PLAN TO MERGE HOUSE AGRICULTURE COMMITTEES CONCERNS LAWMAKERS

JEFFERSON CITY -- Several Southeast Missouri legislators say they are concerned about a Republican plan to combine the two House committees dealing with agriculture.

"There are a lot of issues that need to be addressed for agriculture, and having just one committee dealing with agriculture will reduce our bills that could come out," said Rep. Don Prost, D-Caruthersville.

In past years the House has had an agriculture committee and an agri-business committee.

Under a rules proposal being pushed by House Republicans, the number of committees would be reduced. That reduction plan calls for the merger of the two agriculture panels.

Rep. David Schwab, R-Jackson, a member of the agri-business committee in past sessions, said the House would operate more efficiently if the number of committees were reduced. In past years there have been 42 committees and Schwab said he would like to see eight to 10 eliminated.

"I feel it is important to keep the number of committees down and could support cutting out an agriculture committee," Schwab said Tuesday.

Rep. James Graham, R-Fredericktown, who serves on agriculture, said, "I personally don't have a problem with it. I don't think agriculture would lose any power."

But Prost and Rep. Marilyn Williams, D-Dudley, who was on the agri-business committee, complain that eliminating one of the committees would reduce the ability to get agriculture legislation through the House. In addition, they argue representatives from rural districts would not be able to provide input at the committee level if there was just one panel.

"Some members from rural areas would not have input into agriculture, and that is a serious problem," Prost said.

"Rural legislators are already in the minority, and the more we do away with a focus on agriculture, we lose leeway on rural legislation," Williams said.

Prost said each committee is allowed to pass out so many bills, and if there is just one committee reviewing agriculture issues there would be fewer bills with a chance of passing.

But Schwab said if there were an overall reduction in the number of committees, the remaining committees would be able to pass out more bills.

In the last session the panel on agriculture had 21 members and there were 15 on agri-business.

Schwab said a merged committee could be enlarged, but agreed some members would be left out who wanted to serve.

Last year, as vice chairman of the agriculture committee, Prost circulated a proclamation among members of both committees opposing any future efforts to merge them. Prost said every member from both committees, of both parties, signed the proclamation that was sent to the House leadership.

But Schwab said when he signed on, it was out of concern that only those two committees would be affected, without an overall reduction of committees in the House.

Some legislators say the committees deal with about the same issues, but Williams said there is a distinction that needs to be preserved.

"They are definitely two separate committees as far as I am concerned," Williams said.

She said agriculture deals with more general grassroots farm issues, while agri-business deals with businesses related to farming and larger farming operations.

Prost said his motivation is to see that agriculture's influence in the House is not weakened.

Graham agreed, and said he, too, is concerned about what is best for agriculture overall, but does not believe the merger will be harmful.