Last Thursday, Roseville Democrat Jamie Becker-Finn, a hunter and recognized leader in the discussion to establish policy and funding for the state's efforts against chronic wasting disease (CWD), tweeted:
“CWD Super Group” team of scientists from University of Minnesota ready to get to work on chronic wasting disease. Time for us to give them the tools to make real progress. #CWD #mnleg pic.twitter.com/7OusPLLsbS
— Jamie Becker-Finn (@jbeckerfinn) February 7, 2019
It's our understanding that the Becker-Finn bill--which will be introduced today just before the Minnesota House meets this afternoon--has bipartisan support.
That night, a news report appeared on Rochester television station KAAL-Tv, Lawmakers, U of M Researchers Hope Live Tests Will Slow Spread of CWD in which Greg Davids, R-Preston, and Minority Leader Kurt Daudt are named as the lawmakers working with University of Minnesota researchers:
As Minnesota works to slow the spread of chronic wasting disease in the state's deer population, researchers at the University of Minnesota think they've found a solution to a significant hurdle relating to testing deer for the disease. Now, they're asking lawmakers to give them the money to make it happen.
. . .state Rep. Greg Davids (R-Preston) wants to see more done to avoid needlessly thinning the wild deer population to test the animals for disease.
He and House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt (R-Crown) are working on a bill that would provide $1.8 million in funding for research and development of the live test, a process Skinner expects will take around two years and a number of researchers to fully develop. If it's successful, it could be replicated elsewhere.
Funny, but we saw that language in Becker-Finn's hands. Perhaps Davids and Daudt are working on a "clone" bill.
UPDATE, Feb 11, 2018: And here we have it, folks. There's the Davids-Daudt bill, HF966, which has only two authors, and the Becker-Finn bill, HF984, that's bipartisan--with Davids and Lueck as co-authors, along with 17 others. Guess those two couldn't shop around the bill for more authors--or bipartisanship--for fear of a later drop in the hopper. [end update]
Or maybe Davids is generously signing on to both the original Becker-Finn bill and the clone that Daudt has worked so hard on, that's presumably described in a press release sent out Friday by the House Republican communications staff on the behalf of Greg Davids, R-Preston, Rep. Davids authors bill to develop test for chronic wasting disease.
There's also curiously misleading copy in the KAAL-TV report:
The bill is expected to be officially introduced Monday. Two other bills relating to CWD have been introduced in the House so far this session:
HF950 would provide $1,560,000 in the fiscal year 2020 for wildlife disease surveillance and response, including $208,000 for responding to deer that escape from deer farms.
HF305 would allocate funds for a white-tailed deer herd buyout program.
A couple of curious items make us wonder just where KAAL-TV got that information, as our own bill searches turn up different news.
HF305 is a Becker-Finn bill, but there are two additional Becker-Finn bills that address issues related to CWD in Minnesota. There's HF229 which wold require additional fencing for farmed cervidae (deer, elk,moose). One vector for the spread of CWD is nose-to-nose contact; moreover, an escaped deer with notches in its ears was shot in one of the DNR's hunts in the CWD zone.
HF553 would transfer regulatory duties and powers for farmed cervidae from Board of Animal Health to Department of Natural Resources. This will likely address problems raised by a scathing report by the Office of the Legislative Auditor about the BOH's management of the crisis last year.
Moreover, no HF950 existed on Thursday. From the Minnesota House bill introduction page: "House File Numbers 763 - 918, introduced on Thursday, February 7, 2019." There is HF850, which was introduced a week ago S. St. Paul Democrat and Southeast Minnesota deer-hunting landowner Rick Hansen, which would fund wildlife disease surveillance and response and appropriate the money to do it.
Taken together, that set of bills might might be part of a plan--though that's an educated guess on our art.
