House Agriculture, Forestry & Economic Development Committee
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Representative Brent Talley
Unverified
0:00
and has the ability to raise that fee to whatever they see fit. As we broaden this scope, we want to be sure, as we did broaden this scope, that there were some limitations there on where that fee could go, and that's why you'll see in there a $2 cap on that fee. As well, we've also put in there, in order to make any kind of changes to any fee, that they would have to go through the Administrative Procedure Review Act, which gives us some more oversight, as well as gives public comment before any kind of changes like that would do. Another protective feature we felt like or I felt like to keep this thing from being raised without great input from the community and from the legislature.
So that's the intent of this bill, and I've got Preston Scroggins here with me. He can help answer any questions you might have from the
Representative Jeremy Gillam
Unverified
0:48
committee. Mr. Chair. Representative Gillum, you're recognized for a question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Representative Talley, just to go back and maybe clarify, Right now, they can raise that fee, you know, whatever they want. But they could come back in two weeks and say that
all of a sudden it was going to be $10. Is that correct? That's exactly right.
Representative Brent Talley
Unverified
1:07
It is my understanding, without addressing the cap issue, the commission has the authority to raise that fee to wherever it has. In 1990, this program started in 1985. It was originally $3. In 1990, that was brought back down to $1. and it's been at $1 since July of 1990. It's not been increased since 1990. And without doing any kind of cap, you're exactly right, the commission would have the authority to raise that at any point. So we're trying, the reason for the cap in there is to keep them from being able to raise this fee above the $2 level.
Representative Jeremy Gillam
Unverified
1:43
But they're not actually raising it to $2. And they
Representative Brent Talley
Unverified
1:46
are not raising it at all, and we are encouraging them not to raise it at all. We've even added extra challenges in there to have to go through the Administrative Procedure Act if they ever do
Speaker 7
1:55
want to raise it. Okay. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you for
bringing the question. Great question. Representative Thompson, you're recognized for
Chair
Unverified
2:02
a question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Director Scroggins, thank you very much for coming today. Thank you, sir. Thank you, members of the committee, Mr. Chairman. I've really enjoyed working with you over the years, and I know you're just on the job,
but is this fund in good shape now as far as this Bruce Lowe's fund where we're getting the dollar fee? Is that making the money that we need it to make, or how are we with that
Representative Tommy Thompson
Unverified
2:29
fund? This fund right now, we're about two years out from some major concerns. My deputy director, Fred Weedore, had brought it to my attention when I first got there about 35 days ago, but I think we're taking appropriate action. We're looking at everything we can, cost savings.
We're going to look at some other avenues. But within two years, it would be
Chair
Unverified
2:53
a concern. Thank you, sir. Again, I appreciate you being here, and I appreciate you looking forward into these kind of actions and being prepared. Thank you, sir.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Representative Gene, you're
Speaker 20
3:06
recognized for a question. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Representative Talley, or I'm going to just call you County Judge. I know you're a judge. What is the amount that we raise every year on this dollar fee?
Representative Tommy Thompson
Unverified
3:19
Dollar fee raises approximately around $700,000 a year, you know, and it has been going down. You know, the cattle numbers in the state are experiencing some difficulty right now, but good numbers around $700,000. And
Speaker 20
3:32
so it takes more than $700,000 to run this program?
Representative Tommy Thompson
Unverified
3:36
Yes, sir. Our 35 field men across the state, you know, they deal with a range of issues. You know, they deal with poultry issues, issues with swine, horse issues, going to fairs, and all kinds of different events like that.
Speaker 20
3:51
Surrounding states that border Arkansas, I'm sure they have a similar fee. Are we in line with them? Are we lower? My opinion, I think we're lower. You know, I think a
Representative Tommy Thompson
Unverified
4:02
lot of those fees, it's hard for me to get a grasp on Oklahoma and Missouri, But, you know, those fees are kind of built into the sale barns up here. They have a different commission schedule than we do. A lot of those barns are based on a per head fee. But I do feel like we're very competitive.
