Senate agriculture committee approves hemp rules, plant-board cleanup, feral-hog measure and a tax‑credit timing fix

The Senate Agriculture, Forestry & Economic Development Committee moved several bills forward and adopted a corrected amendment before adjourning.

Representative Vaught asked to resubmit an amendment after identifying a signature issue and the committee agreed to expunge the earlier vote so the corrected amendment could be considered. After the amendment (at the sponsor's request, attributed to Senator Hammers) was adopted, Representative Vaught presented the underlying feral hog bill. "So the bill is the feral hog bill that we presented the other day in committee," Representative Vaught said; the committee had no speakers for or against and voted to give the bill a "do pass" recommendation.

Representative David Hillman, state representative, District 13, presented House Bill 1640 to align Arkansas hemp production rules with federal law and allow agency rules to cover technical detail. Hillman said he used a conservative federal template and thanked Department of Agriculture staff for their work. The committee voted to "do pass" HB 1640.

Hillman also presented House Bill 1679, described as a cleanup bill to replace obsolete references to the plant board with the Department of Agriculture following a prior agency transformation; members confirmed the change does not shift duties and the bill passed. Later, Hillman presented House Bill 1773 to extend a state tax-credit eligibility window from three to five years to conform with federal timing and to provide retroactivity to early 2021 for applicants who may have missed claims; the committee approved the change.

With routine votes completed, the chair thanked members and adjourned the committee meeting.