Assemblymember Bob Wieckowski (D-Fremont) introduced legislation yesterday to crack down on out-of-state floral companies who misrepresent the geographic location of their business. This legislation, proposed by a Fremont florist through Wieckowski's annual "There Ought to be a Law" contest, will require floral retailers who choose to use local phone numbers or a local name to include their address and notice of their place of business in their advertisements. The California State Floral Association urges your support of AB 1581. Please click below to read Assemblymember Bob Wieckowski's press release announcing AB 1581. Stand by for future action requests.

• Press Release 

A bill to modify the law governing overtime for agricultural field workers was taken off the inactive file in the Senate. AB 1313 (Allen) would require agricultural employers to pay overtime for any employee who works more than 8 hours a day or 40 hours in a work week. Current rules allow agricultural field employees to work 10 hours in a day and/or 6 days a week before overtime is required. The bill was held in the Senate during the last week of session last year but has been revived and is being referred to Senate Labor and industrial Relations Committee for further review. The Association is opposing the measure and will continue to work with a coalition of ag and business groups for the measure to be held.

A measure to establish a single payer health care system for California failed passage on the Senate floor earlier this week. SB 810 (Leno) which would create a publicly funded single payer health care system with universal coverage failed to get a majority of the Senators in favor of the measure. Since the bill was held in the house of origin, the Senate in this case, the bill is dead.

CALIFORNIA STATE FLORAL ASSOCIATION TOGETHER WITH ROP CAMARILLO   

Present a Floral Design Workshop

March 31, 2012

Floral Architectonics: the Art of Incorporating Architectural Elements into Dynamic Floral Designs

Instruction by Tony Alvarez AIFD, CCF & Debbie Alvarez AIFD, CCF

Place: ROP Camarillo, 465 Horizon Circle, Camarillo, CA 93010

Time: 9:00 am - 4:00 pm

In this class we will explore a number of architectural elements developed since man first began building shelters right up to the modern age of towering steel structures and modern conceptual theories in architecture. We will integrate these architectural elements in our design constructions using assorted building materials, plant materials, flowers and branches as well as decorative wire and glassware.  

Come spend a day with friends and learn new ways to add interest, value, drama and innovation to everyday designs!

Class fee: $125.00

Click here for full details 

After two days of "consensus seeking" on how to rewrite a new Farm Bill, 13 national farm and commodity groups this week signed a joint statement calling for a bill in 2012, but with no word on how to get to that point. Meanwhile, the Senate Agriculture Committee, which is taking the lead on rewriting a new omnibus farm bill, announced its schedule of February and March hearings on the various major titles of its rewrite. The schedule begins with a February 15 hearing on energy, and includes a February 29 hearing on conservation; a March 14 hearing on "healthy food," local production and nutrition, and a March 21 hearing on risk management and the commodity programs. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D, MI), chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said she and ranking member Sen. Pat Roberts (R, KS) want to move a Senate Farm Bill as quickly as possible to allow the House Agriculture Committee time to complete its work.  

Stabenow, while stopping short of saying she'll use the draft deficit-reduction document developed last fall as her starting point, did acknowledge the process of developing that cost-cutting approach for the deficit Super Committee crystallized several issues for both the House and Senate ag committees. For his part, House Ag Committee Chair Frank Lucas (R, OK) said his committee is starting with a "fresh sheet of paper," according to an American Soybean Assn. (ASAS) report this week. For the House to follow the Senate is unusual, but Rep. Collin Peterson, ranking House Ag committee member, said one major reason the House has not moved more quickly is it lacks direction from House leadership. Another reason is that neither chamber is sure how $1.2 trillion in mandatory federal spending cuts called for in 2013 will impact the numbers Congress will work with to come up with a bill. Based on reports from one commodity group meeting attendee, the two-day meeting this week was basically a restatement by each of the groups on how they want their parochial programs rewritten; the only consensus point is they want the President to sign a bill in 2012.

