Chair Anderson opened the hearing on House File 711, a bill to increase state support for the Minnesota Agriculture Education Leadership Council and its grant programs, then invited testimony from the council’s executive director.

Sarah Dornick, executive director of the Minnesota Agriculture Education Leadership Council, told the committee the council runs two main grant streams and teacher recruitment and retention work and that its current baseline appropriation is $250,000 per year. “We are pretty lean, but I like to say we're efficient and effective with our money,” Dornick said, describing grant awards that in the last fiscal year funded 33 projects across the state and supported classroom equipment, greenhouse and garden projects and ag literacy work.

Dornick said the council distributes most funding as pass-through grants via the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and that the council is housed at the University of Minnesota for fiscal and administrative purposes. Hunter Peterson, public policy specialist for the Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation, and other testifiers supported the bill, saying previous state investment produced measurable expansion of programs such as FFA chapters and local school-based agriculture instruction.

Committee members asked how the council manages grants and whether it follows Office of Grants Management rules; Dornick said the council participates in the Department of Agriculture’s processes and attends Office of Grants Management webinars and that most of its grants fall below thresholds that would trigger additional layers of review. Representative Hansen sought confirmation of the size of the proposed increase; Dornick confirmed the committee was being asked to add $250,000 per year to the $250,000 base (roughly $500,000 over the two-year biennium).

Chair Anderson moved House File 711 before the committee and the bill was laid over at the committee’s request for future budget consideration.