Dear CSFA Members,

AB 1581 (Wieckowski) will be heard in the Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee on Monday, June 11th.  Please see attached letter from CSFA to Committee Chair, Senator Curren Price.

Please call the committee members listed below and ask for their support of AB 1581.  All you need to do is state your name, your business name and ask for a yes vote on AB 1581.

Every call is counted - thank you!

Ann Quinn

Executive Vice President

California State Floral Association

 *Click here for copy of support letter 

Members of the Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee

The Honorable Curren Price

Chair, Senate Business, Professions, and Economic Development Committee

State Capitol, Room 2057

Sacramento, CA. 95814

Phone: (916) 651-4026

Fax: (916) 445-8899

The Honorable Bill Emmerson

Vice Chair, Senate Business, Professions, and Economic Development Committee

State Capitol, Room 4082

Sacramento, CA. 95814

Phone: (916) 651-4037

Fax: (916) 327-2187

The Honorable Ellen Corbett

Member, Senate Business, Professions, and Economic Development Committee

State Capitol, Room 313

Sacramento, CA. 95814

Phone: (916) 651-4010

Fax: (916) 327-2433

The Honorable Lou Correa

Member, Senate Business, Professions, and Economic Development Committee

State Capitol, Room 5052

Sacramento, CA. 95814

Phone: (916) 651-4034

Fax: None listed

The Honorable Ed Hernandez

Member, Senate Business, Professions, and Economic Development Committee

State Capitol, Room 4085

Sacramento, CA. 95814

Phone: (916) 651-4024

Fax: (916) 445-0485

The Honorable Gloria Negrete McLeod

Member, Senate Business, Professions, and Economic Development Committee

State Capitol, Room 4061

Sacramento, CA. 95814

Phone: (916) 651-4032

Fax: (916) 445-0128

The Honorable Juan Vargas

Member, Senate Business, Professions, and Economic Development Committee

State Capitol, Room 3092

Sacramento, CA. 95814

Phone: (916) 651-4040

Fax: (916) 327-3522

The Honorable Mimi Walters

Member, Senate Business, Professions, and Economic Development Committee

State Capitol, Room 3082

Sacramento, CA. 95814

Phone: (916) 651-4033

Fax: (916) 445-9754

The Honorable Mark Wyland

Member, Senate Business, Professions, and Economic Development Committee

State Capitol, Room 4048

Sacramento, CA. 95814

Phone: (916) 651-4038

Fax: (916) 446-7382

Mr. Bill Gage, Senior Consultant

Senate Business, Professions, and Economic Development Committee

State Capitol, Room 2053

Sacramento, CA. 95814

Ms. Amber Alexander, Republican Committee Consultant

Senate Business, Professions, and Economic Development Committee

1020 N Street, Room 234

Sacramento, CA. 95814

Tuesday's primary election was the first to include the new "top two" format resulting in two members of the same party running against one another in November. Members of the same party will square off in nearly two dozen legislative or congressional elections. The oddity was created by California's new top-two primary system, in which voters could cast ballots for candidates of any party and the two highest vote-getters advance to the general election.

Seven California congressional, 14 Assembly and two state Senate races are sure to feature candidates from the same party. In a handful of other races, vote counts were still too tight to declare which two candidates will advance to the November ballot. Most of the same-party head-butting this fall will involve Democrats. Only four races, all of them Assembly contests, are sure to feature a Republican squaring off against another member of the GOP.

The challenge for candidates will be their ability to gather support from the opposing political party without alienating the voters of their own party. In many districts, this should allow more moderate candidates to be elected. Two active farmers, Frank Bigelow and Brian Dahle, both Republicans, were successful in advancing to the general election for the state legislature while farmers Doug LaMalfa, Abel Maldonado and David Valadao all advanced as candidates for federal office.

Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic legislative leaders have been meeting daily this week behind closed doors to resolve about $2 billion in differences over budget cuts. Facing a June 15 constitutional deadline, Democratic leaders say they intend to send Brown a budget by next Friday, and preferably a budget that the governor will sign.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and Assembly Speaker John A. P�rez, D-Los Angeles, have made it clear that legislative Democrats disagree with Brown specifically on his cuts to welfare-to-work, Cal Grants, In-Home Supportive Services and child care for low-income families.

