Lawmakers Clear Legislation Saving Washington’s Livestock ID Program

After a lot of back and forth, lawmakers in Olympia have cleared legislation that will save the Livestock ID program.  The state run program has been in the red the past couple of years to a tune of $500,000 annually.  Senate Bill 5959 sponsored by Moses Lake Republican Judy Warnick increased the number of members of the Livestock Identification Advisory Committee, changes certain types of fees for inspections, certification and recording.  It also requires the Washington state Department of Agriculture to report on the Program by September 1^st, 2020, and provides for the expansion of the use of electronic reports systems.

Senate Republican leader Mark Schoesler says the legislation is a compromise.

“If I talk with three cattlemen, I’ll have three different ideas of what should happen, and because of that Senator [Judy] Warnick’s bill was the inevitable compromise.”

Schoesler noted what made this legislation so difficult to craft was the difference of opinion in the Ag community, where some wanted to save the brand program, and other wanted to scrap it all together.  He said hopefully this compromise will keep the program going forward.

“It’s not everything I wanted, it’s not everything that the dairy industry wanted or others, but at the end of the day, its just at a compromise that can hopefully keep the program a float.”

Click Here to learn more about SB 5959.

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