Farm Bureau, congressional leaders talk major ag issues

CFBF President Bill Pauli, right, meets with Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, center, and Rep. Tom Delay, R-Texas, majority whip, during a recent trip to Washington D.C. Photo/Dave Kranz

By Dave Kranz
CFBF Communications/News Division
Taking a new approach that featured meetings with both House Republican leaders and urban California Democrats, California Farm Bureau members stressed crop-protection, labor and pocketbook issues during a lobbying trip to Washington, D.C., last month.

Thirteen Farm Bureau leaders, including CFBF President Bill Pauli, pursued a strategic lobbying plan on Capitol Hill. The plan aimed to implement Farm Bureau policy goals and draw attention to what the organization calls "the unique challenges facing California agriculture."

In a departure from previous Farm Bureau national-affairs trips, most of the group's two-dozen visits with California congressional offices focused on single issues.

For example, Farm Bureau asked specific representatives to sponsor a bill reforming implementation of the Food Quality Protection Act. The bill, H.R. 1592 by Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, outlines principles for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to follow in implementing the 1996 pesticide law.

"The bill does nothing to change safety targets included in FQPA," Pauli said. "But it gives EPA a chance to finalize its science before it judges farm chemicals."

Farm Bureau and other agricultural organizations say a structured process for evaluating chemicals must be established; otherwise, they say, EPA will remove the registration of some materials without the benefit of full scientific review.

Pauli and Pombo made those points during a meeting with House Majority Whip Tom Delay, R-Texas, the third-ranking member of the House.

"The biggest threat to agriculture in America today is what EPA is going to do to our chemicals," Pombo said.

Delay said he would send H.R. 1592 to the floor quickly once it attracts the necessary cosponsors.

"That's one issue which we can move when it's time to move," he said.

As part of an effort to develop stronger relationships with California's urban legislators, the Farm Bureau delegates held a breakfast meeting with Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald, D-Los Angeles.

Millender-McDonald stressed her position as a centrist who wants to merge California's urban and rural interests.

"We need each other," she said. "The food you grow, we eat in urban areas. We need high-quality food.

"I want you to continue to lead the nation in agriculture and I want to help you do that,"" Millender-McDonald said.

During their Capitol Hill meetings, the Farm Bureau delegates also stressed the need for a long-term solution to farm-labor shortages, for changes to the federal crop-insurance program favorable to specialty agriculture, and for a tax-reform package that was later vetoed by President Clinton.

The farmers focused on trade issues during a special briefing at the beginning of the national-affairs trip.

A counselor from the Japanese embassy in Washington, Masaki Sakai, told the Farm Bureau members that Japan will continue to open its markets to U.S. farm products, but that improved market access will occur deliberately.

Market access in Japan must be sought "step by step, not in a quantum leap," Sakai said.

Policy analysts from the American Farm Bureau and from federal government agencies briefed the farmers about the prospect for further reforms in world agricultural trade and for enhanced agricultural trade with China.

Farm Bureau members participating in the trip included Rick Cosyns, Madera; Katie Delbar, Potter Valley; Carlos Estacio, Turlock; Mark Hansen, Corcoran; Anne Irigoyen, Holtville; Chris McArthur, McArthur; Rick Milton, Parlier; Jack Olsen, Half Moon Bay; David Vasquez, Watsonville; Kerry Whitsen, Kerman; and CFBF board members Steve Pastor, San Jacinto; and Joe Zanger, Hollister.

Permission for use is granted, however, credit must be made to the California Farm Bureau Federation when reprinting this item.