Bill Huffman
Director - Government Relations

The Friday Report

August 20, 2010

Congress is in recess until after Labor Day. This is their annual August vacation, a time when they head back to their respective districts to cozy up to their constituency. It will be interesting month as many people are not happy about the nation’s unemployment situation, the Federal budget deficit, immigration and the myriad of other issues that appear to be on the public’s mind. For agriculture, it is a quiet time in terms of farm legislation but a busy time with the approaching harvest.

Farm Bill News Notes

• Senator Saxby Chambliss, ranking Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee says the process of developing a new Farm Bill should go beyond the end of 2011 as is being pushed by House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson. Senator Chambliss is calling for field hearings by the Senate Agriculture Committee throughout the country in 2011 along with several oversight hearings on the implementation of the 2008 Farm Bill and then drafting of a new Farm Bill in early 2012. The major reason Chairman Peterson is pushing to finish by the end 2011 is because the budget deficit situation and the baseline spending limit will just get worse the longer it takes to get a new bill in place.

• Iowa Senator Charles Grassley says he is confident that there will be more stringent payment limits in the next Farm Bill. Grassley and Democratic Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin recently introduced legislation that would limit farm payments to a flat $250,000 per entity. Grassley has sponsored similar legislation in the last two Farm Bills.

• USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack says USDA hasn’t figured out yet how the agency could implement a $1.5 billion ad-hoc disaster plan advocated by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln and supported by Obama Administration to cover losses incurred in the South due to weather related phenomenon during harvest last fall. Vilsack said USDA is looking into how it could administratively shift funds from Congressionally authorized spending to cover the disaster request.

California Crop Size

USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) forecasts this year’s California rice crop at 44.7 million cwt., 6 percent lower than last year. This is based on 552,000 planted acres and a yield estimate of 81 hundredweight per acre, which is forecast to be 6 percent lower than last year.

NASS projects total U.S. rice production to be 246 million hundredweight, up 12 percent from last year, due in part to larger plantings in the south.

State Water Resource Control Board

We are pleased to report that FRC Director Charlie Hoppin has been reconfirmed by the State Senate Rules Committee for a four-year appointment to the State Water Resource Control Board. Hoppin was reappointed by Governor Schwarzenegger and was reconfirmed Wednesday on a 5-0 vote by the Rules Committee.  He serves as Chairman of the five-member board.