Steinberg said Thursday those differences amount to roughly $2 billion. He suggested that, for the most part, legislative Democrats agree with the remainder of Brown's solutions to bridge a $15.7 billion gap. Some policy exceptions include the governor's plan to restrict wildfire liability and change tree-cutting requirements, as well as dealing with state park closures. Democrats are privately suggesting alternatives to the cuts to buy down as many of them as possible. In the past, Steinberg has suggested reducing Brown's $1 billion reserve. There will be much pressure on Legislators to pass a budget on time or they will not get paid.

The Senate was supposed to be hip deep in Farm Bill debate this week, but only managed to clear the procedural hurdles to allow the Senate to take up the bill next week. On a 90-8 vote this week, the full Senate agreed to suspend general debate and move to formal floor consideration of the committee-passed and revamped bill, a process that took 72 hours under Senate rules. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, NV), frustrated with the "wasted week," blamed the GOP for preventing the bill from moving forward by insisting on the formal cloture vote. With the House on district recess next week, the Senate is expected to spend almost all four workdays on the Farm Bill, but could suspend action and move to other matters over the next several days, returning to the Farm Bill as agreements on amendments are reached.  

Ag committee Chair Debbie Stabenow (D, MI) continues to maintain that she has got the 60 votes necessary for ultimate approval of the package, but floor amendments - some totally unrelated to the omnibus farm legislation - are mounting up with more than 30 filed by late this week. Stabenow told reporters this week that the unrelated amendments she's seen will delay the Senate from finishing its work. The key is whether Reid can get Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, KY) to agree to limit amendments to only those relevant to the Farm Bill and then set a finite number of amendments which can be offered. The first major floor battle will be over the commodity title.  

Southern producers, particularly rice and peanut producers, are not happy with a new crop insurance-based price protection system in the bill, a program they say favors corn and soybeans and Midwest producers over southern interests. A bloc of southern Senators led by Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R, GA), former chair of the ag committee, and Sen. Mary Landrieu (D, LA) have pledged to force the Senate to insert target prices and countercyclical payments back into the legislation. Chambliss and Landrieu have a dozen southern colleagues on their side, and some have gone so far as to threaten to vote against final passage of the bill by siding with fiscal conservatives who've targeted the bill as too expensive. Chambliss took to the Senate floor this week to tell his colleagues that Stabenow and ag panel ranking member Sen. Pat Roberts (R, KS) have rejected all southern proposals to rework the commodity title to the benefit of rice and peanut producers. Chambliss said he hopes to "repair" what he called an "inequitable and unbalanced" Farm Bill through the amendment process. He said neither he nor peanut producers want to return to direct payments, despite media reports to the contrary and says any new approach must reflect price declines for some crops in recent years.

Stabenow maintained the new Acreage Risk Coverage (ARC) proposal is not intended to reflect how much support crops received in the past, but is geared toward future needs based on acreage planted, not region or commodity. The second major battle will be to preserve the federal crop insurance program without significant spending reductions or reinvention. While ballyhooed as the backbone of farmer income protection, federal crop insurance costs have come under increasing fire in recent weeks. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has targeted crop insurance premium subsidies - the federal government buys down the premium cost to a farmer by up to 60% as an "incentive" to buy crop insurance - calling for a $40,000-per-year cap on individual subsidies.

Once the Senate voted overwhelmingly to proceed with floor action on the 2012 Farm Bill, the White House released a formal "statement of Administration policy" blessing the bill and the "bipartisan efforts" to enact the bill. The White House, singling out the bill's likely "significant contribution to deficit reduction," said, in a somewhat restrained fashion, the bill "includes needed reforms and savings...and should promote rural development, preserve a farm safety net, maintain strong nutrition programs, enhance conservation, honor our World Trade Organization commitments and advance agricultural research." The White House did not criticize the bill in its statement.

