News from
Washington, D.C.
Tuesday,
February 7, 2012
Farm Bureaus Encouraged to Support Youth
Labor Rule Effort
A newly launched website, Keep Families
Farming, allows individual farmers, as
well as organizations, to register their
concerns about the Labor Department’s
youth labor proposal.
DOL last year announced it was
considering amending the department’s
regulations concerning agricultural jobs
that are off-limits to minors. Despite
the department’s announcement last week
that it is going to re-propose the
“parental exemption” part of the rule,
farmers and ranchers are still worried
about the proposed changes, which could
significantly affect the way families
work their operations.
Through Keep Families Farming,
individuals can tell their own stories
and file comments. In addition, the site
also allows organizations to register
their support of the effort. AFBF
strongly supports this effort and urges
state Farm Bureaus to list themselves as
a supporting organization and to
encourage their members to file their
own stories and comments about how the
rule will affect them.
Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) plans to use
the website’s stories and comments
during a meeting with DOL officials
later this month.
Also, DOL will soon hold a meeting to
discuss with stakeholders the issue of
the parental exemption and the
department’s effort to re-propose the
rule. AFBF will participate. If your
state Farm Bureau is contacted about the
meeting, please contact AFBF labor
specialist Paul Schlegel at pauls@fb.org
or 202-406-3687.
Keep Families Farming website
AFBF news release
Bob Stallman statement re: child labor
rule decision
AFBF
Newsline: A Better Way to Protect the
Bay
EPA’s approach to improving water
quality far overreaches the agency’s
authority under the Clean Water Act,
Ellen Steen, American Farm Bureau
Federation general counsel, said in
Monday’s
Newsline. Steen explained why AFBF
and other organizations recently asked
the courts to rule on the agency’s Total
Maximum Daily Load regulation for the
Chesapeake Bay watershed.
“The Clean Water Act specifically
reserves to the states the power to
decide how to achieve water quality
standards,” Steen said. “It doesn’t
authorize EPA to tell the states how to
achieve water quality standards. This is
an EPA power grab and what it is
requiring of the states is going to
impose billions, not millions, but
billions of dollars in cost on the state
and local governments throughout this
six state area.”
She pointed out that while EPA’s rule
targets parts of New York, Pennsylvania,
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and West
Virginia and the District of Columbia,
the implications go well beyond the
Chesapeake Bay region.
If the agency is successful, it would
set the precedent that EPA has the
authority to “tell the states what they
need to do, how aggressive they need to
be and when they have to achieve those
standards, regardless of cost,” Steen
said.
AFBF vs. EPA was filed in U.S. District
Court for the Middle District of
Pennsylvania on Jan. 27.
AFBF news release
NDFB
Opposes Using Oil Tax Revenue for
Conservation
A proposed special fund for wildlife and
conservation programs would be a problem
for future landowners and make it
difficult for farmers and ranchers to
manage adjacent land, according to the
North Dakota Farm Bureau.
The group recently issued its opposition
to a proposed constitutional ballot
measure that would use oil and gas taxes
for a fund used to create wildlife and
fish habitat on private and public
lands, as well as establish additional
parks and other recreation areas.
“Environmental groups want an
unrealistic share of the state’s oil
revenues each year,” said Doyle
Johannes, NDFB president.
Funding would be derived from 5 percent
of all oil and gas gross production
taxes and oil extraction taxes collected
by the state. According to a memorandum
prepared by the North Dakota Legislative
Council, the fund would generate $175
million each biennium, or $87.5 million
per year.
“A significant number of these dollars
could be dedicated to acquiring wetland
and grassland conservation easements,”
explained Johannes. “While farmers and
ranchers support voluntary land
conservation practices, NDFB policy
opposes these types of long-term
easements. They are detrimental to
future landowners.”
“If the money can be used to purchase
land for parks and recreation areas, the
state agency and/or political
subdivision would have to maintain
them,” said Johannes. “How much land
should the government own? And how much
more taxpayer money should be spent to
maintain it?”
Grants could also be made to restore and
protect rivers, streams, lakes and
groundwater.
“Wildlife and recreation should not take
precedence over agricultural
production,” said Johannes. “Many of
these conservation programs limit the
ability of farmers and ranchers to
manage the adjacent land. Wildlife,
recreation and agriculture can all
co-exist with sound land management.”
North Dakota Farm Bureau news release
North Dakota Farm Bureau Newsline
Kansas
House Approves Livestock Facilities Bill
Legislation passed by the Kansas House
would authorize county commissioners to
approve or reject large livestock farms.
Currently, county voters decide whether
to allow the farms or not.
The measure provides for a 60-day period
during which county residents can
collect signatures to force a vote at
the next county, state or special
countywide election, according to
KansasCity.com.
Kansas House Rep. Brian Weber said the
bill offers “a nice combination of
options for counties.” Not having to
wait for a referendum will make it
easier for commissioners in counties
that want to encourage pork or other
types of livestock farms. On the other
hand, those opposed to such facilities
can pursue a countywide vote. The number
of signatures required for a vote would
equal 5 percent of the voters in the
county who voted for the office of the
secretary of state in the last general
election.
The bill now moves to the Senate
Agriculture Committee.
PorkNetwork article
Kansas City.com article
Senate, House on Track to Produce
Separate Highway Bills
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.)
announcement this morning that he wants
to get working on the surface
transportation bill recently passed by
the Senate Environment and Public Works
Committee means the House and Senate
could be working on competing highway
bills over the next two weeks.
