Washington Report for 12-2-13

By Steve Kopperud

White House Pushes for Farm Bill; Senate SNAP Number

The White House released a report detailing the social and economic benefits of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling briefed reporters last week, emphasizing that the White House supports the amount included for SNAP in the Senate bill.House Republicans passed a nutrition bill, which included $40 billion in SNAP cuts, while Senate Democrats passed a farm bill that included $4 billion in food stamp cuts, leaving a $36 billion difference for conferees to reconcile. These cuts would be in addition to $11 billion that was cut from the program last month when emergency benefits implemented because of the recession were allowed to lapse.

OMB Seeks Comments on Carbon Analysis

The Office of Management and Budget published a notice in the Nov. 26 Federal Register seeking comments on the document entitled “Technical Update of the Social Cost of Carbon for Regulatory Impact Analysis under Executive Order 12866”. Under the Executive Order, the “social cost of carbon” (SCC) is meant to be a comprehensive estimate of climate change damages such as changes in net agricultural productivity, human health and property damages from increased flood risk. It is used by the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies to estimate the climate benefits of rulemakings and has come under fire by Republicans who charge that the Obama Administration overestimates the SCC.

The November 2013 Intra-Agency Working Group document can be found here.

Democratic Senators

Nine Democratic senators sent a letter to President Obama, urging him to ensure that any nominee to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has the experience necessary to push back against Wall Street lobbying on Dodd-Frank rules. The senators wrote that it is vital for the president to nominate a candidate who will reject industry efforts to roll back swaps and futures market reforms. Additionally, with the departure of Commissioner Bart Chilton, CFTC will be without a commissioner with a recent background in commodity derivatives or the underlying physical markets. Following the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Act, CFTC’s jurisdiction was broadened to include purely financial derivatives. The oversight of the agricultural, energy and metals markets remains a core part of the CFTC’s mission, and many agriculture groups feel it is particularly important that regulators understand the unique needs of commodity hedgers and other commodity-dependent businesses and consumers.

Current CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler and Commissioner Bart Chilton have announced their intentions to step down before the end of the year. Signers to the letter include Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ron Wyden (D-Wash.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Maria Cantwell (D- Wash.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).

Farm Service Agency Extends Voting Deadline; Details Payments Post-Government Shutdown

Due to a printing error, ballots for the Farm Service Agency county committee elections have not yet been mailed, and the deadline for returning them will not be Dec. 2, as was previously stated. The new deadline has not yet been announced. To be eligible to vote, producers must participate or cooperate in any Farm Service Agency program and be of legal voting age.

Additionally, FSA detailed how it restarted payments following the government shutdown. Employees issued Conservation Reserve Program payments beginning Oct. 19. Direct payments and Average Crop Revenue Election payments for 2012 crop barley, corn, grain sorghum, lentils, oats, peanuts, dry peas, soybeans and wheat were released by Oct. 24. Additional ACRE payments for other crops will be released this December and in February 2014. 

USDA Continues Suspension of Certain Estimates and Reports; Reminds Farmers to Plan for Sequestration

The National Agricultural Statistics Service announced that as it is starting the new fiscal year with the FY2013 sequestration-level funding under a continuing resolution, it is unable to reinstate the programs that were suspended in March 2013. That includes:

• July Cattle Report

• Potato Stocks Reports

• June Rice Stocks Report

• All Hops and Hops Stocks Estimates

• Annual Mink Report

• June on- and off-farm stocks for Austrian Winter Peas, Chickpeas, Dry Peas and Lentils

• July acreage forecasts for Austrian Winter Peas, Dry Edible Peas and Lentils

• All Catfish and Trout Reports including Catfish Feed Deliveries and Catfish Processing; however, NASS will publish the annual catfish and trout report using data collected during the census of aquaculture.

• NASS will publish the Non-Citrus Fruit and Nut Annual Summary; however, there will be no forecasts, no preliminary summary and no monthly prices in FY2014.

• NASS will publish the Vegetable Annual Summary; however, there will be no forecasts or monthly prices in FY2014.

FDA reminded farmers and ranchers to plan accordingly in fiscal year 2014 for automatic   spending reductions – known as sequestration. At the moment, FSA is implementing sequestration for the following programs:

• Dairy Indemnity Payment Program;

• Marketing Assistance Loans;

• Loan Deficiency Payments;

• Sugar Loans;

• Non-insured Crop Disaster Assistance Program;

• Tobacco Transition Payment Program;

• 2013 Direct and Counter-Cyclical Payments;

• 2013 Average Crop Revenue Election Program;

• 2011 and 2012 Supplemental Revenue Assistance Program;

• Storage, handling; and

• Economic Adjustment Assistance for Upland Cotton.

For mandatory programs, the sequestration rate for FY2014 is 7.2 percent although FSA Administrator Juan M. Garcia acknowledged that the “sequester percentages reflect current law estimates; however, with the continuing budget uncertainty, Congress still may adjust the exact percentage reduction.”