The three grain regulation bills that passed in the South Dakota Senate advanced through the House Ag Committee and are expected to be considered on the House floor Monday. “The first one deals with the penalty that can be imposed for someone violating a grain buyer law, like someone who is an unlicensed buyer. This bill would increase those penalties,” explained Chris Nelson, chairman, Public Utilities Commission “The second bill deals with when we have a failure of a grain buyer and we have to access the bond, this cuts the time in half for the amount of time it takes to make those payments to producers. The third bill defines a grain broker and made it illegal for a grain broker to set up a deal with an unlicensed buyer.” In the last year, the commission’s started getting reports about unlicensed grain buyers. “We’ve had three dockets in front of our commission of unlicensed buyers. That’s one reason we’ve increased penalties.” Hear the story.