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Legislative Report (March 2006) |
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On February 27, 2006, three delegates from Illinois ventured to Washington, D.C. to attend the NASCOE Legislative Conference. Those that attended were John Baird (Jersey), Tammy Bohlmann (Iroquois), and myself (Lee). Although the 27th was a travel day for most NASCOE members, most of the NASCOE Board members and Officers were in WDC a few days earlier having executive meetings.
The next day on the 28th, we all attended the main meeting called to order by NASCOE President, Dan Root of Minnesota. Dan informed everyone that NASCOE decided on only 2 position papers:
1) Employee Benefit 2) 2007 Baseline Staffing & Budget
The position papers may be viewed on the NASCOE website at www.nascoe.org/legislative.htm.
Dan was very brief but emphasized the importance when meeting with our congressional contacts or congressmen to be honest, positive and be yourself. Don’t sway from the facts and do not try to impress your contacts. Our legislative people have practically seen it all and it will only tarnish our efforts when discussing key issues contained in our position papers. Dan then introduced Teresa Lasseter, FSA Administrator and she was greeted by a very warm standing ovation.
Teresa welcomed everyone and thanked NASCOE for inviting her to the Legislative Conference as it wasn’t that long ago she attended some of the legislative conferences as a delegate from Georgia. She then shared with the group her history in ASCS and FSA starting out as a temporary employee right out of high school. She worked as a Program Assistant, Chief Program Technician, COR, CED, and then worked for the State of Georgia as the Executive Director of Early Ag History. She then returned to FSA and became the SED of Georgia. While she was speaking, Ag Secretary, Mike Johanns appeared and Teresa temporarily paused her talk to introduce Secretary Johanns.
Mr. Johanns started out sharing a few stories relative to his experiences in Nebraska and his childhood in Iowa. He then related how important our job is with FSA and that we demonstrated a tremendous loyalty to what we do. FSA employees have exemplified the following:
He stated that FSA Tomorrow is dead, but there is a need to do something to make FSA more efficient but will follow the provisions set forth by congress. The pressing issue is the federal deficit. We owe. How will we deal with it? $93 billion budget and need to look for ways to trim without impeding services.
One of the items the Secretary spoke of was the avian flu. It will become top billing as it is just about everywhere. Also mentioned was the Food & Ag Initiative of 2007 where he mentioned $85 million for energy related projects.
Secretary then talked about the next Farm Bill. It will be budget driven and we may see specialty crops having equal revenue as the other program crops where 92% of the subsidies go to 5 primary crops; cotton, rice, tobacco, feed grains and oilseeds.
The Secretary concluded his visit with NASCOE and Teresa Lasseter resumed her discussion with the NASCOE crowd. She then talked about conservation and its continued popularity. She spoke of technology and how agencies will need to work together. And again, revisited office structuring and the process requiring the involvement of the SED and STC to analyze their state’s resources and develop plans in pursuing office consolidations. Because of the pressing need to save money or reduce expenditures, the need for restructuring FSA to be more efficient will be a priority.
We took a 15-minute break and quite a few people took the opportunity to visit with Teresa and the new Deputy of Field Operations, Steve Connelly who replaced Doug Frago. Both got swarmed, but the interaction was friendly and most just wanted to shake their hands and wish both of them well.
The meeting resumed with Dan Root introducing Russell Middleton, House Ag Committee representative. Russ gave an overview of what’s happening with the House Ag Committee and the early efforts with the new Farm Bill. Congressional members are conducting field hearings, 2 of which have been done with 4 more planned. Commodity groups are jockeying for position as well as the specialty groups. There are 2 big hurdles to deal with that will impact the Farm Bill and those are trade and the deficit. Hard to imagine for congress to attempt to finalize anything associated with the farm bill before WTO meetings. Might be well into the summer or late-summer before things start taking shape at the earliest. It would be premature and provide the other countries involved with WTO too much material to argue. Plus, we have to get a handle on the deficits. Projections have it at $270 billion for 2007 and $259+ billion for 2008. All this would have a drastic impact on the new Farm Bill.
Russ also emphasized when talking to your congressional contacts to convey our message with clarity and purpose. He also mentioned animal ID, which is really an important issue. Simply because it involves sensitive information that should be owned by the government and not by the private sector. This is where FSA should be in the forefront because of our accessibility to all the farmers and ranchers. Russ went on about conservation delivery system and (based on his own opinion) needs improved with FSA as the lead agency.
