The Senate Agriculture Committee this week followed its House counterpart and approved a bill to undo duplicate EPA permitting for pesticide use. House Agriculture Committee Chair Frank Lucas (R, OK) immediately issued a statement calling on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, NV) to send the Senate bill to the floor for an immediate vote because the EPA rules the bill is designed to overturn become effective October 31. The full House approved an identical bill March 31. However, the Senate bill has one more hurdle to overcome in that it must be reviewed by the Senate Committee on the Environment & Public Works, chaired by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D, CA), an opponent of efforts to curb EPA authority. Boxer said she has “concerns,” and Senate Ag Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow (D, MI) said the bill likely won’t move to the floor until Boxer’s concerns are addressed. A federal court ruled in 2009 that pesticides are pollutants when used near waterways, an action triggering NPDES permitting. The bill exempts pesticides from the NPDES permit requirements if they’re already registered under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). Ag groups across the country praised the Senate Committee’s action and joined Lucas in calling for full Senate approval; the National Wildlife Federation said the bill endangers public health and wildlife.
The pace of 2012 Farm Bill negotiations increased incrementally this week as the House Agriculture Committee announced it will begin audit hearings on various programs contained in the bill, and the Senate ag panel held hearings on how efficient USDA is at administering those programs. However, the first of the House ag panel’s hearings – set to look at conservation programs – was cancelled at the last minute this week without notice of when it will be rescheduled. In audit hearings – usually short, very focused question/answer sessions between the committee and the heads of various USDA agencies and programs – the committee seeks to determine if programs are working, farmers are participating, administration is efficient and no spending waste or fraud is involved. However, this round’s hearings have a bit more significance, as Ag Committee Chair Frank Lucas (R, OK) previously said such hearings would not begin until early 2012, but now expects his panel will be asked to identify duplication and waste in ag programs by the bipartisan agreement Congress hopes to reach on raising the federal debt ceiling and cutting overall federal spending. The Senate’s hearings are broader, but focus on the same issues, looking at “Farm Bill accountability” reviewing performance “while eliminating duplication and waste.” Stabenow also announced she’ll hold a hearing on the state of the livestock industry June 28.
In first-ever moves designed to address increasing global food price and supply volatility, the U.S. and other G20 agriculture ministers failed this week to address government subsidies for biofuels, but did agree on a wheat research project, set up a pilot program on humanitarian food supplies, set up a new wheat research project and brought India and China into a global market supply and demand database program. The G20 includes government officials from the world’s 20 largest economies. Vilsack worked against a proposal before the ministers to oppose bio-based government fuel subsidies, but said it’s important for biofuels from algae, biomass and nonfood feedstocks, to be supported. The group did agree to further “analyze the relationship between biofuels and food availability.” Vilsack got agreement on a provision calling for science-based regulatory systems on biotechnology which he hopes will enhance international acceptance of biotech foods. Also hotly debated among the G20 group was financial regulation of futures and cash markets, with hopes of action to curb speculation. However,Australiaand theUnited Kingdomput up the greatest resistance on tightening regulation. The group also discussed how to increase global food production on a “sustainable basis,” the creation of a world reporting system on food production and consumption to be housed at the United Nation’s Food & Agricultural Organization (FAO), something the U.S. has done for decades, but which China initially opposed because it considers such data a matter of “national security” and India balked at because it says it doesn’t have the technical ability to collect the data. Both nations ultimately agreed to join the system. Vilsack followed his G20 meeting with an appearance at the Paris Air Show, where he talked about biobased aviation fuels.
With the U.S. Treasury identifying August 2 as the deadline for congressional action on whether to increase the federal debt ceiling, the future of negotiations among House and Senate Republicans, Democrats and the White House is now in the hands of President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R, OH). Bipartisan negotiations called by the White House and chaired by Vice President Joe Biden hit a stalemate this week, with GOP members abandoning the talks and calling on Boehner and Obama to take the lead. The impasse is two-part: First, the Republicans insist President Obama abandon his call for new taxes as part of the agreement, and secondly, that an increase in the $14.3-trillion debt ceiling be accompanied by equally deep cuts in federal spending. Obama wants a plan that drops the debt ceiling about $14 trillion over 12 years, tacitly acknowledging such a move would include cuts to entitlement programs, including Medicare and Medicaid; Boehner, while standing tough on no new taxes, wants to avoid a “no” vote on the debt ceiling, and in one-on-one talks with the President this week it’s reported Boehner talked about a series of short-term debt ceiling extensions to facilitate a broader deal. The Biden group has identified a broad range of spending cuts across the federal government. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R, VA) said once the tax issue is resolved, “we have a blueprint.” Rhetoric being tossed around by various House Democrats is considered just that, political grandstanding on tax increases and an elimination of tax deductions on the wealthy and cuts in “taxpayer-financed” oil and gas industry perks.
