July 3, 2024

We are excited to announce the launch of the Advocacy in Action newsletter, which will merge our Government Affairs, Federal Policy, and Legal newsletters into one comprehensive source. The newsletter will be released every other Friday starting July 12th.

USDA Issues Recommended Decision Proposing Amendments to all 11 Federal Milk Marketing Orders

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has proposed amendments to the uniform pricing formulas for all 11 Federal milk marketing orders, following a 49-day national hearing from August 23, 2023, to January 30, 2024. These changes, based on 21 proposals from the dairy industry, include updates to milk composition factors, revisions to the base Class I skim milk price formula, and adjustments to manufacturing allowances for cheese, butter, nonfat dry milk, and dry whey. Additionally, USDA recommends removing certain cheese prices from the Dairy Product Mandatory Reporting Program and updating Class I differential values to better align with current market costs.

The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), which provided testimony during the hearing, supports these proposed amendments. Key recommendations include setting milk composition factors at 3.3% true protein, 6.0% other solids, and 9.3% nonfat solids, and revising the base Class I skim milk price to reflect the higher of advanced Class III or Class IV skim milk prices. The proposal also introduces a rolling monthly Class I extended shelf-life adjustment to ensure better price equity for extended shelf life products. A fuller analysis of these changes can be viewed below:

OSHA Announces Proposed Heat Illness Standard Rule

Earlier this week, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released a proposed rule on establishing an indoor and outdoor heat illness standard that would apply to employers across the country. California is one of just a handful of states that already had existing standards in place, and it appears several of the ideas were mirrored in this proposal. In cases where federal and state worker safety standards are similar or cover similar areas—the prevailing regulation goes to whichever is considered the more stringent of the two. CAFB will be conducting a thorough review to see whether this rule would impact employers here in the state. OSHA estimates that roughly 36 million new workers would be covered by their proposal, which does not have a firm comment period deadline as of yet.

CAFB Submits Joint Letter on

Sage Grouse Proposal

Late last month, CAFB submitted a joint letter with the California Cattlemen’s Foundation regarding a Bureau of Land Management reevaluation of plans to enhance greater sage-grouse conservation on BLM federal lands in Western states. This marks the second revaluation of plans since 2019. BLM released a Draft Resource Management Plan Amendment (RMPA)/Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) to analyze potential amendments to land management plans to strengthen sage-grouse protections. While the greater sage-grouse is state-managed, BLM lands across ten Western states are impacted by the RMPA and DEIS including California. BLM has identified a list of issues in the DEIS including wild horses and burros, livestock grazing, Areas of Critical Environmental Concern, lands with wilderness characteristics, and water resources.

The DEIS document includes six alternatives, and CAFB’s joint comment letter voiced preference for Alternative 2, or the no action alternative, as it reflects the management currently taking place per the 2019 plan amendments. The letter also acknowledged Alternative 5 as the agency’s preferred alternative and included specific comments for the BLM’s full consideration. Staff: Erin Huston; ehuston@CFBF.com

House NDAA Includes Amendment Banning Future DJI Drone Sales

While the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) typically doesn’t have much of an impact on agriculture, we did want to flag that the House version of the annual defense bill currently includes a provision to ban the future sales of Shenzhen DJI Sciences and Technology (or DJI) drones in the US over national security concerns. It is estimated that DJI drones make up at least 75% of the commercial drone market here in the US. Drones have become an increasingly utilized tool for agricultural producers, particularly in terms of precision agriculture and pesticide application.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R, NY-21) has spearheaded efforts to ban DJI’s technology domestically, citing the company’s ties to the Chinese government and security assessments that suggest the company could utilize their technology to compromise our telecommunications infrastructure. Letters have been submitted to various national security agencies, asking for them to publicize their threat assessments of DJI so that others may better understand these potential threats. In the meantime, it is not clear if the Senate will replicate this provision. There were hundreds of Republican amendments in the House version, which the Democratic-controlled Senate may not be as interested in. Given the potential impacts to the drone market here though, CAFB will continue to follow this issue closely. 

Matthew Viohl

Federal Policy, Director

Erin Huston

Federal Policy, Consultant

Isabella Quinonez

Public Policy Coordinator