With fewer than 20 days left in the state legislative session, Minnesota lawmakers cannot reach an agreement on a drought relief package for agriculture. Leaders in the Senate and House Agriculture Committees are negotiating the details, but there’s one big hurdle that cannot be agreed on: tree funding for the Department of Natural Resources. “The ag farmer drought relief bill could be resolved in less than a day if we could get the House to back off their demand to continue to require DNR tree drought relief in the same bill for farmers,” says Torrey Westrom, chair, Minnesota Senate Ag Committee. “They’re holding up farmers while we’re trying to bring in other issues. We have most of the other farmer drought related issues resolved and we’re asking for the governor to get engaged to help us get this package out the door.”
