NACIA Washington Update
November 19, 2009

The biggest headline-grabber here in Washington this past week occurred last night, when Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) unveiled his 2, 074-page health care bill. The bill is the result of negotiations between Senate Leadership, Democrats from the Finance Committee and Democrats from the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. It is a combination of the two bill reported out of those Committees, as well as other provisions to try to ensure as much support in the Senate as possible.  The Senate intends to try to get the measure to the Floor for a vote prior to the Thanksgiving Holiday, and Majority Leader Reid has stated that the vote could come as early as Saturday. That will definitely not occur if Senator Coburn (R-OK) is successful with his intention to have the bill read in its entirety on the Senate Floor prior to consideration. That process would take a couple days in and of itself, but would need the presence of a Republican on the Floor at all times to object if the Democrats try to dismiss with the reading. 

The usual second place attention-getter on the Hill, climate change, seems to have slipped a bit. As we previously mentioned, the legislation by Senator Boxer (D-CA) and Kerry (D-MA) was reported out of Committee weeks ago. However, there are at least four other Committees that have jurisdiction over the issue, and it will be difficult for the legislation to be moved forward unless all of those Committees have their say. There has been speculation that some more moderate Democrats would like to push climate change consideration until 2011, after the next election.  However, both Senator Boxer and Majority Leader Reid have expressed their intentions to consider it early next spring.  Senator Baucus (D-MT) is Chairman of the Finance Committee, which is one of the committees of jurisdiction. When voting against the Kerry/Boxer bill, he stated that the Finance Committee climate change bill would be done by the end of the year. More recently, he has been quoted as saying that the bill will be done in January.  Chairwoman Lincoln (D-AR) of the Agriculture Committee (another committee of jurisdiction) has also reportedly indicated that climate change is not her top priority, saying that the main focus right now should be on jobs and the economy. 

In the crop insurance world, the main focus remains on the SRA. No new updates since last week – we are still expecting the first draft of the agreement to be given to the companies by RMA in early December. After the first draft is released, there will be a meeting with the industry and RMA, and then a month for the industry to submit its comments on the first draft.  Currently we expect RMA to take those comments and issue a second draft in mid-January, closely aligned with the annual industry meetings in San Diego. It has been mentioned that RMA will view the second draft as relatively close to final, and they expect to not make many changes other than tweaks around the edges. The intention is to have the whole SRA renegotiation process completed by April. We continue to expect RMA to seek to save $500 million over ten years, most likely through provisions relating to to address under-served areas, alignment of A&O with commodity prices, a rebalancing of A&O, simplification of risk, enhancement of program integrity, examining the rate of return, removal or lessening the volatility in the program, and focusing on outputs rather than inputs.  Of course it is important to note that all of this is speculation, and it is impossible to know for sure what it will contain until the proposal is released. 

In USDA news, the following items may be of interest:

• The FCIC Board of Directors is currently holding a meeting today, in Washington, D.C. For the meeting’s agenda, please click here.  Our next newsletter will provide more information regarding what occurred at the meeting. 
• RMA has issued several guidance and informational documents regarding tomatoes; peppers; peaches; pasture, rangeland, forage and apiculture pilot programs; wheat; cotton; and peanuts. For further information, click here. 
• USDA and the Department of Justice will hold joint public workshops throughout 2010 on competition and regulatory issues in the agriculture industry. An introductory workshop on March 12, 2010, in Ankeny, Iowa, will look at issues facing crop farmers, such as seed technology, vertical integration and market transparency. The concluding workshop, to be held on December 8, 2010, in Washington, D.C., will focus on margins and the discrepancies between prices received by farmers and prices paid by consumers. Oral comments from the public are welcome at each workshop, as well as both paper and electronic comments. Comments should be submitted by December 31, 2009.  Details.
• If any of you are working on peanuts, you may be interested in Secretary Vilsack’s appointment of four members and four alternate members to serve three-year terms on the National Peanut Board, beginning Jan. 1, 2010. For information on the appointees, please click here.
• USDA has awarded $117.3 million in loans and grants to rural communities for water and wastewater projects. The funds are being provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  Details.

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

Brent W. Gattis
NACIA Washington Representative

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