Iowa State Legislators intend to resume their 2020 session in early June. The Iowa Pork Producers Associations has some priority measures they’d like to see get approved before lawmakers adjourn. IPPA Public Policy Director Drew Mogler says one of the first challenges they’ll face is working out the state budget.
He says they hope to convince legislators to come through with funding for their priority issues., foreign animal disease preparedness and help to deal with the backlog of hogs due to processing plant shutdowns or cutbacks.
Mogler says lawmakers will be up against a tight time line but despite that, they’re still hoping to get the funding needed to address any potential foreign animal diseases.
Mogler says the main problem Iowa’s pork producers are facing is the destruction caused to the industry from the lack of processing caused by the pandemic. He says that’s led to a large backlog of hogs and that the estimated cost to Iowa’s producers is over $2 billion. Mogler says they’re working to get any state and or federal aid they can.