There's a lot of things that we do not charge for that other states
Speaker 20
4:27
do. Okay. And so within a year or two, this fee has got to be adjusted because we're running in the red right now. What
Speaker 27
4:36
I intend to do, I've been there 35 days, and what I'm intending to
Representative Tommy Thompson
Unverified
4:41
do, I'm going to take an overall look at the program. I've already started doing that. We've identified some areas where we can have some cost savings with our field men going out and doing calf hood vaccinations.
We're going to look at some other areas. We're going to visit with, you know, poultry. We're going to visit with what's left of our swine industry. And, you know, we're going to try to have a balanced approach on it. I'm not going to go out here right off the bat and say we need to raise it without looking
at all revenues. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Representative McCrary. Okay. Representative Linderman, you're recognized for a
Representative Homer Lenderman
Unverified
5:21
question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for being here today.
I've got several questions for you, if you don't mind. Yes, sir. There has been a little bit of discussion right now. Your field agents will come to the farm and do on-farm vaccinations at no charge. Is there anything that y'all are looking at changing that? That is a great service to eradicate brucellosis. Yes,
sir. We are going to look at that. We've had a lot of discussion about that at the office the
Representative Homer Lenderman
Unverified
5:47
last week. How many brucellosis reactors have we found maybe in the past year? That may not be a fair question since you admit it.
Representative Tommy Thompson
Unverified
5:56
Well, I do know that we've had two different cases within the past month since I've been there. You know, these cattle or these slaughter cows or bulls, when they go to a slaughter facility, the blood is pulled there as well. And if there's any type of tithers or anything that shows up in the blood, the USDA will call here and then our field men will go out and look. I know that they're working one herd up in northern Arkansas right now. You know, that shows up every once in a while, but most of the time when you go back out and test the herd, it comes back okay.
Representative Homer Lenderman
Unverified
6:29
Are some of those showing up as reactors to calf food vaccinations? I
would say that would be
Representative Homer Lenderman
Unverified
6:36
the case on that. Okay. One of the concerns, we're changing the name of this. Are we going to start testing for other
diseases such as TRIC and some other things? We already
Representative Tommy Thompson
Unverified
6:48
are doing that, you know, via a federal guideline that we had to follow, trichinosis, tuberculosis, you know, anthrax, you look at that, Leptoe, blue tongue, all sorts of diseases, we're always vigilant on those.
Representative Homer Lenderman
Unverified
7:00
Okay. One other thing, and I'll leave you alone. This will tie into another bill that's going to run later. Are we seeing or suspecting that we're getting any problems with bovine health due to pseudorabies that might be as a result of the feral hogs? You know, we are required
Representative Tommy Thompson
Unverified
7:23
right now to already test all hogs, whether domestic or feral. There's already a provision in there, but we're always very concerned about the overall health of the swine herd.
We have to do a lot of testing of private swine herds. Of course, the swine herds as a whole have, commercial production, have decreased greatly in the state. But, yes, we're concerned about that in our swine herd. Great. Thank you. Thank
you, Mr. Chair. Representative Ballinger, you're recognized for
Representative Bob Ballinger
Unverified
7:59
a question. Thank you, Chairman. You all may have already answered this, and I think Homer may have kind of touched on it as well.
Currently, we're just using this to test for treat burcellosis, I would assume, right, this fund. And then I guess my question is, in the future, then we'll be doing it for using this same fund in order to cover testing and treatment for other diseases. What I guess my question would be is if the fund right now is looking like it may be in bad shape, then there really is no question that we're going to need
to raise these fees if we're adding other diseases to it.
Representative Brent Talley
Unverified
8:40
Is that correct? Well, I think the intent of it, I mean, we have added the cap. As we expanded that name, we wanted to add the cap to where that fee just could not go, you know, above the $2 level. And then, as Mr. Scroggins had addressed, you know, the commission is looking at ways to cut, you know, to go back in. He's just been on the job a few days. We've got some two new commissioners that come on. They're going back in and looking at this program. We understand the importance of having these field guys out there. They're willing to look at the program, make the cuts that they can to the program. And then, of course, we may, you know, long term, it's hard to predict what may come out there in the future.
