FDA and USDA will cooperate in a series of five public meetings to talk about "challenges faced by the animal agriculture industry and practicing veterinarians as FDA implements its initiative for the judicious use of medically important antimicrobials in medicated feed and drinking water of food producing animals." The meetings will be held April 9 in Bowling Green, KY; April 23 in Olympia, WA; May 8 in Ft. Collins, CO; May 21 in Pierre, SD, and June 4 in College Station, TX. Additional information on the meetings can be found at  

 www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-03-07/pdf/2013-05339.pdf.

This week the Governor made three important appointments to the State Water Resources Control Board. He reappointed Tam Doduc, 46, of Sacramento. Doduc has held multiple positions at the California Environmental Protection Agency since 2000, including deputy secretary for environmental quality, assistant secretary for air and chemical programs, assistant secretary for agriculture and chemical programs and assistant secretary for technology certification. She was an air resources engineer at the California Air Resources Board from 1997 to 2000 and was special assistant to the secretary at the California Environmental Protection Agency from 1995 to 1997. She earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering from California State University, Sacramento.

The Governor reappointed Frances Spivy-Weber, 68, of Redondo Beach. Spivy-Weber was a consultant to Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Nancy Sutley in 2006 and executive director for policy at the Mono Lake Committee from 1997 to 2006. She served as director of international programs at the National Audubon Society from 1983 to 1992 and legislative assistant at the Animal Welfare Institute from 1978 to 1982. Spivy-Weber earned a Master of Arts degree in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies.

Governor Brown also announced the following changes to the State Water Resources Control Board. Both changes will become effective upon the retirement of Board Chair Charles R. Hoppin in April.

The Governor appointed Dorene (Dee Dee) D'Adamo, 52, of Stanislaus, D'Adamo has been senior policy advisor for Congressman Jim Costa since 2013. She was senior policy advisor for Congressman Dennis Cardoza from 2003 to 2012 and was legal counsel for Congressman Gary Condit from 1994 to 2003. D'Adamo was a visiting instructor at California State University, Stanislaus from 1992 to 1998 and an associate attorney at the Law Offices of Perry and Wildman from 1992 to 1994. She was a policy consultant at Dee Dee D'Adamo Consulting from 1991 to 1992 and legislative director for Congressman Gary Condit from 1990 to 1991. She earned a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. The association strongly supported Dee Dee for appointment.

April 24-27, 2013

Highlights from the Business Session & Speakers

• Doing What Matters - Steering Science to Inform Public Policy 
• by Frank Mitloehner, Ph.D., UC Davis
• U.S. Didn't Fall Off the Cliff...Now What? Impacts: Economy/Markets /Policy                           
• by Jim Wiesemeyer, Senior VP, Farm and Trade Policy, Informa Economics, Inc.
• CGFA Annual Meeting and Report
• by President John Pereira, Frontier Ag Group & EVP, Chris Zanobini
• The U.S. Dairy Market Outlook and What It Means to California  
• by Mary Ledman, Daily Dairy Report, Dairy Economist   
• Weather Trends, Climate Change, and Energy:  Implications for California Agriculture            
•   by Steve Goreham, Climate Science Coalition of America
• Keynote Speaker:   Mack Dryden

Frank Damrell, 74, of Sacramento, has been appointed to the Delta Stewardship Council. Damrell has been counsel at the law offices of Cotchett, Pitre and McCarthy LLP since 2012. He was a judge at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California from 1997 to 2011. Damrell practiced law privately from 1968 until 1997 and served as deputy district attorney for Stanislaus County from 1966 to 1968 and deputy attorney general for the State of California from 1965 to 1966. Damrell earned a law degree from Yale Law School.

Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan, the department's number two executive, surprised the Washington, DC, ag community this week by announcing her resignation from USDA. She did not give a reason for her leaving or a time line on her departure. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack praised Merrigan's leadership as the budget officer for USDA, her direction of the "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" program, and her shepherding of protections for the department's organic program. Merrigan, in a statement released after the announcement and after Vilsack's statement, said she was grateful for the opportunity, and cited "implementation of the 2008 Farm Bill, improving school meals, expanding opportunities for American farmers, spending countless hours in the White House situation room, shepherding budgets through challenging times, and it has been an honor to play a small part in history... I hope that during my tenure I was able to help open USDA's doors a little wider, inviting new and discouraged constituencies to participate in USDA programs. With Secretary Vilsack at the helm...I am able to leave fully confident...USDA will thrive."

On March 8, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) made available the much anticipated new Form I-9, which is available on their website.  (click here)  The new form has a revision date of "03/08/13". While employers may begin using the new form to document new hire eligibility immediately, older forms with a revision date of "02/02/09" and "08/07/09" may be used through May 7.  The new form is officially nine pages, though six pages are instructions.

