CALIFORNIA CATTLEMAN WEEKLY

March 11, 2024

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President Biden Signs Six-Bill Federal Funding Package
President Joe Biden on Saturday signed a six-bill appropriations package funding more than a dozen federal agencies through September 30. The move caps off five months of contentious negotiations in Washington, D.C. during which a series of continuing resolutions were passed to narrowly avert government shutdowns.

Of greatest interest to cattle producers, the appropriations package addresses funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Transportation. Specific provisions of the legislation include:

• An extension of the Electronic Logging Device exemption for livestock haulers (note that the California Highway Patrol retains an equivalent exemption so long as the federal exemption remains in place);
• $15 million for USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to purchase tags to assist producers in complying with the agency’s proposed animal disease traceability rule;
• An extension of Livestock Mandatory Reporting;
• An extension of the Cattle Contracts Library pilot and an additional $1 million to fund that pilot; and
• A prohibition against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listing the Greater Sage Grouse under the federal Endangered Species Act.

This is the first of two funding packages that must pass to finalize the FY 2024 federal budget. Lawmakers have until March 22 to finalize the second package of appropriations bills and avoid a partial government shutdown.

SEC Excludes Scope 3 Emissions from Final Climate Disclosure Rule
The federal Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday finalized its regulations governing corporations’ “Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors.” The final rule is much narrower than the regulation initially proposed two years ago; it does not require corporations to disclose greenhouse gas emissions related to their supply chains (so-called “scope 3” emissions), and it gives companies greater leeway in disclosing their direct emissions (“scope 1”) and energy use (“scope 2”).

The federal rules come after California last year established its own corporate climate disclosure law, SB 253 (Wiener), which requires corporations with annual revenues of at least $1 billion which do business in California to annually disclose their scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. CCA has expressed significant concern that the state law could harm small family ranches that are within one or more major corporation’s supply chain.

As previously reported in California Cattlemen Weekly, business interests earlier this year sued to overturn SB 253 (that lawsuit is still pending). The SEC’s recent move, while establishing a more workable reporting framework for corporations nationally, creates additional uncertainty regarding the application of California’s broader mandate. CCA will continue to keep members apprised of developments relating to the enforcement of SB 253 and the latest SEC rule.

FSA Offers Assistance for Winter Storm Damage
The California state office of USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) has announced that the agency “has technical and financial assistance available to help farmers and livestock producers recover from” recent severe storms in the state. For information on available USDA Disaster Recovery Assistance, see FSA’s news release or see the February 20 edition of California Cattleman Weekly.

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Industry News

USDA Announces Conservation Reserve Program General Signup for 2024 USDA Farm Service Agency “The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that agricultural producers and private landowners can begin signing up for the general Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) starting March 4 and running through March 29, 2024. The announcement was made earlier today by Zach Ducheneaux, Administrator of the USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) at this year’s National Pheasant Fest, in Sioux Falls, SD.” To continue reading, click here.

NCBA Statement on Latest Packers and Stockyards Rule National Cattlemen’s Beef Association “NCBA’s concern with this regulation has always been based in the rule’s unforeseen impacts to standard business practices. We have remained consistently opposed to any discriminatory practices in the marketplace. While we still have concerns about the unintended consequences of the rule, we are pleased that USDA has addressed most of our significant concerns between the proposed and final rules. We continue to urge USDA to ensure this rule remains focused on its stated objective—with which we wholeheartedly agree—and does not stray into extraneous, unrelated subject matter discussed in the proposal’s preamble.” To continue reading, click here.