But this is not a push to get a fee change by any means. And I understand that.
Representative Bob Ballinger
Unverified
9:16
I guess the follow-up question is, though, just from a mathematical standpoint, unless, and I guess your answer is, you know, there may be efficiencies that can be gained so that you could pick up the other diseases
Representative Bob Ballinger
Unverified
9:30
Okay. That would definitely be. That's the intent. Okay. Thank you. I
have one question I want to ask
The statutory language previously established a fee of $1 But as I understand that, it ran until July 1, 1990 And then there is additional statutory language That allowed the commission to establish the fee going forward So am I correct that at this point there is no cap and the commission could essentially set the fee at whatever they so choose to set the fee at?
Representative Brent Talley
Unverified
10:15
That is correct, Mr. Chair, by my understanding that you're exactly right. The commission from 1990 until this passes here could, with
fee at whatever they felt right. And it's a bit, because of the way the statute has been drafted and then amended, which I think this bill attempts to clarify, it's somewhat misleading in that if you just glance at it, you think, well, it's set at a dollar, but that was. That's expired. That expired until at July 1, 1990.
Is that correct? Yes, sir. Thank you. Representative Gillum, you're recognized for a question. Thank
Representative Jeremy Gillam
Unverified
10:52
you, Mr. Chair. Director, I want to go back to Representative Gene's question real fast and just maybe for clarification. The funds that come in from this program now, are they being commingled and used for poultry and swine? Those funds are being used to keep those field men out
Speaker 36
11:09
in the field, and those field men do all types of work. What we have
Representative Tommy Thompson
Unverified
11:14
tried to do and what we're going to try to do more of now that I'm there
is make sure that each part of the industry is paying their share. You know, those field men work on backyard flocks. They work on fairs. They work on, like I said, horse shows, poultry. And, you know, going forward, my idea is staff and I, we're going to sit down with the commission, and we're going to explore all the avenues and make sure that everybody is pulling their weight for these operations. Okay. I
Representative Jeremy Gillam
Unverified
11:46
think with all the discussion that had been going on about the possibility of raising fees,
That was a concern that came up was that we would be raising fees on the cattle side of things in order to pay for the poultry side, and I'm not so sure that that's a direction that we need to go, and so I'm a little concerned about that. I hear you. I've known you a long time, and I know that you're going to give it your best shot to delineate all this, and I think I'm willing to give you some latitude and room to work.
So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, sir. Representative McCrary, you're recognized for a question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Representative Linderman addressed this question to a degree,
and I just would be a good opportunity, since you're here, to expand it. It's concerning feral hogs. Yes, sir. The feral hog operations that we have in Arkansas that are hunting operations, uh are your field men going there and um checking them and for diseases and health if we are asked we will we have we do not know of any of
those operations i know this has came up in the past months since
Representative Tommy Thompson
Unverified
12:55
i've been there there are regulations on the books that the livestock and poultry
commission uh you know if they're called and asked those operations have to have a certain type of fence. If they're close to another swine operation, they have to be double-fenced, but those swine would have to go through the same testing procedures as a commercial
herd would. They would have to be tested for pseudorabies and all sorts. And you don't know that that's
being done, and along with that question is who will, the owners of these
hunting reserves, they're the ones that would contact
you to check? They would be responsible for contacting our staff to be checked. Yes, sir. Okay. So
Speaker 53
13:38
basically there's no regulation unless they want to
be regulated? Those regulations are on the books. You know, we have no enforcement power, you know, no type
Representative Tommy Thompson
Unverified
13:49
of enforcement action we could take. You know, those regulations have been on the books for, gosh, probably 10, 12, 15 years, I would
assume. One final question, and that's concerning the diseases that the feral hogs have
and the danger they have to our cattle. Would you comment about all the different diseases that they have? I'll do my best. I'm
Speaker 27
14:11
far from being an expert on feral hogs. I know a lot about commercial hogs. You
Representative Tommy Thompson
Unverified
14:17
know, I know the feral hogs, the pseudorabies is what comes to mind real quick. You know, there's several other diseases that I've known about. You know, the feral hog issue has raised a lot of calls to our office within the past month since I've been there. You know, a lot of the cattle ranchers and stuff that have contacted me are concerned about those animals being out in their fields
And, you know, being out there with the commercial cattle herds So it's a concern, yes, sir, with
diseases Thank you, Mr. Chairman Representative Branscombe, you're recognized for a question Thank you, Mr.
