The deadline for the governor to sign or veto bills delivered to him in the final days of the legislature was last Sunday September 30th. The Legislature sent the Governor a total of 1,152 bills this second year of the Legislative session. The Governor signed 1013 bills, vetoed 138 and 1 bill became law without his signature. Below is a summary of the priority bills acted upon in the final days of the Governor's bill signing session.

Heat Stress Bills Vetoed

Two bills that would have created joint liability for farmers, increased the death benefit outside workers compensation and increased penalties were vetoed by Governor Brown on the last day.  

AB 2346 - Heat Illness (Betsy Butler - D, Los Angeles) Would have increased farm employers' litigation exposure with "bounty-hunter" lawsuit provisions allowing workers to sue employers for violations of the Cal/OSHA Heat Illness Prevention Standard and would have made farmers and ranchers jointly liable for violations of their farm labor contractors.

AB 2676 - Heat Illness (Charles Calderon - D, Whittier) Would have imposed new requirements on farm employers and supervisors for providing shade and water to farm employees that are inconsistent with the existing Cal-OSHA heat illness standards. A violation of this law would have been a crime punishable by potential jail time and monetary fines.

Water Bills Signed

Three bills that the association had taken a position on were all signed by the Governor. The association opposed AB 685, but supported SB 965 and AB 2174.

AB 685 - Right to Clean Water (Mike Eng - D, Monterey Park) Establishes a state policy that every human being has the right to clean, affordable, and accessible water for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes. AB 685 would require all relevant state agencies, including the Department of Water Resources, the State Water Resources Control Board, and the State Department of Public Health, to consider this state policy when revising, adopting, or establishing policies, regulations, and grant criteria.

SB 965 - Water Board Communications (Rod Wright - D, Los Angeles) Addresses ex parte communications with the State and regional water boards allowing the public more flexible communications with them on matters concerning waste discharge requirements, conditions of water quality certification or conditional waivers provided all parties are given at least three days notice and an opportunity to participate.

AB 2174 - Fertilizer Funds (Luis Alejo - D, Salinas) Directs fertilizer assessment funds to UC Ag Extension and other appropriate programs to advise farmers on methods to reduce the impacts of fertilizer use and adds clarifying language that broadens the focus of the CDFA Fertilizer Research and Education Program to include agronomically sound fertilizer use.

Two Other Water Bills Did Not Make it to the Governor

Two other measures that would have assisted rural economically disadvantaged communities with drinking water challenges from high nitrate levels did not make the midnight deadline. In June 2012, a stakeholder group consisting of agricultural representatives, environmental justice interests, drinking water providers, local government agencies and others, was convened by the Governor's Office to develop recommendations addressing the impacts of high nitrates in drinking water supplies for communities dependent on groundwater for their drinking water. The Governor's Drinking Water Stakeholder Group developed recommendations to assist these communities and identified two immediate needs that required legislative action. These actions were in AB 403 (Luis Alejo-D, Salinas) and AB 2238 (Henry Perea-D, Fresno). Both bills required a two-thirds majority vote and each contained urgency clauses, but they failed to move through both houses for floor votes before the Legislature shut down early Saturday morning.

General Ag Bills That Were Signed

AB 1581 Floral Industry Geographic Misrepresentation (Weickowski - Fremont) This bill requires florists to include their address in advertisements if they use a local telephone number or local name.

SB 594 - Net Energy Metering (Wolk - D, Davis) Allows Net Energy Metering customers with multiple electrical accounts to aggregate the electrical load of all meters located on the property where a renewable energy system is located or on contiguous property.

SB 1122 - Bioenergy Projects (Rubio - D, Bakersfield) Creates a program for the purchase of electricity generated from bioenergy by requiring the CPUC to direct the utilities to collectively procure at least 250 megawatts of electricity from developers of future bioenergy projects of a size no greater than three megawatts.

September 30 marked the expiration of the 2008 Farm Bill, and on October 1 the political rhetoric ramped up, the failure of Congress to enact a new omnibus farm program package becoming a campaign issue for GOP congressional incumbents and challengers. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack issued a statement October 1, pointing out the "many programs and policies" at USDA that expired and/or lost funding, "impacting millions of Americans, including farm commodity and price supports, conservation, research, nutrition, food safety and agricultural trade." He said without action by the House on a multi-year Farm Bill, the "uncertainty and burden" on rural communities during tough times are multiplied.   

