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Government Affairs Steering Committee
The Government Affairs Steering Committee of the REALTORS® Land Institute oversees government affairs activities, including the development of position papers, calls to action, and related activities, as well as representing RLI on NAR legislative-related committees. Led by the current committee chair, Dean Saunders, ALC, the group assesses government affairs issues—working closely with the RLI government liaison in Washington D.C.— and develops responses at appropriate times following the Government Affairs policies.
If an ALC designee or a candidate has questions or would like to address a government affairs issue, he/she may contact one of the following:
Dean Saunders, ALC, Government Affairs Steering Committee Chair: dean@saundersrealestate.com ; 863-648-1528
Michele Cohen, Managing Director: mcohen@realtors.org; 312.329.8837
Government Affairs Letters
Updated 2/1/12
Senate ag leader announces 2 months of farm bill hearings
Starting this month, the Senate will hold a series of farm bill hearings to address energy, conservation, local food and commodity programs, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) announced yesterday. The hearings will begin what is widely expected to be a long, drawn-out process to craft the 2012 reauthorization of the five-year farm bill.
Stabenow, who chairs the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, said late last year that she hopes the bill will be on the House and Senate floors by May, but interest groups doubt it will be complete by the end of the year. Stabenow is hoping to use a proposal released late last year by congressional agriculture leaders as a basis for shaping the new bill.
The first hearing, to be held on Feb. 15, is titled "Energy and Economic Growth for Rural America" and will address farm bill policies that help farmers and rural businesses with energy innovation. Congressional agricultural leaders, though, have indicated that energy programs are unlikely to receive much support in the bill this year.
At the second hearing on Feb. 29, committee members will consider programs that help farmers make environmental improvements on their lands and set aside acres for conservation. Likely to come up at the "Strengthening Conservation through the 2012 Farm Bill" hearing is a plan to consolidate the farm bill's 23 conservation programs into five distinct categories.
Another issue likely to arise is whether the farm bill should cut acres in the Conservation Reserve Program, the bill's signature conservation program that pays farmers to idle their lands for habitat. This year, contracts for an estimated 6.5 million acres out of 30 million enrolled acres will expire.
It is unclear yet what the demand from landowners will be this year given high commodity crop prices. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is seeking "to enroll as many acres as we possibly can," Michael Scus, acting undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services, said yesterday in announcing a four-week general signup for the program.
Two other Senate agriculture hearings announced yesterday are:
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"Healthy Food Initiatives, Local Production and Nutrition," a hearing on March 14 that will explore policies to enhance local farmers markets and food production.
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"Risk Management and Commodities in the 2012 Farm Bill," a March 21 hearing that will evaluate different risk management tools for farmers.
House GOP rolls out $260B infrastructure bill
House Republicans introduced their five-year, $260 billion energy and infrastructure package today, trumpeting it as an engine for economic recovery. The measure would generally keep funding at current levels while offering longer-term assurances to states that depend on federal transportation funding. The bill -- scheduled for a Thursday markup in Mica's committee -- would also streamline project approvals and redirect some authority to states.
The bill is partially funded with a trio of energy production measures, set to be marked up in the Natural Resources Committee tomorrow. The energy bills would open the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the eastern Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas development, while requiring the Interior Department to lease hundreds of thousands of acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's coastal plain. Republicans also said they plan to attach to the energy and infrastructure package a provision that would override the president's veto of the Keystone XL pipeline.
Democrats and environmental groups have expressed concern with several aspects of the transportation bill, including potential cuts to passenger rail and transit projects. Environmental groups have also raised concerns about the shortened project review process, which they say strikes down important environmental checks.
FY 2012 CRP General Sign Up Coming Soon; Preliminary FY 2012 CSP Sign Up Results
Conservation Reserve Program
On Wednesday, February 1, Acting Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services (FFAS) Michael Scuse announced that the USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) general sign-up will be held this year. This is the third general sign-up since 2006.
According to a media advisory, “over the past three years, USDA has enrolled more than 8 million acres of private working lands on nearly 120,000 farms into CRP. At the same time, CRP has restored more than two million acres of wetlands and two million acres of riparian buffers. Each year, CRP keeps more than 600 million pounds of nitrogen and more than 100 million pounds of phosphorous from flowing into our nation’s streams, rivers, and lakes. Moreover, CRP provides $1.8 billion annually to landowners—dollars that make their way into local economies, supporting small businesses and creating jobs.”
USDA has not yet released information about the sign up period, though last year it fell between mid March and mid April. The last general sign-up enrolled over 2.8 million acres across the country. The announcement of the general sign-up will increase the projected CRP funding level over the course of the upcoming 2012 Farm Bill. It could therefore be a significant with respect to the crafting of the conservation title of the new farm bill.
Conservation Stewardship Program
Also in the news today, the Chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) at USDA announced that NRCS will have to turn away more than 40 percent of Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) applicants this year due to limited program funding.
In an interview with Brownfield Ag News today, the Chief stated, “We were stunned with the size of this…. Over 19 million acres have been offered for sign-up in the Conservation Stewardship Program. We’ll be able to take about 10.8 [million acres], so it’s going to be way over-subscribed, we’re going to have about eight or nine million more acres offered than we can take.”
Typically, NRCS enrolls roughly 12.8 million acres in the program each year, in accordance with the per year level provided by the 2008 Farm Bill. Even under that acreage cap, demand for the program far outstrips supply. The enrollment process will be even more competitive in FY 2012 because funding for the program was reduced by Congress in the FY 2012 Agricultural Appropriations Act.
Government Affairs Resources
If you have articles, white papers, and other resources relating to government affairs and land, please send them to Michele Cohen, Director of Education and Policy at mcohen@realtors.org. |