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Farm Bureau releases final 2007 'Legislative Report'
The last few days of the session is like waiting in line at Disneyland for several days only to have the ride last about 5 and a half minutes. The thrill of the ride is only trumped by the hours of waiting and holding your breathe to see if the ride doesn’t close down for maintenance prior to reaching the front of the line. A lot of hurry up and wait is the case.
Overall, Farm Bureau had a good session. Most of the bills we supported fared well. There are always casualties of war. The focus is on minimizing the casualties. We did that this year. We lost the Ag education bill that addressed the need for funding in the FFA. We will get this one next year.
We only lost one bill during the session realistically. Unfortunately it is one of the bills that Farm Bureau really wanted to see pass. The agritourism bill. This bill defined agritourism in code and provided an affirmative defense for operators and some further protection. The bill got caught on the board in the waning hours of the session and failed to pass.
Vince Lombardi said something similar to “we didn’t lose we just were behind when time ran out.”
I look forward to attending as many of the SISM meetings as I can in the coming weeks to visit with you about the session and what we can look forward to in the next year.
View Final Report.
Farm Bureau staff participates in policy development conference in Washington, D.C.
Farm Bureau staff participated recently in a conference dedicated to improving our grassroots policy development process. FB is well-known to have one of the best grassroots policy development processes in the nation. FB staff attended the conference aimed at further improving that process.
Pilot program pays landowners to allow public access to private lands
Recently, the Utah Wildlife Board approved the Walk-In Access (WIA) Program to be a three-year pilot program in the northern region of Utah. The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) will lease private property from landowners for public access. Throughout the history of wildlife management in Utah, there have been a variety of programs developed and implemented that are aimed at providing the public access to wildlife on private lands. The goal of Walk-In Access is to develop, implement and maintain a walk-in access area program that will provide the public with access to wildlife and high-quality habitats on private lands while compensating participating landowners.
Many species of wildlife in Utah use important habitats that private lands provide. Upland game species like the Ring-necked Pheasant and Mourning Dove are found almost exclusively on private agricultural lands. Species like the Hungarian Partridge, Rio Grande Turkey and Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse spend much of the year on private lands. Many private lands throughout Utah supply high quality aquatic habitats and offer abundant recreational angling opportunities.
A Walk-In Access area is a tract of private land on which the DWR leases hunting, trapping and/or fishing privileges for public recreation. Travel and game retrieval within the WIA is limited to foot traffic only unless the landowner designates roads for vehicle travel on large blocks of land.
In order to qualify for the WIA program, a landowner must meet at least one of the following criteria: own at least 80 contiguous acres, own at least 40 contiguous acres of wetland or riparian habitat, own or provide access to at least 0.25 miles of stream or river, own or provide access to at least a five-acre pond or lake, or provide access to isolated public land. All land and water enrolled into the WIA program must provide suitable habitat and wildlife hunting and/or fishing activities. A DWR representative will evaluate the property. For more information, read P. 1 of the Utah Farm Bureau News.
UFBF officials meet with Rep. Matheson
Utah Farm Bureau Federation leadership and staff enjoyed lunch with Congressman Jim Matheson and his Salt Lake Chief of Staff Mike Rieberg while they visited several weeks ago. The purpose of the luncheon was simply to thank the congressman personally for his recent vote on the issue of CAFTA- DR.
"The issue of CAFTA was of great importance to the Federation and its members, said UFBF President Leland Hogan. “The congressman's favorable vote was paramount to the success in the House.”
The measure (H.R. 3045) was approved 217-215, with 15 of the 202 House Democrats voting in favor of the measure. Congressman Matheson was one of those Democrats. The measure passed by one vote. Congressman Matheson very well was the swing vote.
AFBF analyses show that the trade agreement with the Dominican Republic and several Central American countries (CAFTA) could double U.S. agricultural exports to the CAFTA countries once the agreement is approved by Congress and fully implemented. Because the United States has already reduced import tariffs for products from several Central American countries, those countries already benefit from an open U.S. market. The CAFTA would improve two-way trade by reducing tariffs for U.S. exports to the Central American countries. U.S. agriculture has much to gain from CAFTA-DR. Nearly $1.5 billion in additional ag exports by the end of the full implementation period of the agreement. The gains from all other commodity areas studied by AFBF more than make up for the small loss that will be experienced by the U.S. sugar industry. To a large extent, U.S. agriculture has already “paid for” this agreement due to the existing Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI), implemented in the early 1980s. CBI eliminated or significantly reduced most of the tariffs for ag products coming to the United States from CAFTA-DR nations. Under the CBI, 99 percent of the agricultural imports from CAFTA-DR nations are already entering the United States duty free. Most U.S. commodities have much to gain due to the complete elimination of all tariffs under CAFTA-DR. CAFTA-DR will give U.S. agriculture a competitive advantage over agricultural exports to CAFTA-DR nations from South America, the European Union (EU) and Canada. For example, U.S. apples exported to Costa Rica before CAFTA-DR would be subject to 15 percent tariffs, but due to a bilateral agreement, Canadian apples have been able to enter Costa Rica duty-free. U.S. products entering CAFTA-DR nations prior to this agreement were subject to actual tariffs of between 15 and 43 percent and could have legally been subject to tariffs of between 35 and 60 percent. After full implementation of the CAFTA-DR, the tariffs on all U.S. ag products exported into CAFTA-DR nations decreases to zero.
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