Minnesota lawmakers will consider a pair of bills this week important to agriculture. State Farmers Union Government Relations Director Thom Petersen says he expects movement on a bill to put funding back into the Rural Finance Authority to help farmers with loans.

He says that program is becoming more important given the depressed status of the farm economy.

Petersen says the other measure that will likely see movement this week involves a new measure to tweak or amend the current buffer legislation.

Petersen says he’s encouraged by how the first week of the session went with lawmakers working together to find solutions to some of the state’s problems.