Bill Huffman
Director - Government Relations

The Friday Report

November 13, 2009

We would like to remind all members of the 65th Meeting of Farmers’ Rice Cooperative next Wednesday, November 18th at the Radisson Hotel-Sacramento, 500 Leisure Lane with registration beginning at 9:00 a.m. and the business meeting at 10:00 a.m. This has been the best year ever for the Cooperative and its members and we cordially invite all members to join us for this 65th observance of the organization.

Climate Change Legislative Update

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that key Senate Democrats said Tuesday that it is unlikely there will be any more major committee action on climate-change legislation this year. That tracks with our observation that the Senate will not act on climate-change legislation until next year, if then.

Although the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee approved a committee version of a bill last week, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Montana, said “It’s common understanding that climate-change legislation will not be brought up on the Senate floor and pass the Senate this year.”  Mr. Baucus was the lone dissenting Democratic vote on the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee during last week’s markup and passage of the bill championed by Senators John Kerry and Barbara Boxer. Senators Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan and Tom Carper, D-Delaware also confirmed that Senate committees were no longer under any timetable to produce climate-change legislation.

Trade Issues

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Montana, took the Obama Administration to task this week on trade. Baucus was critical of the Administration on its trade policy – or what he sees as a “lack of effort on trade policy”.  Mr. Baucus said what many others have been thinking, that the Obama Administration lacks a clear trade policy agenda and should take measures to enhance commercial ties, especially in the Pacific region. His comments came immediately ahead of President Obama’s trip to Japan, Korea and China.

Senator Baucus made his comments on trade during a speech to the Washington International Trade Association and the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs. The Senator urged the Administration to find ways to advance languishing trade deals while at the same time expanding trade with Asian countries other than China.

As you may recall, it took nine months for the Obama Administration to name an agriculture trade negotiator, an indication that trade is not a “high priority” of this administration.

Pesticide Challenge

The American Farm Bureau Federation has filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the court to review a lower court ruling that will otherwise impose Clean Water Act permitting requirements on the application of pesticides on, or over or near water.  This case is extremely important to the rice industry.

The case that is being challenged by the Farm Bureau involves a ruling of the Sixth Circuit involving the National Cotton Council versus EPA where the lower court found that EPA must require Clean Water Act permits for pesticide applications in water or near waters where pesticide falls into the water. The lower court ruling left a very narrow exception for chemical pesticides intentionally applied to water that leaves no “residue” after their use is complete.

Since Congress enacted the Clean Water Act in 1972, Federal EPA has never subjected the use of pesticides to the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit requirement of the Clean Water Act. If the lower court ruling stands, it will force farmers, public health agencies and many others into burdensome, time-consuming, and costly permitting requirements that could seriously impair their ability to use pesticides to protect croplands and public health.

This is an important court case to follow.