Representative David L. Branscum
Unverified
14:52
Chair Can feral hogs be sold at public auctions now? I don't know a good
Representative Tommy Thompson
Unverified
14:59
answer to that I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I can, I'll get with you. I wish, I'd like,
Representative David L. Branscum
Unverified
15:05
because I know up in my district we have a serious problem of them.
Representative Tommy Thompson
Unverified
15:10
I would, I'm going to say they would have to be tested. I mean, any hog that goes to. If they're sold
Speaker 58
15:16
at the public auction, then they would be tested. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. But is it legal to trap the hogs and then transport them alive to a public auction and sell them? Some have been doing it. I just wonder if they're breaking the
Representative David L. Branscum
Unverified
15:28
law if they're doing it right. I don't know. I'll get
Representative Tommy Thompson
Unverified
15:32
you an answer on that. It's best there on the side of caution. I don't know. Any other questions?
Representative Bob Ballinger
Unverified
15:42
Representative Ballinger. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a question. The law that grants the statutory authority to change that fee, I don't see it, and maybe it's addressed in here, but I don't see it addressed in the bill. So my question is, does that also need to be amended in order for the cap to be effective? And if so, then, you know, if it's something that does need to be addressed, then you would be willing to do it even if we pass this today, address it and amend it and come back.
Representative Brent Talley
Unverified
16:14
Sure. I don't have a problem. I mean, we've included in here what the Bureau has recommended. You know, we brought them the issues. We told them where we needed to be, and they haven't written this language out. You know, I don't know if they've told us that this is what's in there to make
Representative Bob Ballinger
Unverified
16:28
that cap effective. And I don't – I mean, actually, I don't know the answer to that either, but my assumption is that there is a statute out there that gives them the authority to change it. Your cap here, there's a conflict. This is newer law, so this should be enforceable, but it's going to offer a lot of confusion if we don't modify the other laws.
Sure. Anyway, thank you. Any other questions? Representative Talley, you may close for your bill.
Representative Brent Talley
Unverified
16:55
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And, you know, I think this is – I appreciate the committee's good questions on this bill. And this bill is supported by the Arkansas Cattlemen's and Arkansas Farm Bureau. And I certainly appreciate a good vote on this.
Speaker 46
17:08
Thank you, Representative Talley. What's the pleasure of
the committee? We have a motion due pass by Representative Thompson.
Any discussion? All those in favor of motion due pass indicate by saying aye. Any opposed by the same sign? No. Motion passed. Congratulations, Representative Talley. Thank you, committee. Members, I don't know that we have anybody else here to run a bill. We do have a few special guests today. We have Dr. Bob Stark from U of A Monticello, and his agriculture policy class is here with us today,
and their guest of Representative Lampkin. And then also Dr. Rick Douglas, who is Representative Charlotte Douglas' husband, is here as well. So we want to welcome them to House Agriculture today. And Representative Eubanks tells me we have leadership. Franklin County is here with us today as well, guest of Representative Eubanks.
If seeing no other business without objection, we are adjourned.
Agenda
HB1478
HB1580
Documents
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Speakers
Representative Brent Talley
Unverified
Representative Jeremy Gillam
Unverified
Speaker 7
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd Chair
Unverified
Chair
Unverified
Representative Tommy Thompson
Unverified
Speaker 20
Speaker 27
Representative Homer Lenderman
Unverified
Representative Walls McCrary Chair
Unverified
Representative Bob Ballinger
Unverified
Speaker 43
Speaker 5
Speaker 36
Speaker 53
Representative David L. Branscum
Unverified
Speaker 58
Speaker 46