Is CDFA Necessary?
On Tuesday, Senate Food & Agriculture Committee chairman, Dean Florez, conducted a hearing to evaluate the consolidation and/or elimination of the California Department of Food & Agriculture (CDFA). Much of the two hour and forty-five minute session was spent grilling CDFA representatives on philosophical, operational and cost/benefit questions relating to: Executive Management, Plant Health and Pest Prevention, Marketing, Animal Health and Food Safety, Weights and Measures and Fairs and Expositions. Since no specific re-organization proposal was on the table, CDFA representatives spent much their time explaining program administration, purpose and funding. Florez challenged CDFA to explain why many of their traditional programs couldn’t be more effectively and efficiently administered by other state and local agencies.
Given the State’s dire fiscal condition, Florez repeatedly challenged the expenditure of taxpayer dollars on programs that he perceived to be of benefit to industry. For example, he questioned the wisdom of spending $200,000 in General Fund monies to detect tuberculosis in dairy cows, when those same funds could be used at the local level to detect tuberculosis in kids. Another committee member questioned the expenditure of public funds for the eradication of the Glassy Winged Sharpshooter when kids are being thrown out of school. Florez continually drove home the message that the state can no longer afford to pay for industry-driven protection. He closed the hearing by saying (as the budget negotiations continue) no state agency will be immune from change or downsizing. Florez intends to submit written recommendations for changing CDFA to the Budget Conference Committee. In
addition to CDFA’s presentation, other witnesses testified including several critics of CDFA’s Light Brown Apple Moth eradication efforts. Interestingly, two groups representing environmental interests, Roots of Change and the California Roundtable for Ag and the Environment, testified in support of CDFA’s leadership on environmental protection and sustainability.
Merrigan Visit
Last week, the Ag Council’s Board of Directors was thrilled to meet with Kathleen Merrigan, the newly appointed Deputy Secretary of the USDA. This was her first official trip to California as Deputy Secretary. During her two day stay, she participated in an industry luncheon on Wednesday in Sacramento, hosted by former Deputy Secretary Rich Rominger. On Thursday, she met with the Ag Council’s Board of Directors. Our lunch meeting provided an excellent opportunity to informally engage the Deputy Secretary on issues (such as trade, water and specialty crop funding) of importance to California agriculture. She’s an impressive individual, who spoke with candor and has a very good knowledge of the timely issues. In addition to Merrigan’s visit, the Board also had a chance to express its congratulations and best wishes to Rayne Pegg, who will be assuming her new
position as Administrator of the Agricultural Marketing Service in early July. Rayne worked for the Council from 2001-2004.
Back Door Legislation
Often times the legislative budget process opens up back door opportunities to slip through adverse statutory policy changes. Currently, agricultural groups are rallying to defeat two such efforts relating to pesticide regulation and volatile organic compounds. The first is an attempt to force the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) to significantly reduce the amount of plant protection materials that are allowed to be used in San Joaquin Valley and other important agricultural areas. The second proposal transfers the authority for pesticide risk assessment from DPR to the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. If adopted, both proposals would dramatically impact the regulation and use of agricultural compounds.
Legislative Update
On the State Budget front, it’s still very difficult to anticipate what may happen to agricultural related programs because there’s no overall budget agreement in place. However, some actions have been agreed to including a one year suspension of $34.7 million in Williamson Act subvention payments funds to the counties. The 10 member Budget Conference Committee consists of three Democrats and two Republicans from each House. When both parties agree on an action, it essentially takes it off the table. In the case of the Williamson Act vote, the motion to suspend was supported 5-0 on the Senate side and 3-2 on the Assembly. One of the dissenting votes, Republican Jim Nielsen from Biggs, indicated that he would continue to pursue a compromise of a 20% cut in-lieu of total suspension. While the odds of success are slim, nothing is set in stone until a budget deal is done.
In addition to the budget, the following bills of interest continue to move through the legislative process:
- CDFA Hotline - AB 1069 (Monning) Requires CDFA's hotline for urban pest eradication spraying to be toll free, staffed by public health personnel familiar with the pesticide being sprayed, record all health complaints into a database and provide a claim report form.
- Eggs – AB 1437 (Huffman) Prohibits the sale of eggs in California for human consumption that do not meet the animal welfare standards of Proposition 2 by January 1, 2015.
- Pierce’s Disease - SB 2 (Wiggins) Extends the operation of the Pierce's Disease and Glassy-winged Sharpshooter Board upon a positive referendum vote. The bill also expands the use of funds to other designated pests or diseases, increases to 14% the amount of funds the CDFA may use for administrative costs and prohibits the use of General Funds for new research or outreach related to new designated pests and diseases.
- Citrus - SB 140 (Corbett) Requires the CDFA to develop and establish a program to protect citrus nursery source propagative trees from harmful pests and diseases.
- Williamson Act -SB 671 (Runner) Creates the authority for an assessor to request a landowner to pay a contingency fee when asking for the contract cancellation that can be used to cover the costs associated with the assessor conducting the cancellation.
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