From the office of Dean Urdahl, State Rep. Dist. 18B (R-Grove City)

An agriculture and veterans finance bill unanimously passed the House floor May 13. The bill includes funding to support a livestock investment grant program authored by Rep. Dean Urdahl.

The Grove City Republican authored legislation to provide an additional $1 million in grant funds, allowing the livestock grant program he successfully authored in 2008 to continue. Urdahl’s program is very popular among farmers who are seeking to modernize their operations. The number of requests last year far outnumbered the money available, as 38 of 576 applications were funded.

“This investment program will help sustain jobs in the farming industry at a time we need it most,” Urdahl said. “Agriculture is a major driver of our local economy, so the benefits of farmers investing to improve their operations are widespread.”

The full $250.5 million agriculture and veterans bill (H.F. 1122) included all of Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s appropriation recommendations. An earlier form of the bill did not include funding for the Minnesota GI Bill, but a conference committee restored the funding and the bill received bipartisan House support.

“It would have been nice if even more could have been done for our veterans,” Urdahl said, “but I commend the work done by the conference committee; maybe this is all we could do during these tough economic times.”

The legislation will go to Gov. Tim Pawlenty upon Senate approval.

District 18B includes the cities of Annandale, Cokato, Howard Lake, and South Haven, and the townships of Cokato, Corinna, French Lake, Middleville, Stockholm, and Southside in Wright County, and extends west into Meeker County.