Wednesday morning, California Farm Bureau President Jamie Johansson joined over a dozen other industry leaders and House of Representative members in calling on the Senate to move forward with the Farm Workforce Modernization Act (FWMA). The legislation would bring about broad changes to the agricultural labor industry by providing a pathway to legal residency for currently undocumented farmworkers and making significant improvements to the H-2A visa system, amongst many other changes. The bill passed in the House in March of 2021 and has languished in the Senate for a year and a half now.

Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Mike Crapo (R-ID) are the two primary sponsors in the upper chamber; however, they have not actually introduced the bill at this time. In recent months, they have reportedly been ironing out differences on several provisions, meaning any newly unveiled bill will likely not look exactly like the original House version. It is our understanding that a compromise has been reached on those outstanding items, meaning they could very well be close towards introducing the bill. The Senate will have a very short window of time to work with in any case, as the lame duck period is expected to last less than a month at this point.

CAFB has been active year-long in working with our coalition partners in shoring up support in the Senate for a possible vote. With a national defense reauthorization bill (NDAA) and a federal government funding bill expected in the coming month, there are certainly opportunities to potentially include FWMA in a broader package of legislation. We will continue to update members as this legislation develops.

Over the weekend, Democratic Senators Mark Kelly (AZ) and Catherine Cortez Masto (NV) both emerged as victorious in their unconfirmed races, guaranteeing that the U.S. Senate will remain in Democratic control regardless of the outcome of the December 6 Georgia runoff between incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker.

In the House, Republicans have now been projected to win control of the lower chamber. As of Thursday morning, they had a 218-211 majority in called races, just enough votes to secure a majority. Seven races still remain uncalled, including five in California; however, one of those races is a head-to-head matchup between two Democrats. Per NBC’s latest projections, they expect the House results to finish around a 221-214 finish when all races are called. If that were the case, Republicans would have managed a net gain of 15 total seats in the House.

While the margin is likely slimmer than most Republicans would have liked or expected, the results will still have powerful implications for the next two years. The GOP will now gain critical control over committee chairmanship in the House, while Democrats could be poised to have broader power over judicial nominations should Sen. Warnock retain his seat in the Georgia runoff. With the Farm Bill coming up in 2023 and expected to get a full extension, both parties will likely need to work closely together to iron out a bill that can receive majorities in both chambers.

Since neither party will hold much of advantage in their respectively-controlled wings of Congress, there is not much room for error for any partisan bills they hope to pass. In addition, while current Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA-23) won the nomination for Speaker in a closed Republican session, he is not necessarily guaranteed the role as of yet, as he will need at least 218 votes in a broader floor vote. Freedom Caucus members are expected to negotiate some increased committee role assignments and rule changes in order to give him the necessary votes needed to win. In the Senate, Sen. Mitch McConnell has once again won in their vote to continue as Minority Leader.

Members of the Leadership Farm Bureau Class and country farm bureau leaders joined California Farm Bureau officers and federal policy staff in Washington, DC this week for sessions and meetings focusing on critical agricultural policy issues to California Farmers and ranchers. Meeting attendees received policy briefings from AFBF and CAFB policy staff, heard from Japanese Embassy officials, received post-election political briefings, and participated in a series of legislative visits on Capitol Hill. Attendees also participated in sessions presenting Members of Congress with Friend of Farm Bureau Awards, an award given to Members who support Farm Bureau positions on policy issues.

Citing ransomware attacks, highly pathogenic avian influenza, and grain shortage due to the Ukraine war, President Biden signed an updated National Security Memorandum last Thursday that directs federal agencies to examine national security threats to food and agriculture. The Memorandum provides presidential guidance to identify and assess the threats of greatest consequence, strengthen partnerships to enhance the resilience of the workforce and coordinate government to act more efficiently and effectively, and enhance preparedness and response. Read the White House fact sheet here and the Memorandum here.

With multiple states continuing to experience severe drought conditions, American Farm Bureau Federation is once again updating their Assessing Western Drought Survey. The survey is open to all members; both those who took previous versions of the survey as well as those who did not. The data collected from this survey will be aggregated and summarized by American Farm Bureau Federation staff economists and be utilized to inform short-term disaster relief needs as well as long-term policy proposals aimed at assisting agriculture with drought preparedness, resilience, and response. Please consider responding today here.

Yesterday, the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) released their annual Thanksgiving survey. The results show that the average cost of a family’s Thanksgiving dinner is up 20% from 2021, now at a total of $64.05. In fact, it is up nearly 36% from 2020 alone. AFBF explained that while inflation is a part of this rise, numerous other factors such as the war in Ukraine and reduced feed outputs have lightened availability for many key goods. Less feed and higher costs means less turkeys being grown here in the US. For more on their 37^th iteration of the survey, click below.

The USDA Office of Partnerships & Public Engagement (OPPE) and the Fresno State University Jordan College of Agriculture and Division of Research and Graduate Studies will host a two-hour virtual workshop on December 1 targeted towards farmers and ranchers, including veteran and beginning farmers/ranchers, focused on grant writing. The information covered will include, but not be limited to, registering on the grants.gov website, the proposal development process, submission requirements, work plans, partnership and grant writing tips.

Earlier this week, USDA announced that they were beginning preparations for rollouts of Phase Two payments under the Emergency Relief Program (ERP, formerly WHIP+). As of now, they have already distributed well over $7 billion Phase One payments, with California only receiving about $315 million thus far—or 4.4% of the total funds. Much of the reason for this is that many of the Phase One payments relied heavily on those already enrolled in pre-existing crop insurance programs. With only about 65 of our 400 commodities covered by a specific program, this left many of our farmers waiting on Phase Two payments. While is news is more of an “announcement of an announcement,” it is our hope USDA moves quickly on these Phase Two payments, particularly as many farmers have now been waiting nearly three years for assistance on some of these disasters. We will continue to update members as we learn more.