The most recent highway funding law
expired in 2009, but has been extended
eight times. The latest extension runs
through March 31.
The House Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee last week
passed the American Energy and
Infrastructure Jobs Act (H.R. 7). The
bill, which the House is expected to
soon consider, would authorize $260
billion over five years for surface
transportation projects such as roads,
bridges and other infrastructure.
The Senate EPW’s version is called
Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st
Century (MAP-21, S. 1813). It would
maintain current funding for two years.
House Transportation and Infrastructure
Committee news release
Senate Environment and Public Works
Committee news release
Monday,
February 6, 2012
Transportation Bill Passes House
Committee
The House Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee last Friday
passed the American Energy and
Infrastructure Jobs Act (H.R. 7). The
bill would authorize $260 billion over
five years for surface transportation
projects such as roads, bridges and
other infrastructure. The most recent
highway funding law expired in 2009 but
has been extended eight times, most
recently until March 31.
Farm Bureau has written to the chairman
and ranking member of the House Natural
Resources Committee in support of three
bills under that committee’s
jurisdiction to expand offshore, shale
and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge oil
and gas production and, as a result,
partially fund H.R. 7. The committee has
since passed the three bills.
Farm Bureau opposed two amendments to
H.R. 7 that were considered by the
Transportation and Infrastructure
Committee. An amendment offered by Rep.
Lou Barletta (R-Pa.) stripped from the
bill an option for states to increase
truck weight limits on interstate roads
to 97,000 pounds, with the addition of a
sixth axle. The amendment passed,
replacing the truck weight reform
language with a three-year study on the
issue. An amendment offered by Rep.
Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) would have
stripped a portion of the bill that
exempts farm vehicles and the persons
operating those vehicles from commercial
driver’s license, hours of service, drug
testing and medical certification
requirements. The amendment was
withdrawn.
Other parts of the committee-passed bill
would allow farmers and custom
harvesters with a Class A commercial
driver’s license to transport up to
1,000 gallons of diesel fuel without
having to get a hazardous material
endorsement and clarify the hours of
service exemptions for agriculture.
Bill
Requiring E15 Study Up For Committee
Vote
A House committee will vote tomorrow on
a bill that would require the
Environmental Protection Agency to
commission a study of the environmental,
safety and performance effects of adding
a 15 percent ethanol fuel blend (E15) to
the nation’s fuel supply. The bill would
halt E15’s entrance into the marketplace
until the study is completed. E15
currently is on track to become an
option for consumers at gas stations
this year.
EPA in late 2010 approved gasoline
blended with up to 15 percent ethanol
for use in cars and light-duty trucks
for model years 2007 and later. EPA has
not yet completed registration of E15
making it legal to distribute the fuel
blend. The current legal limit is 10
percent ethanol. Automakers and oil
companies oppose the sale of E15, as do
some environmental and livestock
producer groups.
The House Science, Space and Technology
Committee will vote on the bill (H.R.
3199), introduced by Rep. James
Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), tomorrow
morning. The American Farm Bureau
Federation supports EPA’s previous
decision to approve the use of E15.
House
Ag: Inaction on Pesticides Bill
Jeopardizes Public Health
With California residents reportedly
facing increased danger of contracting
West Nile virus this year, House
Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank
Lucas says the Senate needs to act on a
bill already passed by the House to
remove “redundant” regulations on the
use of pesticides to control mosquitoes.
Unseasonably warm weather in the San
Francisco Bay area this winter, and the
spread of the especially aggressive
Asian tiger mosquito in southern
California, has mosquito-control
authorities worried about the
possibility of an increase in cases of
West Nile virus. “This is not the time
to not allow us to control the
mosquitoes….,” said the spokesperson for
Contra Costa Mosquito & Vector Control.
The House last year passed the Reducing
Regulatory Burdens Act (H.R. 872) to
clarify that Clean Water Act permits are
not needed to apply pesticides in, over
or near water as long as those
pesticides are applied according to
existing federal pesticide laws and
regulations. New regulations in place as
of Nov. 1 require farmers and pesticide
applicators to also get Clean Water Act
permits for certain pesticide
applications. The Senate has not taken
up the bill.
Farm Bureau supports passage of H.R.
872.
House Agriculture Committee News Release
Cargill: Era of Falling Food Prices
Ending
An executive with agricultural
commodities trading company Cargill has
said that with the world’s population
expected to grow by 2 billion people,
the era of falling food prices has come
to an end, according to a Bloomberg
article.
Speaking at an international sugar
conference in Dubai over the weekend,
Paul Conway, vice chairman of Cargill,
said that the food price decreases (in
inflationary terms) of the 1950s through
the 1980s are probably a thing of the
past. The United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization has said that
global food production must increase 70
percent by 2050 to keep up with
increases in population and food demand.
World food prices have stabilized
recently, but are above records set in
2010 and 2008.
Bloomberg Article
Farmers Blur the Line Between Organic
and Conventional
While production and sales of certified
organic foods continue to grow, so does
the number of farmers who consider
themselves hybrids of organic and
conventional farming, according to an
article in FBNews, the American Farm
Bureau Federation’s newspaper.
“As we continue to progress, I think
that line between conventional and
organic is going to continue to become
more blurred,” said Jay Yankey, a
Virginia vegetable and grain farmer.
“More organic practices are becoming
accepted as the norm.”
Going all-organic can be costly and make
it more difficult for farmers to control
pests and maximize yields. “As farmers
like Yankey strive to shrink their
environmental footprint, they are
focusing on where they can practically
and profitably make incremental
improvements,” the article says.
FBNews Article
