Bill Huffman
Director - Government Relations

The Friday Report

August 26, 2011

Congress remains in recess through Labor Day. The only activity we can report is that the Senate Agriculture Committee has held a Farm Bill hearing in Kansas to gather input from producers, bankers, and economists on what works and doesn’t work in the Farm Bill. Here’s a brief summary of what was said at that hearing!

Kansas Farm Bill Hearing

Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow and ranking Republican Senator Pat Roberts held a Farm Bill hearing in Kansas this week. More than 500 people attended, most of them farmers.

The key message sent by Kansas farmers to the two members of the Senate Agriculture Committee was that “crop insurance is the most important part of a farmer’s safety net”.  Several members of the Kansas banking community said that crop insurance is vitally important to financing farmers and ranchers in that region of the country.

In closing comments, Senator Pat Roberts said “everything is on the table, direct payments, conservation programs and other provisions of farm policy in view of the deficit reduction effort now underway in Congress”.  Nothing will be set in stone until the budget and deficit reduction numbers become known, probably by the end of this calendar year.

Several witnesses at the hearing called for a longer term farm bill.  They said that knowing what the farm program is going to be year after year would bring more certainty to producers and to the banking community.

A Look at Redistricting

California’s bipartisan redistricting commission has released final maps for the newly drawn congressional and legislative districts in the Golden State. The newly drawn House of Representative districts is certainly going to result in some key changes in California representation in Washington, D.C.

In the San Joaquin Valley, for instance, one of the newly drawn districts will pit two prominent Democrats in the same district, i.e., Representatives Dennis Cardoza and Jim Costa. Cardoza currently represents Merced, Stanislaus and part of San Joaquin County, while Costa represents Fresno, Kings, Tulare and a small portion of Kern County. The newly drawn map basically moves Cardoza’s district south to include Fresno County, which has been largely the base for Congressman Costa. Costa has already announced that he will be a candidate for election in the newly drawn district. We understand that Congressman Cardoza is contemplating retirement from Congress, rather than run against his friend Jim Costa. Cardoza has said he will make his final decision by October.

Another interesting development is that Congressman Dan Lungren’s district has become more Democratic-oriented and we understand that Mr. Lungren is contemplating a bid against fellow Republican Representative Tom McClintock for a more comfortably Republican’s seat.  That will be interesting!

For the Sacramento Valley, the newly drawn 3rd Congressional District opens up a new district including all of Yolo County (except the great nation of Davis), Colusa, Glenn, Sutter and Yuba Counties.  Democratic Congressman John Garamendi of Walnut Grove (which is not in the newly drawn district) has announced his candidacy for the open seat as has Colusa County Supervisor Kim Vann of Arbuckle.  Other candidates are expected to surface for this open district.

Congressman Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, who currently represents Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Solano, Napa, and parts of Solano and Yolo County will be in a newly drawn district that includes Sonoma and Napa Counties, giving up the North Coast counties and Yolo County.

Wally Herger, who currently represents District 2 which includes Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Sutter, Yuba, Tehama, Shasta, Siskiyou and Trinity Counties, will see his district change.  His new district will include Butte, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, and Tehama Counties.  Mr. Herger now lives in Chico which will be in the newly drawn District 1.

We should mention that while these new maps have been issued, we expect there will be legal challenges and that could result in some changes mandated by whichever Court issues a final ruling. We haven’t seen any court challenges filed yet, but we can guarantee you there will be a court challenge to the redistricting maps created by the voter approved Redistricting Commission.

Blue Dogs

For many years, a conservative Democratic group in the House of Representatives known as the Blue Dogs was an effective force in the House. This group was largely a membership group of House Democrats from conservative rural districts. Seven key members of the group from California included Congresswoman Jane Harman and Loretta Sanchez and Congressmen Dennis Cardoza, Jim Costa, Mike Thompson, Adam Schiff, and Joe Baca.

The Blue Dog caucus was formed in 1995 after Democrats’ stunning losses in the 1994 election. Their ranks gradually grew to 54 members in the 111th Congress.  Today, the Blue Dogs have 25 members and at least four of them are retiring next year. Those retiring include Congressmen Mike Ross, D-Arkansas, Leonard Boswell, D-Iowa, Mike McIntyre, D-North Carolina and Jane Harman who has already left Congress to take over the helm of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. If Congressman Dennis Cardoza retires, that would be another member loss.

The Blue Dogs expressed hope that they would be able to restrict or restrain the liberal Democrats under Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s leadership. They were not successful!

Their future looks further marginalized in the election in 2012.

For agriculture, the Blue Dogs were very instrumental in getting the 2008 Farm Bill enacted and often were very helpful to the U.S. rice industry. To see this group decline is especially troublesome because so many members represented rural districts where agriculture is the major industry. One of the key members of the Blue Dogs still standing is Congressman Collin Peterson, the ranking member and former Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. Peterson has always been a defender of farm programs and worked closely over the years on a bipartisan basis with key Republican’s on farm policy. As we approach the development of the 2012 Farm Bill, we hope Congressman Peterson and the remaining Blue Dogs are in a position to help agriculture once again in the effort to get an adequate safety net program that is so important to so many in our industry.