On February 8, the House Agriculture Committee held an organizational hearing setting the rules and oversight plan for the Committee for the 118^th Congress. This comes following the announcement by Chairman GT Thompson (PA-15) naming Subcommittee Chairs and subcommittee jurisdiction. Of note, Rep. Doug LaMalfa (CA-1) will service as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Forestry, a newly created subcommittee intended to elevate the committee’s focus on public and private forest lands, active forest management and wildfires. Ranking Member David Scott (GA-13) announced all but three Democrats assigned to his committee, which includes California Rep. Jim Costa (CA-21). For the time being, Rep. Costa remains the only official democratic member from California, a significant drop from the six that served in the previous Congress. Several members, including a handful of California democrats, have submitted waivers to sit on the committee. The waivers have yet to be approved.

The House Agriculture Committee is scheduled to hold a 2023 Farm Bil listening session on Tuesday, February 14 from 10 AM to 12 PM at the World Ag Expo Heritage Complex Banquet Hall. Committee Chairman GT Thompson (PA-15) will attend and be joined by Rep. David Valadao (CA-22) along with bipartisan Members of the House Agriculture Committee. Individuals wishing to provide testimony during the listening session should complete the committee’s digital comment card. A live stream of the event can also be viewed on the House Agriculture Committee website.

The Aerial Detection Survey: 2022 Summary Report, released this week by the U.S. Forest Service, has revealed that there are 36.3 million dead trees across 2.6 million acres of federal, state, and private land this year in California for 2022 with the central Sierra Nevada Range and areas further north showing the highest mortality rates with true firs being the most impacted. The increased level of mortality is credited to the combination of extended drought, overstocked forest conditions, insect outbreaks, and disease. Additional information on the survey can be found here.

USDA announced this week that it has developed a simplified direct loan application to provide improved customer experience for producers applying for loans from the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA). The simplified application, reduced from 29 to 13 pages, is intended to enable producers to complete a more streamlined application. Producers will also have the option to complete an electronic fillable form or prepare a traditional, paper application for submission. Both the paper and electronic versions of the form will be available starting March 1, 2023. For more information on this announcement, visit the USDA FSA website here.

BLM and the USDA Forest Service announced that the 2023 federal grazing fee will remain at $1.35 per animal unit month (AUM) for public land administered by both agencies. Established by Congress in the 1978 Public Rangelands Improvement Act and continued via a 1986 presidential Executive Order, the federal grazing fee is determined by a congressionally mandated formula. It will take effect March 1, 2023 and applies to grazing permits and leases administered by the BLM as well as permits administered by the Forest Service. View BLM’s announcement here.

Partnered with outside tax experts, the USDA plans to host two upcoming webinars on navigating the challenges inherent in our tax system. On February 22^nd, they will host one on “Farm and Ranch Strategies” and on March 22^nd they will cover “Schedule F (Profit or Loss From Farming).” Both webinars are free to the public and offer advanced registration. We encourage members to register if they’re looking for some added information to help ease the ever-stressful tax season. For more, click below:

Late last week, the USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) announced that they would be hosting an informational session in March to go over some of the key areas they’ve been actively working to improve. Some of these include their recent attention on cover crops, prevented planting, Whole Farm Revenue Protection, and the latest on specialty crops. The informational session is open to the public and should help provide a clear overview of the latest developments in these areas. To RSVP to the webinar, which will be March 13^th at 10:00 PST, click here.