NACIA Washington Update
November 5, 2009

In Washington’s issue-du-jour environment, health care and climate change have exhibited surprising staying power, as they continue to be the top two “attention-getters.” On the House side, Speaker Pelosi’s (D-CA) proposal is currently rumored to come up for a vote on the House Floor Saturday evening. It is evident this is a priority for the Speaker, as it is a rarity for the House to be voting on a weekend unless it is immediately prior to a long recess. In the Senate, health care negotiations continue between Leadership and the Democrats from the Finance and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committees as they try to combine the two bills. 

Senator Boxer’s (D-CA) Environment and Public Works Committee this morning approved her climate change bill, ending a three-day markup that was boycotted by Republicans. The Republicans had requested a full analysis of the bill by the EPA prior to markup, but Chairwoman Boxer did not think it was necessary prior to Committee consideration. Senator Baucus (D-MT) was the only person to vote against the bill (no Republicans were present), citing his concerns with the potential effects of the bill on agriculture and rural America.  He mentioned his continued work on his own version of the legislation, and expressed his desire before the end of the year to report a bill out of the Finance Committee, which he chairs. 

In the crop insurance world, SRA negotiations continue. We expect RMA to make their initial proposal available to the companies in the coming weeks. As we discussed last week, thoughts are that the proposal will “not be pretty,” i.e., focused on finding savings to the government in the program. We speculate that these could come from the areas of A&O and underwriting gains, but it is impossible to know for sure until the proposal is released. 

On the Hill, House Agriculture Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management Chairman Boswell (D-IA) and Ranking Member Moran (R-KS) continue to hold informal roundtable meetings on crop insurance with various parties involved.  As we mentioned previously, NACIA and other industry members had the opportunity to meet with them two weeks ago. This week, they invited members of the producer community to discuss the program.

USDA has also been relatively active. The following are of interest:

• This week RMA issued an advisory to producers regarding the extremely wet harvest conditions. They advise producers to “…contact your crop insurance agent to report a loss, indicating your harvest is delayed because of adverse weather, which is an insured cause of loss. You must then continue to carry out normal and customary harvesting practices, if possible….” Details.
• RMA has also issued an informational memorandum regarding Foreign Material and Dockage claims. The memo asserts that reductions are not are not consistently documented and calculated according to FCIC policies. Details.
• RMA issued a product management bulletin regarding changes in 2009 crop year prices for certain crops in the Crop Revenue Coverage, Group Risk Income Protection, Income Protection and Revenue Assurance programs. Details.
• RMA also distributed a notice regarding a revised Farm Bill amendment that amends the Common Crop Insurance Policy Basic Provisions, Crop Revenue Coverage Insurance Policy Basic Provisions, Revenue Assurance Insurance Policy Basic Provisions, Group Risk Plan of Insurance Basic Provisions, Group Risk Income Protection Plan of Insurance Basic Provisions, and the Income Protection Plans of Insurance. Details.
• Lastly, RMA has also issued the 2009 Crop Year Vegetation Index Interval II Final Grid Indices and the 2009 Crop Year Rainfall Index Interval IV Final Grid Indices. Details.

NACIA is working very hard to ensure that the crop insurance agent’s voice is heard here in Washington, by both the Congress and the Administration. This continued presence can be mitigated only through your participation. Please pay your 2009 dues.  This can be done either online by visiting our secure website or mailing in a check. 

As always, please let us know if you have any questions. 

Brent W. Gattis
NACIA Washington Representative

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