NASCOE also presented two awards called the Clyde Payne Legislator of the Year. Clyde Payne, Florida was the 1st secretary-treasurer of NASCOE who worked tirelessly with congressional contacts. Representative Mark Prior of Arkansas was presented the award and he shared a few comments. He echoed a lot of what Russ shared. Rep. Prior was instrumental in drafting an amendment to stop FSA Tomorrow and to add language-requiring hearings prior to closing County FSA Offices. He indicated that NASCOE needs to be part of the process as well as FSA needs to be specifically part of the new Farm Bill. He also stated it was good we are in WDC, now as the hearings for FY07 start next week. The Senate will conduct their hearings later in the summer. Several issues are still basically in the air as the WTO meets in of April. Conservation (CSP) may get hit with concessions to fund other needs. There may be a disaster bill, primarily for the rice states because there are elections in those states.
The other recipient of the Clyde Payne Legislator of the Year Award went to Representative Jack Kingston of Georgia. He was not able to attend, but the award was accepted by Chad Scruggs a CED from Georgia.
There was a discussion of PAC. NASCOE had zero success with Mr. Little, but will try again. The two largest PAC in ag are Beets in Minnesota and the Dairy organizations. NASCOE will publish more information down the road.
Deb Esselman, CED from Wisconsin shared the military website and asked everyone to share it with COF employees and add a link from their state’s websites. The website is: www.usdamilitaryfamilies.org/.
Others that spoke were Clara Ruth Saint for RASCOE, Roger Richardson, President of NAFEC, Larry Segars, NASCOE Treasurer, and Bonnie Heinzman, NASCOE VP. There were 30 new attendees to the conference including Tammy.
The primary conference ended and everyone was divided up to his or her respective areas after lunch. We attended the MWA meeting and listened to Mark Van Hoose and Tammy Eiby. They went over the position papers and appointment schedules. Then Dan Root joined our group and shared a few thoughts concerning our appointments.
John Baird, Tammy Bohlmann, and I went to our room around 4:30 pm and went over our appointments and prepared the position paper packets. We talked about how we were going to cover the information and what items that need highlighted that would be beneficial for our Illinois congressmen. We also discussed who would just get the packets as “drop offs”.
The next day on March 1st, we headed for our appointments. We walked about 4 blocks to the Metro. It was a new experience for Tammy. A guy for a half block wanting money followed us. We ignored him and kept on walking. We finally got on the “blue” train and headed for Capital South. Our appointment schedule looked like this:
We were unable to secure appointments with Senator Durbin and Rep. Weller’s offices. It was the first time we had that problem. Another key appointment that we were unable to set up was Rep. Mark Kirk’s office as he was out of town as well as his Legislative Assistant, Kristy Cole. Because our appointment with Senator Barack Obama’s office was delayed, we had to cancel our appointment with Rep. Danny Davis. So we added several to our “drop off” list, which is OK because they were expecting the informational packet.
Senator Durbin’s Ag LA, Ann Steckel was recently hired to work for American Farm Bureau in WDC. She was a real good contact and she will be missed. However, we did get to meet personally with Rep. John Shimkus and his Ag LA, Bill Olson. It was a good discussion and lasted almost 30 minutes.
Whenever we had a suitable time gap between appointments, we dropped off the informational packets that contained the position papers and our NASCOE business cards so they can call us if they had any questions. So there was a lot of walking. There’s a tunnel that connects the Longworth, Cannon and Rayburn buildings underground that saved us a lot of time clearing the security screenings. This was important as John kept triggering the metal detectors.
Our appointments went very well and it helped having only two position papers, but that didn’t stop us from discussing a few other issues such as animal ID and the COC system. Some of the issues outlined in the Employee Benefits position papers also impact the congressional aides, too. They are under the same retirement system as we are. So it made for good discussion. Biggest hurdle is that any change is perceived as costing the government money. However, our recommendations made practical sense such as leave donation between CO and GS employees.
I would recommend everyone read the position papers that are located on the NASCOE website under “Legislative”. The NASCOE Executive Committee and Officers had a considerable discussion deciding what to present to our congressmen. I believe at this time it was a prudent decision. It was easier for us to discuss the two papers instead of the 4 or 5 that we normally have, simply because time is limited and you normally get 15-20 minutes to discuss these with the contact person. If time allowed, we were able to squeeze in an additional topic or two.
Overall, I think we got their attention on key points of the two papers. And I feel we will see some type of language in the next farm bill that will specifically cover FSA funding for implementing certain programs and for handling office consolidations. Sure beats depending on emergency appropriations to get funding to bring on temporary employees and to implement added programs.
I would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of John, Tammy and myself, to thank IASCOE membership for providing us support and for showing confidence in having us attend the Legislative Conference in WDC. It’s an experience and obligation that needs to be shared.
Respectfully submitted,
Jerry Quinton, Legislative Chair John Baird, Past IASCOE President Tammy Bohlmann, IASCOE 2nd Vice-President
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