes through federal grading is already in state law.   See testimony on www.ndgda.org.  A similar measure, HCR 3047, was defeated in the House on February 15. 

These are open public hearings in the Peace Garden Room on the ground floor of the State Capitol.  Anyone can attend, watch, or speak pro or con if they’d like.  Those of you in districts represented on that House Ag Committee are hereby encouraged to contact your member in the next several days and encourage a Do Not Pass vote on these bills.

House Ag Committee members and hometowns are:
Dennis Johnson, Chairman, Devils Lake              Brenda Heller, Beulah
Joyce Kingsbury, V. Chmn., Grafton                    Phillip Mueller, Valley City
Wesley Belter, Leonard                                         Kenton Onstad, Parshall
Tracy Boe, Mylo                                                     Gerald Uglem, Northwood
Michael Brandenburg, Edgeley                              Benjamin A. Vig, Aneta
Rodney Froelich, Selfridge                                    John Wall, Wahpeton
Craig Headland, Montpelier