The Department of Labor (DOL) this week said it will repropose a part of its controversial proposed rulemaking on "child labor" protections, rewriting the "parental exemption" section that allows on-farm jobs to be held by the children of active farmers and ranchers and their families. The original proposal basically eliminated any recognition of jobs traditionally handled by farm and ranch teenagers, and would have prohibited parents from allowing their children age 15 or younger to work with animals, operate equipment, work in grain elevators or other storage, etc, essentially treating production ag in the same manner as other "hazardous" industries.  

More than 100 House and Senate members called on DOL Secretary Hilda Solis to scrap the rule, but the strongest opposition comes from Rep. Denny Rehberg (R, MT), chair of the House Appropriations Committee subcommittee on labor, who's running for the Senate in Montana. He said this week he does not believe the parental exemption rewrite is enough to keep DOL off the farm. "I will have a rider on my (FY2013 appropriations) bill...that will keep you from implementing this rule. I know it will pass in the House," Rehberg said to a DOL witness at a House hearing this week. While Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow (D, MI) and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack publicly praised the DOL action, House Agriculture Committee Chair Frank Lucas (R, OK) said Solis' decision is a "step in the right direction," but added "other provisions of this rule will still make it difficult, if not impossible, for young people to access comprehensive on-farm education and employment."  

He said despite the rewrite of the parent exemption, anyone under 16 would be barred from operating equipment. DOL said its decision to repropose the rulemaking was due to "requests from the public and members of Congress" to allow "more input on this aspect of the rule." The current parental exemption, enacted in 1966, allows children of any age who are "employed by a parent or a person standing in the place of a parent" to perform any job on a farm owned by or operated by their parent or the stand-in. "The department recognizes the unique attributes of farm families and rural communities. The reproposal process will seek comments and inputs as to how the department can comply with statutory requirements to protect children while respecting rural traditions. DOL pledged to continue to work with USDA on the new exemption proposal, expected to be published early this summer.

In a marathon, highly partisan markup, the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee approved a four-and-a-half-year, $260-billion extension of federal highway and urban commuter program authorizations, clearing the bill for House floor consideration February 13. Committee Chair Dan Mica (R, FL) said the bill will provide stability in federal funding, give states necessary flexibility in how they spend the funds, streamline programs and speed up delivery of money to the states. Committee Democrats condemned the bill, saying they'd had too little time to review it and the mechanism by which the projects are paid for won't work. The bill is also seriously out of alignment with a two-year $109-billion extension bill under consideration in the Senate since last summer, setting up a major conference committee battle between the two chambers.  

The bill also contains extension of the ag harvest hours-of-service exemption, and a "sense of Congress" provision to ensure enough money is available for inland water dredging and port maintenance. The House committee began its deliberations by substituting a three-year study for language that would give states the option of allowing 97,000-lb. trucks with six axles and additional braking on federal interstate highways within their borders. States would also have been allowed to restrict heavier - not longer or wider - trucks from sections of highway and bridges. Shippers, including major feed, grain, livestock and poultry production and crop production groups, strongly supported the heavier truck permissions, and said such programs are working well in Maine and Vermont where pilot programs are underway.  

They said the provision is a matter of states' rights and increased productivity, and that the heavier trucks are necessary to eliminate the wasteful less-than-truckload shipments they're forced to move because of the current 80,000-lb. federal weight limit. Multiple studies, both in the U.S. and Europe, demonstrate the heavier trucks are as safe and actually produce less wear and tear on highways than 80,000-lb. trucks on five axles. The Association of American Railroads (AAR), opposed the heavier truck section of the bill, saying their shipments would drop, safety would be compromised and states would be stuck with bridge and road repairs even though major shipping companies contend hundreds of thousands of shipments would be eliminated by allowing companies to move full truckloads.  

The GOP says it will pay for the expansion of highway projects by using revenue from federal energy exploration permits, and the House Natural Resources Committee approved a bill this week to expedite approval of expanded federal permitting of drilling projects throughout the country and off U.S. coasts. The House Ways & Means Committee is expected to approve the bill this week. Democrats contend the fees on the energy permits won't produce significant revenue for several years, leaving the highway bill without adequate funding.