The House FY2013 appropriations bill on homeland security was approved this week by the full chamber animated debate centering on immigration actions included in the bill. The White House immediately threatened to veto the nearly $45-billion package, saying the bill does not comport with last year's spending control actions, something it's said about all House spending bills. At issue in the Administration's statement of policy - the official "position" of the White House - are several provisions in the bill aimed at immigration proposals and current programs. The bill contains requirements for more Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) "detention beds" than has been requested, and a limit on ICE's ability to fund abortions for detainees. Also, at issue was a requirement that at least $68 million be used to fund federal/state/local enforcement agreements, $5 million more than last year, and the House made the section even tougher by accepting an amendment that would block any spending by the Administration to terminate the enforcement agreements.  

The bill provides $91 million for alternative detention programs, including monitoring immigrants involved in deportation proceedings using electronic surveillance systems. Another amendment accepted would block funds from going to what supporters call "sanctuary cities," urban areas which refuse to cooperate with federal immigration officers. Rep. Steve King (R, IA) successfully offered an amendment blocking funding to Administration programs that he called "administrative amnesty" because ICE pays priority attention to illegal immigrants it considers more dangerous, while spending less time going after illegals who may be attending college or in the military. Rep. Sam Graves (R, MO) successfully offered an amendment that would block funds to allow illegal immigrants to remain in the U.S. with family members who are citizens while awaiting the outcome of petitions for waivers to remain legally. Rep. Sam Graves offered another amendment blocking funds for ICE to provide "public advocates" for illegal immigrants, which was also accepted.

Hoping to avoid a pre-election battle over tax reform and how much "the more fortunate among us" are paying to Uncle Sam, congressional GOP leadership this week said they want to see at least a one-year extension of the Bush federal income tax schedules, as well as a similar extension of a package of federal tax incentives that expired at the end of last year. House Speaker John Boehner (R, OH) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, KY) said the extension is necessary to avoid further interfering in a slowly recovering economy. McConnell said the extension will give Congress time to come to some sort of bipartisan meeting of the minds on broad tax reform. House Ways & Means Committee Chair Dave Camp (R, MI) said his panel is working on legislation to extend the tax rates for a year, along with extending nearly 1,200 federal tax credits and other incentives - including blenders' tax credits for biodiesel and renewable diesel - for a year but making the extension retroactive to January 1, 2012.  

The timing of the Republican announcement came immediately on the heels of statements by former President Bill Clinton who proposed this week a similar year-long extension of the Bush tax rates, set to expire January 1, 2013. Clinton said extending the tax rates "is probably the best thing to do right now," though he balked at agreeing to permanent extensions, and now publicly regrets making his opinion known. However, despite Clinton's remarks, many Democrats in both the House and Senate want to see an end to tax cuts for "the wealthiest Americans," but can't decide on how to define that status. Some contend tax breaks should end for those making $250,000 a year or more; others say the threshold should be $1 million a year.

Calling it the "Domestic Energy & Jobs Act," House Republicans this week said they'll repackage seven separate energy-related bills, an effort to "ease regulations and spur job growth." All seven bills have been approved by committee. House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R, CA) said the goal is to move closer to energy independence while creating new jobs, and pointed to North Dakota oil and gas development, an exploding industry that's dropped that state's unemployment rate to less than 3%.  

The plan was attacked by some Democrats who contend the move is simply a strategy to get around the Clean Air Act (CAA). House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D, CA) called the package "a boon for big oil and the only jobs it will help are those of the oil CEOs." Pelosi called on House Speaker John Boehner (R, OH) to cancel next week's House recess and for leadership to pass a construction jobs bill being pushed by Democrats. The package includes: a bill to mandate an increase in any oil/gas equivalent in any release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve; a bill that would delay for at least six months new EPA rules on refinery emissions; a bill to require the Secretary of the Interior to develop a plan for energy production on public lands; a bill to bar the federal government from rescinding leases on federal lands for energy exploration and production; a bill to expedite permitting; a bill to set up live Internet auctions for Bureau of Land Management leases, and a bill to speed up the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

A draft Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) health assessment for ammonia was released this week by EPA for 60 day's public comment, after which it will be sent to independent peer review. Ammonia, EPA said, is used in agricultural fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, water purification, household cleaners, refrigerants and in several industrial processes, and studies have shown it can affect the respiratory system. The draft IRIS assessment includes an estimate of the "safe level" of ammonia a person can inhale during a lifetime, a level "less stringent than the current value for ammonia on IRIS." Details of the assessment can be found at http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/iris_drafts/recordisplay.cfm?deid=200305.