Sen. Tom Harkin (D, IA), chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee, said this week a report by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) showing FDA’s oversight of imported food safety recalls is inadequate demonstrates a clear need to provide the agency more federal funding. OIG said FDA’s guidance for developing and implementing food recalls was inadequate to ensure the safety of the food supply primarily because it’s unenforceable. The HHS agency also said FDA often doesn’t follow its own rules on monitoring food recalls. Harkin said the report shows “FDA must take far stronger and faster action to protect consumers by getting contaminated food imports off the market…Congress greatly strengthened FDA’s hand to enforce food recalls, but regrettably FDA’s ability to carry out that law and the recommendations in this OIG report will be badly impaired if FDA is starved of critical funding as the House agricultural appropriations bill would do.”
Four Senators this week introduced legislation to ban the use of certain human antibiotics in feed and water for livestock and poultry. The bill is nearly identical to House legislation introduced last month. The Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA) was introduced in the Senate by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D, CA), Susan Collins (R, ME), Jack Reed (D, RI) and Barbara Boxer (D, CA). These Senators introduced the same bill in the last Congress. The bill was immediately praised by the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming. The bill was introduced shortly after debate in the House over language included in the FY2012 ag/FDA appropriations bill that would have required FDA to make all decisions regarding safety and efficacy of a product or process based on “hard science.” The amendment was successfully offered in full committee by Rep. Denny Rehberg (R, MT), who said he was concerned FDA might move against on-farm antibiotic use based on politics, not sound science, risk analysis or evidence of need. The language was stripped from the spending bill when it was argued successfully it constituted legislating on a spending bill.
The Senate vote last week to end all federal ethanol subsidies was mainly symbolic; the underlying bill didn’t go anywhere and such revenue measures must by regulation originate in the House, meaning the Senate will need to amend a House bill for the amendment to be legitimate. But this week, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R, UT), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, said such action on various biofuel tax credits – and a host of other federal tax credits unrelated to biofuels – should be part of a comprehensive tax reform package and not done piecemeal on unrelated legislation. Sen. Harry Reid (D, NV) has promised Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D, CA), author of the successful ethanol amendment, another vote on her measure, but Feinstein is now obligated to discussions with Sen. Tom Coburn (R, OK), who authored an identical but unsuccessful amendment, and Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D, MN) and John Thune (R, SD), authors of a competing ethanol support rewrite bill, to see if the two measures can be married. The Klobuchar-Thune bill would reduce ethanol tax credits paid to fuel makers over the next three years and then tie any future credit to the world price of oil. The bill also takes a portion of the savings from reducing the credits and devotes it to deficit reduction. Further, under Klobuchar-Thune, the federal government would invest in feedstock research to replace corn as the principal ethanol feedstock, as well as invest in biofuels delivery infrastructure.
A bill to extend for three years a $1-per-gallon federal tax credit for biodiesel and renewable diesel, shifting it from a blenders’ credit paid to oil companies as an incentive to blend biodiesel under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) to a credit claimed by producers, was introduced this week by Rep. Aaron Schock (R, IL) and Rep. Collin Peterson (D, MN), ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee. A similar if not identical bill is expected to be introduced in the Senate by Sens. Maria Cantwell (D, WA) and Chuck Grassley (R, IA), under whose chairmanship several years ago the Senate Finance Committee created the tax credits. Like the ethanol credits, the existing blenders’ tax credit expires at the end of 2011, having first expired at the end of 2009 and then languished through most of 2010 while Congress tried to find offsets to take care of the costs. Biodiesel can be refined from both vegetable and animal feedstocks, biodiesel and renewable diesel are not controversial generally because they are part of a relatively young advanced biofuels industry, Peterson said. “Increasing production of renewable energy is vial to creating jobs and growing our rural economies. Unfortunately, by allowing the biodiesel tax credit to lapse, we’ve already witnessed a loss of jobs and production,” Peterson said.
A USDA economist told the National Chicken Council (NCC) board of directors last week that ethanol refiners are averaging a profit of 23 cents per gallon as of June 13, “an incentive that is sufficient without the tax credit to cause ethanol manufacturers to produce essentially the quantities now coming to market,” according to an NCC statement. Dr. Jerry Bange, chair of USDA’s World Agricultural Outlook Board, told the NCC board of directors that under the current federal tax credit system for blenders, ethanol producers are receiving average profit of 68 cents per gallon, based on a cost of product of $2.77 per gallon and a rack price of blended gasoline of about $3 a gallon. He also told the NCC board it’s too early to tell whether this year’s corn crop will be higher or lower than current projections because late corn planting does not necessarily translate into lower yields or reduced production in the fall. A copy of Bange’s presentation to the NCC board can be found at www.usda.gov/oce/speeches/index.htm.