Several of the nation's largest general farm and crop producer groups issued a joint statement on Monday pointing out both House and Senate Agriculture Committees did their job in passing a new Farm Bill, the Senate approved its version, but the House has "bottled up" its committee's package. House Speaker John Boehner (R, OH), contending there weren't enough votes to pass the House ag committee's farm bill or an extension of current programs during the regular House session, has said the House will "deal with farm programs" in the post-election lame duck session in November. Particular focus of critics of congressional inaction, particularly by House members facing reelection throughout the Midwest, focused on dairy supports.  

The joint letter from producer groups points out the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) is one of the programs that expired last Sunday, and now dairy farmers are "left without adequate assistance." The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), in a separate statement, said it was confident had the House leadership brought the bill to the floor, its new Dairy Security Act would be in place, but now "we are in uncharted waters and one of our life rafts has disappeared." USDA explained because milk receives subsidies, the department cannot use emergency funding - as it has with the livestock industry - because those funds cannot be used on "supported commodities." The groups also decried the suspension of the Foreign Market Development (FMD) program, a cost-sharing export promotion partnership between industry and the federal government, and said USDA dollars to keep the program operational and pay personnel will run out at the end of this month.  

About 6.5 million acres come out of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is year, and without a new Farm Bill no new signups will be allowed for CRP or the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP). Disaster assistance is now limited to lack of forage or if animals die, they said. The farm groups were also quick to point out that federal food stamps and other nutrition programs won't be affected by the lapse of the 2008 programs, nor will federal crop insurance programs expire, and most commodity-specific support programs will continue as they're pegged to the 2012 crop year. Democrats across the country took the opportunity to shoot at House GOP leadership for failure to pass a 2012 Farm Bill. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D, CA) issued a statement deploring the expiration of farm programs and expressing concern for farmers and ranchers who can't access disaster assistance, and Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D, MI), chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, demanded the House take up the bill "the first day of the November lame duck session." Sen. Mike Johanns (R, NE) told one reporter Pelosi and the Democrats are dodging any blame for failure to pass a House Farm Bill, allowing the GOP to take the heat as a reelection strategy. GOP candidates in key Senate races in Wisconsin, North Dakota, Montana, Nevada, Ohio and Missouri are seeing their races tighten, in part because of a lack of action on the Farm Bill, observers said.

The California State Floral Association

Presents....

Calif Flora 2012  "LEGENDS"

October 13-14, 2012

Hosted by:  Mayesh Wholesale Florist, Inc.

• Click Here for Program      
• Click Here for Registration Form 

THE CLOCK IS TICKING...

HAVE YOU REGISTERED YOUR ATTENDEES FOR THE

2012 FLORAL DISTRIBUTION CONFERENCE?

The floral industry will descend upon Miami October 24-26 for the 2012 WF&FSA Floral Distribution Conference.  Will you be joining your floral industry colleagues for this event at the Doral?  Here is what you will find upon your arrival:

TABLE TOP DISPLAYS PROVIDE NETWORKING AND XTREME COMMERCE OPPORTUNITIES

The WF&FSA Table Top displays will showcase the newest and best available products and services in the floral industry.  This is a terrific opportunity to meet face to face with your most important suppliers, in one location.  The sold-out exhibitor listing can be found here. 

EDUCATIONAL OFFERINGS - CHECK OUT GENERATIONAL TRENDS, FLORAL TRENDS, AND MORE!

Just take a look at some of the programs designed to give you useful, ready to use information:

• Explore Leadership and the Emerging Generations - study how the next general will alter traditional leadership.
• Continuing on the emerging generations theme, learn the unique aspects of attracting Generation Y and Millennials as customers and employees.
• Learn how to make better buying decisions with Deborah delaFlor and Jerome Raska.
• Check out the latest news in social media with Bob DeStefano.
• Scope out the latest in floral trends with Bill Schaffer and Kristine Kratt

Plus, see who will be honored with the 2012 Leland T. Kintzele Award and celebrate the Retail Florist of the Year, Dr. Delphinium!