FRANKFORT — The GOP-led Senate narrowly advanced a controversial change for Kentucky’s wildlife management agency Friday while also voting to administratively attach the racing commission to the state’s agriculture department as well.
Sportsmen and wildlife conservation groups have strong contradicting the proposal, and lawmakers voiced their concerns in Friday’s debate.
Senate Bill 3, sponsored by Sen. Jason Howell, R-Murray, was approved 20-16, with nine Republicans joining the minority of Democrats in opposition. The bill is now under consideration by the Kentucky House of Representatives.
SB 3 would move the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) from the tourism cabinet, a part of the administration of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, and it will be attached to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture overseen by Republican Agriculture Commissioner Jonathan Shell, a former House. leader who was elected to the statewide position in November.
The bill would also end Beshear’s power to appoint members to the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commission, the governing body for KDFWR, and give the power to Shell.
In addition, Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, successfully sponsored a floor amendment that would also move the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission from the Public Protection Cabinet and attach it to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. Thayer’s amendment also adds a requirement for Senate confirmation of gubernatorial appointments to the commission that regulates the Kentucky race.
On the Senate floor, Howell, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, reiterated his reasoning for the bill, acknowledging the opposition of hunters and anglers whose agricultural interests are antithetical to the mission and interests of wildlife management. . Sportsmen testified to the committee that the Kentucky Farm Bureau, a strong lobbying presence in the state, advocates for wildlife reduction as a policy.
“While there are some grounds for natural friction between the two, I see a natural alignment coming between the two agencies,” Howell said. “Shell has been at the forefront of pushing for rural economic development as part of his platform.”
Howell again cited past conflicts between KDFWR and Beshear’s administration as a driving reason to remove KDFWR from the state’s executive branch.
“Stability is our primary goal,” Howell said, noting that lawmakers are tired of the “trauma” of previous governors who “attacked the operational independence of Fish and Wildlife.”
Sen. Robin Webb, D-Grayson, a longtime advocate for KDFWR who strongly opposes the bill, withdrew his amendments on the floor, saying offering them would likely be an “exercise in futility. ” He said he hoped the amendments would give the House of Representatives an idea for improving the bill.
One of his floor amendments is consistent with the language of SB 3 and instead creates a working group on how KDFWR can “maintain autonomy” in its operations “while maintaining the oversight and accountability required of a public agency charged with the expenditure of public funds.”
Webb slammed the bill while waving an orange National Assembly of Sportsmen’s Caucuses hat, saying agricultural interests don’t always follow suit. North American Model of Wildlife Conservationa standard-bearing system of rules and laws designed to conserve wildlife through “sound science and active management.”
“Are we talking about making a profit? That’s a secondary benefit of management. Fish and Wildlife is not about making money or economic development. It’s about preservation and opportunity for cultural heritage,” Webb said. .
Webb also said that no other state wildlife management agency is included in their state agriculture agency, something that would make Kentucky “a laughing stock” if implemented.
John Culclasure, a director at Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundationtold the Lantern that he is not aware of any state agriculture agency attached to a state wildlife management agency, nor is he aware of any state that allows a state agriculture official to have authority over full membership of a wildlife management agency board.
Other Republicans who voted for the bill saw no problem with merging the two agencies. Sen. said. Shelley Funke Frommeyer, R-Alexandria, whose family has land used for both farming and hunting creates “a beautiful marriage” between the two land uses.
Sen. Adrienne Southworth, R-Lawrenceburg, in voting against the bill pushed back against the idea that the executive branch is only causing issues with KDFWR, noting that her constituents have asked her in recent years to support confirmation of Senate appointments to the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commission, the governing body for KDFWR.
The nine-member commission represents hunters and anglers throughout Kentucky, and sportspeople appoint commissioners by direct vote at a scheduled meeting. A list of the top five vote getters from that meeting will be sent to the governor, who can either appoint a member to the commission or reject the list, starting the nomination process over. But any appointments made by the governor must be confirmed by the Kentucky Senate.
In committee testimony against SB 3, Edwin Nighbert, the president of the League of Kentucky Sportsmen, said the sportsmen nominated “very good people” for the commission, only for the Senate’s confirmation process to be “armed” against the sportsmen.
According to a Lantern review of appointments made to the commission during Beshear’s tenure, the Senate failed to confirm most of his appointments. One of Beshear’s previous commission appointments was voted on the floor of the Senate.
Southworth said that in his previous job in the state executive branch he worked to resolve “connectivity issues” between agencies. He said in this case, the “disconnect” in the Fish and Wildlife Commission was created by the Senate itself.
“What I remember is the constituents asking me for the last many years to please support this or that confirmation, and this body – and I want to lay it right at our feet – this body created the disconnect,” Southworth said.
One of the floor amendments withdrawn by Webb would have required the governor to choose a new appointment for a seat on the Fish and Wildlife Commission if the Senate does not act to confirm the appointment by a Feb. 15 legislative session.
Five of Beshear’s appointments are still awaiting Senate confirmation this session; three of his nominees fill current vacancies on the Fish and Wildlife Commission.
When SB 3 passed the Senate Agriculture Committee earlier this week, Howell said KDFWR Commissioner Rich Storm — who runs the department’s day-to-day operations and is hired by the Fish and Wildlife Commission — supported the bill.
In an interview with the Lantern at the state Capitol complex Thursday, Storm told the Lantern the department has no position on the bill but believes KDFWR can still operate independently while attached to the Department of Agriculture. Storm said KDFWR has been attached to several agencies throughout its history.
“As long as we have freedom, if it’s the will of the General Assembly we will follow whatever happens,” Storm said.
Under SB 3, the KDFWR would be attached to the Department of Agriculture only for “limited functions and purposes expressly requested” by the KDFWR to be performed by the Department of Agriculture.
Storm, who also serves as a director for the Nicholas County Farm Bureausaid there are always “persons of interest” serving on the Fish and Wildlife Commission.
“We had a requirement that they have fishing and hunting license experience,” Storm said, referring state requirements to serve on the commission. “I think that’s a protective mechanism.”
In an interview with the Lantern, Nighbert, the president of the League of Kentucky Sportsmen, agreed that past members of the Fish and Wildlife Commission had interests in farming.
But the concern among sportsmen, he said, is that an agriculture commissioner could choose nominees who are more heavily invested in agriculture, thereby contradicting the interests and mission of wildlife conservation and management.
“That’s the fear of giving all these appointments to the ag commissioner that they’re going to put whole agricultural guys in there,” Nighbert said.
