May 3, 2024

House and Senate Ag Leads Release Competing Farm Bill Frameworks

On Wednesday, competing frameworks for the Farm Bill were released by the primary leads for the legislation on both the House and Senate sides. Senate Ag Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) released an overview and a section-by-section summary of their version of the 5-year reauthorization, while House Ag Chairman GT Thompson (R-PA15) countered with their own summary. Both plans would offer significant improvements for farmers and ranchers across the country, including those here in the west. Some key proposals include improvements to crop insurance protections (particularly for specialty crop producers), an expansion of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), and more money for several grant and market access programs.

While no text was revealed yet, we can expect both versions to be extremely lengthy and filled with changes that would impact nearly all facets of American agriculture. CAFB will be providing fuller reviews in the coming week. Despite the announcements, significant challenges remain ahead. While the House expects to move forward with a markup of their bill on May 23^rd, there is no guarantee that it will pass out of committee just yet, with or without bipartisan support. Changes to the nutrition title remain key roadblock between both sides, with Democratic leaders suggesting the Republican proposals on adjusting the base food plan for SNAP recipients are a complete nonstarter. There is some belief that the Senate release was intended to give House Democrats political coverage as they prepare to vote against the bill in markup. 

DOL Issues Worker Protection Rule

Late last week, the US Department of Labor (DOL) unveiled their final rule on expanding worker protections for temporary farmworkers. The bulk of these provisions impact the H-2A visa program, of which California is the second largest utilizer amongst all states. When originally introduced back in September, much of the proposal was highly criticized by many of those in the agricultural industry, including CAFB, AFBF, and other ag organizations. The proposal largely favors organized labor groups at the expense of employers and even farmworkers.

Unfortunately, despite some indications that the DOL would make changes based on these criticisms, it appears only slight alterations were made. Some of the key changes include: employers will effectively be required to implement any updates to the Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) immediately; H-2A workers will now be allowed to invite representatives from organized labor groups onto their employer-provided housing; employers will have to offer more documentation and reasonings for firing; and several other changes. The H-2A system has been plagued for years with faulty wage calculations and tedious processing, but very few of these issues have been addressed through regulatory rulemaking. Rather, the DOL and other agencies have continued to make it less worker and employer friendly while costs continue to rise. CAFB is working with other groups to see what options are available to prevent this from going into effect.

APHIS Electronic ID Rule for Certain Cattle and Bison Finalized

On April 26^th, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) unveiled a final rule to try and bring full adoption of electronic identification to US cattle herds. Per estimates from USDA and other groups, roughly 90% of the industry utilizes some form of electronic tagging for their herds, with the remaining portion mostly consisting of smaller family operations. APHIS’ intent is to focus particularly on those that are moved in interstate transit. With the recent HPAI outbreaks amongst dairy cattle, it has served as a recent example of how APHIS hopes the changes will bring better traceability to the US cattle supply should disease or other maladies impact the industry.

The final rule applies to all sexually intact cattle and bison 18 months of age or older, all dairy cattle, cattle and bison of any age used for rodeo or recreation events, and cattle or bison of any age used for shows or exhibitions. The rule requires official ear tags to be visually and electronically readable for official use for interstate movement of cattle and bison, and revises and clarifies certain record requirements related to cattle. A fuller readout of these changes can be found below.

Leadership Farm Bureau Advocates in DC

Throughout this week, CAFB’s federal policy team assisted with the 2024 Leadership Farm Bureau (LFB) class’s annual trip to the nation’s capital. The class held several training sessions and participated in several policy-focused meetings. This included meeting with several USDA officials, nearly a dozen California legislators, and agricultural representatives with the Canadian Embassy. The timing proved fortuitous to discuss the Farm Bill across all of those meetings; however, class attendees were also able to raise many of the specific challenges facing their counties and regions as well. CAFB thanks the LFB class and their leadership for making this DC trip a memorable and productive experience! 

Matthew Viohl

Federal Policy, Director

Erin Huston

Federal Policy, Consultant

Isabella Quinonez

Public Policy Coordinator