UPDATE 5/20/2019: A tweet by CWD action leader, state representative Jamie Becker-Finn, DFL-Roseville, from the Omnibus Environment and Natural Resources Conference Committee suggests that matters might be looking up as the committee works under the targets and guidelines set by Sunday's budget agreement.
She tweeted:
Passed large policy compromise in #mnleg Enviro conference committee! Includes CWD plan and #NoChildLeftInside 🦌🎣 pic.twitter.com/vDA0W7LEEC
— Jamie Becker-Finn (@jbeckerfinn) May 20, 2019
A clearer view of the House Policy Offer--adopted on a voice vote--from the Minnesota Center for Environmental Action:
Here is the language that is currently being discussed for adoption in the Environment conference committee #mnleg pic.twitter.com/7mfHZoVIXb
— MCEA (@MCEA1974) May 20, 2019
[END UPDATE]
On Saturday, Star Tribune outdoor columnist Dennis Anderson reported in Legislature is turning a blind eye to CWD in Minnesota:
Whenever the Legislature finally, and mercifully, ends its business in St. Paul, its lack of decisive action to contain chronic wasting disease (CWD) in Minnesota’s 1-million-animal-plus white-tailed deer herd will be among its major failures.
Now confirmed in 51 wild deer in the state and untold numbers of captive deer, CWD is on the wrong trajectory, threatening not only Minnesota’s $1 billion deer-hunting business and culture but, possibly, Minnesotans themselves.
Ever beholden, it seems, to the state’s agriculture industry, legislators, especially Republicans, have for years failed to act in even minimal ways to protect the public, passing on repeated proposals to at least require double-fencing of captive cervid operations, and failing as well to ensure the state Board of Animal Health, which oversees Minnesota deer and elk farms (kind of), does its job. . . .
Read the whole sad story at the Star Tribune. But there's more. Later in the day, Steve Karnowski reported in Senate GOP passes 'lights on' bill; no budget deal in sight:
But Democratic Senate Minority Leader Tom Bakk, of Cook, accused Republicans of bargaining in bad faith and suggested that the "lights on" bill was their real plan all along.
"What this is, is a new two-year budget for the state of Minnesota," Bakk said of the bill, which fits on one page. He said the bare bones approach would mean foregoing increased educational opportunities, higher local property taxes, fewer correctional officers in the state's prisons and no new broadband funding for rural Minnesota.
Sen. Carla Nelson denied that the bill is meant to be the state's next two-year budget.
What's not in that budget? A press memo from Ellen C. Anderson, Communications Director for the Office of Senate DFL Leader Tom Bakk, closed with this sentence noting that the new two-year Senate Republican budget means even more bad news for deer in Minnesota:
- No money for timely response to Chronic Wasting Disease across the state. The disease is spreading and threatens hunting and the state's economy.
Bambi can run, but there's no hiding from CWD.
Image: From MadTV''s infamous zombie Bambi satire. The dead deer corpses at an infected Crow Wing County pen-shooting deer farm reminded us of this moment in pop culture.
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