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. Pérez, 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.

 

More than 30 amendments to the 2012 Senate Farm Bill, expected to hit the floor next week, have already been filed as of June 8, with several more expected to be filed early next week, and some will be totally unrelated to agriculture. Sens. Tom Coburn (R, OK) and Richard Durbin (D, IL) say they'll support an amendment to reduce federal crop insurance premium subsidies by 15% for producers with adjusted gross income (AGI) of $750,000 or more, and a separate amendment is expected from Sens. Jean Shaheen (D, NH) and Pat Toomey (R, PA) to codify the Environmental Working Group's (EWG) proposal to cap the premium subsidies at $40,000 per producer per year. Sen. Ben Cardin (D, MD) will try and force conservation compliance to the purchase of crop insurance, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D, NY) is dedicated to restoring all funding cut from food stamps and will offer an amendment to put back $4 billion in ag committee cuts. She would use the savings from the Coburn/Durbin amendment, along with further cuts in the federal insurance program to pay for restoring the food stamp benefits. She's expected to battle Sen. Jeff Sessions (R, AL) who has filed several amendments to cut food stamp funding even more than the committee action.  

 

Another crop insurance amendment is expected from a group of southern Senators to cut overall crop insurance spending. Relevant amendments expected include one from a group of midwestern Senators to include a bill approved last year by the full House and the Senate ag panel to fix the EPA NPDES permit system that forces farm chemicals used near water into double-permitting; Sen. John McCain (R, AZ) filed an amendment to withhold all federal funding for ethanol storage construction or blender pump financing; Sen. Mike Bennett (D, CO) is expected to offer an amendment to remove language from the dairy title capping per-farm dairy production; Sens. Gillibrand and Olympia Snowe (R, ME) will offer an amendment to stabilize milk pricing by allowing producers to present milk price formulas to USDA and eliminate Class III end-product milk pricing formulas; Sen. Charles Grassley (R, IA) may offer an amendment to ban packer ownership of livestock, and Shaheen, along with Sens. Richard Lugar (R, IN), Mark Kirk (R, IL), Dan Coats (R, IN), Durbin and Toomey, will offer an amendment to phase out sugar subsidies. Unrelated amendments expected to be offered include one from Sen. John McCain (R, AZ) to require the Secretary of Defense to provide to Congress a report on the national security consequences of not exempting the Department of Defense from mandatory spending cuts due January 1, 2013.  

 

Other unrelated amendments include a move by Sen. Rand Paul (R, TN) to cut off all foreign aid to Pakistan; an amendment by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D, NJ) to fund a study on the links between sugary drinks and obesity, and Coburn is thinking about trying to add language that cuts off federal spending to national political party conventions. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D, CA) will offer changes to the federal Egg Products Inspection Act backed by the United Egg Producers in an alliance with the Humane Society of the U.S.

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.

Over 70 national agriculture, input and human/animal science organizations, including the American Feed Industry Assn. (AFIA,) this week sent a letter to House Agriculture Committee Chair Frank Lucas (R, OK) and committee ranking member Rep. Collin Peterson (D, MN) urging them to include in the House Farm Bill a Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR). At the same time, several of the same groups sent the ag committee leadership a letter asking them to create within the House Farm Bill a new USDA Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs subcabinet slot.  

 

FFAR would supplement USDA's conventional research, education and economics mission areas. The group said FFAR would "add to USDA's portfolio of intramural and extramural research program that help solve current and future challenges facing agriculture" and bring "innovative technology from laboratory to the marketplace." The 72 organizations said global demand for food and ag products makes the FFAR effort even more important to maintaining U.S. and global food, economic and national security. Establishing FFAR, the groups said, will generate new sources of funding for food and ag research by creating a structure for public/private partnerships and investments to further USDA's research initiatives. The new USDA trade under secretary slot is needed because the needs of agriculture have shifted since 1978 when the current under secretary for farm programs and foreign agriculture job was created. The groups said the new slot will provide "a singular focus on trade and foster more effective coordination of transparent, rule-based trade policies in other USDA agencies."

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) this week filed as a potential creditor in the bankruptcy of MF Global (MFG), filing as a "general creditor...in order to preserve all possible options" to recover the taxpayer costs of its investigation into the nation's eighth largest bankruptcy. At the same time, Sen. Pat Roberts (R, KS) said he was pleased to hear MFG trustee James Giddens is contemplating possible legal action against former company management, saying, "When the music stopped playing, MF Global executives were caught without a chair. Apparently the firm's contingency plan was to tap customer funds in order to avoid a doomsday collapse." Roberts said he is committed - after all investigations are complete - to "working with regulators and customers to strengthen the safeguards around customer accounts and make sure those responsible are held accountable." On the creditor filing, the CFTC said it moved on the creditor status because it needed to preserve its "restitution status," and that its priority continues to be to work to claim funds for MFG customers. The commission stressed its claim for costs would not take precedent over customer claims. As of this week, 72% of the value of customer accounts has been received; the remainder has still not been located.

