SAINT PAUL, MN – Today, Rep. David Bly’s (DFL-Northfield) legislation (HF2225) to address the H5N2 Avian Influenza crisis devastating farms across Minnesota was agreed to in a joint House and Senate conference committee. On April 17th, the House declared urgency and suspended the rules to send Rep. Bly’s (DFL-Northfield) bill to the Senate. Despite delays since then, the legislation will now go before both legislative bodies and then will be on its way to Governor Dayton for his signature.
During today’s conference committee, Chair Bly was able to broker a bipartisan agreement, between all four caucuses of the two legislative bodies that was adopted unanimously. The legislation would provide stopgap funding to the Department of Agriculture and Board of Animal Health for staff responses. As it stands today, 3 million of Minnesota’s 15 million turkeys have been infected. The Board of Animal Health testified that 75% of their staff are currently working on the crisis.
Rep. David Bly issued the following statement:
“Six more farms have been confirmed to have H5N2 in Minnesota since my bill was passed. That’s hundreds of thousands of additional turkeys. This is a crisis and I’m pleased that we were finally able to come together on this issue. We acted now and showed Minnesota’s turkey producers that we’re serious about addressing this crisis.”
Rep. Bly can be reached for comment at (651) 296-0171 or by email at rep.david.bly@house.mn
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