A bill introduced in the Senate this week to jump start debate on federal immigration reform was declared a “non-starter” by immigration interests in the House. The bill, authored by Sen. Robert Menendez (D, NJ), is similar to unsuccessful legislation debated in the Senate four years ago, and would create a “path to citizenship” for illegal immigrants in theU.S., while increasing enforcement against employers of illegal immigrants and enhancing U.S.-Mexico border security. Menendez, in a nod to his lack of GOP support in the Senate, called the bill a starting point for discussions, but reiterated any bill considered by the Senate must include a formula for granting citizenship status to illegal immigrants already in the country. There is bipartisan opposition to this proposal, as opponents see it as granting amnesty for illegal actions.
A bill giving states more leeway in water quality enforcement standards was approved this week by the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee. While Democrats said the bill will weaken existing Clean Water Act (CWA) protections, the bill would prohibit EPA from enforcing a new or revised clean water reg for a specific pollutant if a state has already submitted to EPA and received approval for a water quality standard for that pollutant, unless the state agrees the new federal standard is warranted under the CWA. The bill, not brought by ag interests but by mining community interests, is aimed at eliminating confusing and contradictory rulings by EPA that supporters say have shut down mining operations in parts ofAppalachia. While EPA issued guidance for mining operations under the CWA in 2010, it retroactively vetoed a water permit issued by the Army Corps of Engineers for a mountaintop removal project inWest Virginia.
The U.S. Supreme Court this week upheld EPA’s authority under the Clean Air Act (CAA) to regulate greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and address other air pollution contributors to so-called “climate change.” The high court said its 2007 decision “made plain that emissions of carbon dioxide qualify as air pollution subject to regulation” under the CAA. The court heard American Power Company v.Connecticut, a case brought by the power company to challenge the state’s claims against alleged plant pollution under federal CAA regulations. The court said its previous decision “speaks directly to emissions of carbon dioxide from the defendant’s plant.” The court also referenced in detail EPA’s ongoing rulemaking to set standards on GHG emissions from fossil-fueled plants by May, 2012.
A bipartisan group of House members introduced legislation this week to extend the deadline on industrial boiler regs EPA says need fixing, a move welcomed by the agency. Eight members of the House Energy & Commerce Committee introduced a bill giving EPA an additional 15 months to repropose and finalize the rule after receiving nearly 5,000 public comments on the proposal. EPA is trying to reconcile the boiler rule with existing solid waste authority. EPA is trying to meet a court-ordered deadline in setting GHG standards for more than 200,000 boilers and incinerators across the country. The agency has stumbled in trying to rewrite its original rule and is currently accepting comments through July 15 on its latest effort. However, activist groups are threatening additional legal action.
A notice of proposed rulemaking was published by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) this week seeking to amend existing rules and regulations “governing procedures in representation cases.” Included in the proposal, however, is a dramatically shortened timeline for union certification elections. NLRB says its proposal is designed to reduce “unnecessary litigation, streamline pre- and post-election procedures” and make easier the use of electronic communications and document filing. However, at issue is the time elapsed between a union presenting enough signatures to call an organizing election and when that election is held, a period averaging about 60 days. The unions say employers use this time to convince workers not to ratify a union. This period would be shortened significantly by simplifying procedures, deferring lawsuits and setting shorter deadlines for filings and hearings. The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) said the NLRB proposed rule is “the latest attempt by the NLRB to do what Congress won’t – stack the deck in their favor.” The chair of the House Workforce Committee Rep. John Kline (R, MN) said the shortened election timeframe will “expedite union elections and undermine an employer’s lawful right to communicate with his or her employees, and will cripple a worker’s ability to make an informed decision.” Union representatives universally hailed the action, with the president of the Service Employees International Union calling it a “positive step for workers who want to exercise their fundamental right to decide for themselves whether to form a union.” In the last Congress, unions attempted unsuccessfully to pass union election changes called “card check.” Under that system, all a union needed to do was collect signatures on “preference” cards from 50% of a facility’s workers plus one additional worker, to certify organization.
In an update of its comprehensive listing of who gets farm program payments, how much they get and where those folks live, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) released its new list, all based on USDA numbers on payment recipients. The new numbers follow the money, all $222.8 billion paid in 1995-2010, and include the top 10 cities of residence for those getting federal checks. The database also includes crop insurance program payments. To view the full searchable report, go to http://www.ewg.org/.
Steve Kopperud, executive vice president of Policy Directions Inc., is the Ohio AgriBusiness Association's federal affairs consultant.