Drawing outrage from the commission chair, the National Farmers Union (NFU) and Democrat appropriators who say the cuts will make it nearly impossible to implement Dodd-Frank financial protections, the House Appropriations Committee subcommittee on agriculture/FDA this week approved FY2013 appropriations for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) that cuts the commission's funding by $25 million or 12% compared with FY2012. The approved spending level of $180 million, $128 million less than President Obama requested in his budget plan. Reuters reports that of the CFTC's spending levels, no more than $25,000 can be spent in the coming fiscal year for consultations with foreign governments and regulators, and tells the CFTC to spend $32 million on information technology.  

 

The subcommittee also instructs the CFTC chairman to report to Congress within 30 days of enactment "a schedule of implementation and sequencing of all rules, regulations and orders" including cost/benefit analyses and studies, with particular emphasis on pending rulemakings on swap dealers, position limits and commodity trading advisor registrations. CFTC Chair Gary Gensler said the bill does not provide enough money to the commission, saying the package "effectively puts the interests of Wall Street ahead of those of the American public." Gensler said the commission's new oversight authority on the $300-million swaps industry and a staff level just 10% higher than at its peak in the 1990s, argue for greater CFTC funding. The NFU said, "Now is not the time to be cutting from an agency that has an important role to play in preventing the next financial meltdown. Our economy needs stronger rules and more referees, not fewer.

 

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.

The full House this week approved FY 2013 Energy Department appropriations legislation that includes language to stop the Army Corps of Engineers and EPA from extending their authority under the Clean Water Act (CWA). The action came after the House turned back a Democrat amendment to allow the Corps to complete a new definition of "navigable waters," an action the Republicans said would extend CWA authority to "ponds, puddles and drainage ditches." The Corps, working with EPA, is trying to respond to a 2001 Supreme Court decision - and a 2006 reinterpretation - charging them with protecting "remote wetlands" not connected to rivers, lakes and streams.

Anticipating record 2012 U.S. corn production and despite "steady demand from ethanol producers," USDA's chief economist sees continuing downward pressure on corn prices. With U.S. corn production forecast at a record 14.79 billion bushels, global supplies will increase, said USDA's Joe Glauber at the International Grains Council's London conference this week. Consumption of ethanol will likely be relatively unchanged because high prices have stemmed overall fuel demand and U.S. corn-based ethanol no longer enjoys federal tax incentives. The rebuilding of stocks coupled with flat ethanol demand will "bring down corn prices significantly," Glauber said, but acknowledged prices will remain relatively high. USDA releases its updated world supply/demand forecast on June 12.

Attached is a letter and invitation to attend a Grain Bin Engulfment Rescue Training Event sponsored by the Intermountain Chapter of the Grain Elevator and Processing Society (GEAPS).  Training received at this event will teach you what to do in case you or a co-worker is ever engulfed in grain or another commodity.  This training is OSHA approved and each attendee will receive a certificate of completion for the training.  The 4 hour training is composed of ½ classroom time and ½ actual hands on training.  I hope you will seriously consider attending this valuable potentially life-saving training opportunity.  Please pass this on to anyone who you think can benefit from the training, and don't forget to RSVP.

• Training Letter
• GEAPS Rescue Training Flyer

Mike Erickson

Seed Treatment Specialist

The McGregor Company

4147 Highway 93

Filer, ID  83328

mike.erickson@mcgregor.com 

http://mcgregor.com/

(208)305-7458

 

 

The House Judiciary Committee this week approved legislation to set deadlines for federal agencies to complete environmental impact studies of propose project development. The approved bill would give agencies one year to file environmental assessments before a project can break ground as required under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and two years to file more extensive environmental impact statements.

Three "core" surveys have been sent to thousands of farmers and ranchers across the country by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) in an effort to update the numbers reflecting how farmers use their land and what ag activities they conduct. NASS is collecting data on crops, livestock and economic data through three simultaneous surveys. NASS expects to release the collected data in a series of reports on June 29, including acres planted and acres harvested for various crops; grain stocks on hand, and hogs and pigs inventory. The data collected in the surveys is protected by federal law. More information on the NASS surveys can be found at www.nass.usda.gov/Surveys.

The Merced and Madera county farm bureaus filed a lawsuit in Sacramento Superior Court against the California High-Speed Rail Authority. The lawsuit contends that the authority's environmental impact report of the Merced to Fresno section of the rail project doesn't satisfy the California Environmental Quality Act, unfairly affecting roughly 1,500 acres of farmland. "We've been saber-rattling for months trying to get the authority to heed our concerns seriously," said Tom Rogers, Madera County Farm Bureau president. "Now the time has come to show the authority that we are deadly serious about protecting our way of life as well as our bedrock agricultural economy."

Mercedsunstar.com

In a notice dated May 21, FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, Director of the Center for Veterinary Medicine Bernadette Dunham and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius together filed an appeal with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the March decision.  

The ruling came after a coalition of 5 nonprofit organizations filed a suit demanding that FDA take action on an announcement it made 35 years earlier in 1977 that it would ban the use of penicillin and two types of tetracycline in animal feed in light of evidence that this practice was contributing to antibiotic-resistant strains of human pathogens. 

If upheld, the decision will mandate FDA to follow through with drug company hearings that it must conduct in order to determine whether these drugs are indeed a threat to human health. If the antibiotics are found to be dangerous to humans, FDA must see that they are withdrawn from the market for use in animal feed.  Read more...