Part of our speculation comes from the fact that Becker-Finn will be holding at press conference at 1:00 p.m. today to announce a comprehensive plan to address CWD. From the media advisory today reminding the press about the new briefing:
St. Paul, Minn. – On Monday, February 11 at 1 p.m. in Room B971 at the State Capitol, Rep. Jamie Becker-Finn (DFL-Roseville) will announce a comprehensive plan to address the rampant spread of Chronic Wasting Disease. Becker-Finn will be joined by colleagues from the Legislature, hunters, and outdoors advocates. She says the current CWD outbreak requires immediate, comprehensive action and will highlight the impact on deer hunters, their families, and the Constitutional right to hunt.What:Press conference announcing comprehensive plan to address Chronic Wasting DiseaseWhen:Monday, Feb. 11 at 1 p.m.Where:Room B971, State CapitolWho:Rep. Jamie Becker-FinnRep. Rick Hansen of South St. Paul, Chair of Environment and Natural Resources Finance DivisionRep. Kaohly Her of St. PaulRep. Jeff Brand of St. PeterSen. Foung Hawj of St. PaulSen. Karla Bigham of Cottage GroveRepresentative(s) from the Minnesota Deer Hunters AssociationRepresentative(s) from Bluffland Whitetails AssociationRepresentative(s) from Backcountry Hunters & Anglers
Becker-Finn mentioned the event on a local outdoors radio talk show:
As I mentioned on KFAN Outdoors with @CaptainKFAN & @BobStPierre - press conference Monday at 1pm at Capitol (room B971) to highlight the need to comprehensively address #CWD this #mnleg session. Will be joined by @bha_mn @MNDeerHunters Bluffland Whitetails & others! 🦌🦌
— Jamie Becker-Finn (@jbeckerfinn) February 11, 2019
We're eager to see what the comprehensive plan looks like.
This is what bill poaching looks like
In all his years in the Minnesota House, Minority Leader Kurt Daudt--Speaker Daudt for the past four years until the body flipped in the November election, never authored or co-authored bill related to CWD, Indeed, only two bills in his entire career are related to outdoors issues--and these came in his first term.
Moreover, during those four years of Speaker Daudt's leadership, the first cases of CWD were discovered in Minnesota's wild herd. Did bills to address the issue--such as the Hoppe HF3669 bill in 2018--ever come up for a committee hearing or floor vote? Not a chance. Some money was shifted, but the sort of hearings that we've been watching or listening to in both environment and natural resources and the ag committee didn't happen.
Instead, the 2017-2018 Environment and Natural Resources Policy and Finance - Meeting Minutes reveal one hearing on January 24, 2017 where CWD is the topic. Watch the video to see the discussion, in which several Republican members allude to theories about CWD that have been shown to be...unscientific. In the 2018 meetings, it's nearly painful to see Becker-Finn raise her concerns about having a discussion about CWD and have the chair dismiss them, at one point telling her that the Hoppe bill will address the issue.
It never got a hearing. Page through the minutes and listen to the audio or watch the video to see what the priorities were during the Era of Daudt.
Perhaps the most glaring example of the neglect of CWD in the Era of Daudt is the floor debate of a Hansen amendment to the ag policy bill on April 5, 2017. The debate begins at the 1:01:45 marker.It's clear that heart of the Republicans were with the captive deer farmers, not with Minnesota's wild deer hunters and the 450,000 Minnesota hunters who pursue them.
One choice moment in the discourse? When Delano Republican Joe McDonald suggests that at putting a moratorium on new captive deer farms will reduce the number of "deers" available to Minnesota wild deer hunters. Someone should tell the man that managing the deer herd isn't like efforts by Pheasants Forever and other upland game hunters where human-raised birds are released into the wild. Uffda
Had Daudt cared about CWD, the story would have been much different. Instead, now the crisis has deepened--and he's poaching the issue, presenting himself as the author of a bill that's already been written. We wouldn't be surprised if he claims on the floor today that Becker-Finn stole the ideas in the plan she presents today. Shame on him.
For a fine editorial about the issue, checking out:
One of the most alarming hearings I've covered in some time. Heartened by the expertise we have in MN to develop next-gen test and leadership at #MNleg that understands the urgency. More coming from Monday from @jbeckerfinn on other measures needed. https://t.co/0O5vXex8WE
— jburcum (@jburcum) February 10, 2019
UPDATE: In Fatal deer disease poses 'beast' of a problem for Minnesota lawmakers, Forum News legislative news staffer Dana Ferguson reports:
House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt, R-Crown, last year asked scientists at the Minnesota Veterinary Diagnostic Lab to push forward on a test to detect CWD. And in an email shared with the Forum News Service, the lab’s director said that was the “catalyst” to getting the ball rolling on meaningful research.
Daudt and Rep. Greg Davids, R-Preston, as well as Becker-Finn and a bipartisan group of lawmakers filed identical bills Monday appropriating $1.8 million for University of Minnesota scientists to move forward with the test.
“It just made sense to me that we could diffuse the situation or diffuse the animosity between the DNR and the cervid farmers if we could actually test these animals to find out if they have it or not," Daudt told the Forum News Service on Thursday, Feb. 7.
It's curious to spin it with a talking point claiming a test alone will eliminate tensions, when the disease itself is the problem. Moreover, the lax oversight of fencing and other issues by the Board of Animal Heath was criticized by the Office of the Legislative Auditor. Once again, Daudt wants to protect the deer farmers' interests rather than those of the deer hunters.
Image: Turn in Poachers. Thanks to Dan Feidt.
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