In addition, on March 11, the USCIS released a revised M-274, Handbook for Employers, also available on the  USCIS web site.  Staff responsible for employee verification should carefully review the new I-9 form as well as the new Handbook for Employers before altering existing work processes.

On Thursday march 13th, the Natural Resources Agency released the first section of the administrative draft of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. The release of these first chapters is another major milestone in the seven-year effort to restore the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta ecosystem and provide a reliable water supply for two-thirds of California's population.

Below is a link to the plan.

http://baydeltaconservationplan.com/BDCPPlanningProcess/KeyAnnouncements.aspx

On December 7, 2012, the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board ("Regional Board") adopted a novel state discharge permit for irrigated agricultural lands located in the Eastern San Joaquin River watershed. (Order No.R5-2012-0016, Waste Discharge Requirements General Order for Growers in the Eastern San Joaquin River Watershed that are Members of the Third-Party Group ("WDR").) The WDR was issued to implement the irrigated lands regulatory program for the watershed, and rescinds the previously issued conditional waiver of waste discharge requirements for that area. Draft waste discharge requirements have also been circulated, but not yet adopted, for irrigated lands in the Tulare Lake Basin.

The WDR, which may serve as a model-Waste Discharge Requirement for growers in other watersheds within the Central Valley, has been challenged by both agricultural and environmental coalitions. Three petitions have been filed with the State Water Resources Control Board, representing over a dozen separate interests in challenging the legality of the WDR. 

The Department of Transportation this week published its final rule on hours of service and formally designating statutory exemptions for drivers hauling agricultural commodities included in last year's enacted surface transportation law. The rules are effective March 15. States are to adopt their rules as quickly as possible. The two exemptions are carriers transporting ag commodities and farm supplies, as well as a statutory exemption from most regulations for covered farm vehicles by farm and ranch operators, their employees and certain other specified individuals under certain circumstances.    

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D, MD), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, is working with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, NV) to keep her committee's FY2013 continuing resolution (CR) on track despite her colleagues' lining up to amend a bill crafted to get Senate approval and fairly quick House agreement. While the House bill takes the current CR and adds additional spending for the Department of Defense and for military construction the last six months of FY2013, Mikulski broadens her bill to include additional money for USDA/FDA, the Departments of Commerce and Justice, and new dollars for federal science programs. The House has quietly signaled it can live with Mikulski's additions. She is also trying to preserve language in her bill that would give federal agencies additional flexibility on how to administer spending reductions required under sequestration.  

At the same time and despite House Speaker John Boehner's (R, OH), warning to the Senate to not "load up" its bill with special interest language, more than 100 amendments have been filed ranging from how USDA approves biotech crops to the labeling of genetically enhanced Atlantic salmon. Only a few amendments received votes when the Senate took up the bill on Thursday, with an amendment by Sen. James Inhofe (R, OK) to exempt farmers from EPA's oil spill prevention regulations being accepted by unanimous consent despite strong opposition by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D, CA), chair of the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee, on which Inhofe sits. Another controversial section of the Mikulski bill is a provision carried over from the current CR that would require USDA to approve the sale and use of biotech seeds even if a court has deemed the environmental assessment of the seeds inadequate.  

While the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) says the provision provides farmers "certainty" in making planting decisions, Sen. Jon Tester (D, MT) is trying to kill the language. Unresolved between Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, KY) is how many more amendments will be acceptable to both sides for debate and votes and this pushed action on the package from this week into next week, with Reid hoping to resume consideration on Monday. Reid contends most of the amendments should not be part of a six-month CR.

Requirements to strictly regulate derivatives trading included in the Dodd-Frank law are under assault in the House Agriculture Committee as the panel held a hearing this week to review seven bills aimed at modifying current law. The goal, said Chair Frank Lucas (R, OK), is to make sure derivatives trading does get so expensive as to discourage companies from using it to hedge risk. The ag panel held the hearing, featuring testimony by Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Gary Gensler and a panel of financial companies, to examine "legislative improvements" to the Dodd-Frank requirements on derivatives. Dodd-Frank regulates the $600-trillion derivatives market for the first time, and its requirements were supposed to increase "transparency" and reduce risk. One bill under review would exempt end users, those who actually use the markets to hedge risk and are non-financial companies, from new margin requirements under Dodd-Frank.  

Another would ensure that "inter-affiliate" transactions, those within the same company, are not regulated as swaps so as not to subject companies to double margin requirements. There's also a bill to "soften" requirements that banks spin off their derivatives trading arms as separate businesses. The CFTC and the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) have wrestled with how to implement the new requirements. Most of these bills were approved by the full committee last year, and some of them actually passed the House, but saw no action in the Senate. As to whether any of the bills will be enacted by Congress this session, ag committee ranking member Rep. Collin Peterson (D, MN) said this, "Despite the bipartisan support that some of these may have, I just don't see how they have a chance of passing the full House."