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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T
SPONSOR Harden
ORIGINAL DATE
LAST UPDATED
2/6/06
HB
SHORT TITLE Livestock Premises Info Confidentiality
SB 655
ANALYST Lewis
APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)
Appropriation
Recurring
or Non-Rec
Fund
Affected
FY06
FY07
NFI
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
Duplicates HB 629.
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
LFC Files
Responses Received From
Office of the Attorney General (AGO)
New Mexico Department of Agriculture (NMDA)
No Response Received From
New Mexico Livestock Board (NMLB)
SUMMARY
Synopsis of Bill
Senate Bill 655 enacts a new section of the Livestock Code to provide that
records, data and in-
formation collected by the state, recorded or otherwise, for the purposes of a national livestock
identification program shall be confidential and are not public records for purposes of the Inspec-
tion of Public Records Act.
The records, data and information shall be released only upon order of the board to appropriate
governmental agencies for the purposes of a national livestock identification program, disease
outbreak or law enforcement investigation; and they shall not be subject to discovery or introduc-
tion into evidence in any civil action.
SB 655 further provides that the New Mexico Livestock Board shall not release any records, data
pg_0002
Senate Bill 655 – Page
2
or information to a federal agency until the agency confirms in writing that it will maintain the
records, data and information as confidential and that they are not subject to release under the
federal Freedom of Information Act.
A person who
1)
knowingly provides false information to the New Mexico Livestock Board for purposes of a
national livestock identification program, or
2)
refuses to provide to the board information that is required pursuant to the authority of the
board for purposes of a mandatory national livestock identification program
is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $1,000, imprisonment for up to six
months, or both.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
No fiscal impact.
SIGNIFICANT ISSUES
According to the New Mexico Department of Agriculture (NMDA),
1)
The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) was implemented July 2005.
2)
The NAIS impacts all livestock producers in the state (cattle, dairy cattle, sheep, goats,
poultry, horses, donkeys, mules, and other minor species).
3)
The NAIS also impacts livestock/meat packers, processors, wholesalers/distributors, and
retailers.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) NAIS home page on the
web at
http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/index.shtml
, the National Animal Identification Sys-
tem (NAIS) is a national program intended to identify animals and track them as they come into
contact with, or commingle with, animals other than herdmates from their premises of origin.
The system is being developed for all animals that will benefit from rapid tracebacks in the event
of a disease concern. Currently, working groups comprised of industry and government represen-
tatives are developing plans for cattle, swine, sheep, goats, horses, poultry, bison, deer, elk, lla-
mas, and alpacas.
Already, many of these species can be identified through some sort of identification system, but
these systems are not consistent across the country. Tracing an animal’s movements can there-
fore be a time-consuming endeavor during a disease investigation, especially if the animal has
moved across state lines.
The Office of the Attorney General (AGO) suggests that the
Legislature may want to consider
the advantages and disadvantages of prohibiting records, data and information collected by the
state for the purposes of a national livestock identification program as evidence in civil actions.
What if owner A is negligent and infects owner B’s cattle. This information would not be avail-
able in B’s civil suit against A.
ML/yr