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A12 News wallowa.com House convenes, disagrees over committee appointments By Claire Withycombe Capital Bureau SALEM — In the year’s fi rst meeting of the Oregon House of Representatives Monday, members of both parties acknowledged the leg- islative session’s imminent hurdles and called for com- munication across party lines, despite a disagreement over Oregon House rules regarding committee assignments. The 60 members of the house, including 14 new state representatives, took the oath of offi ce Monday morning. They reconvened in the af- ternoon to review nearly 800 bills. Rep. Tina Kotek, D-Port- land, voted Speaker of the House for a third time, ac- knowledged the “enormity” of the Legislature’s tasks in the upcoming session, which formally kicks off Feb. 1. Several high-stakes issues are looming, including a $1.8 billion budget shortfall, a $22 billion unfunded liability in the state’s public employee retirement system, low gradu- ation rates and a tough rental housing market. Kotek encouraged her colleagues to listen to one another and to their constitu- ents, especially to those with perspectives different from their own; and to “engage in robust, constructive debate.” Rep. Knute Buehler, R-Bend, nominated House Minority Leader Mike Mc- Lane, R-Powell Butte, for Speaker of the House. Mc- Lane lost to Kotek by 10 votes. Buehler criticized the “tone” of the previous legisla- tive session in his nomination remarks and said the Legis- lature faced challenges re- quiring leadership, including the unfunded liability of the state’s retirement system for public employees, “a revenue system which is just not get- ting the job done,” and a lack of affordable housing. He also criticized the dis- continuation of the House Committee on Rural Commu- nities, Land Use and Water, of which McLane was a member. Speaker Pro Tempore Paul Holvey, D-Eugene, later said the committee was the cre- ation of House Democrats and was not in place when he en- tered the Legislature in 2004. Legislators chose Holvey, who replaces now-State Trea- surer Tobias Read, over Ore- gon Rep. Andy Olson, R-Al- bany, as Speaker Pro Tempore. Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontar- io, also called for bipartisan- ship in remarks in support of Olson, saying working across party lines was the answer to roadblocks such as the PERS “debacle,” affordable housing and environmental issues. “All these things, the mag- ic that will get us there, is bi- partisanship,” Bentz said. Rep. Carl Wilson, R-Grants Pass, objected to the adoption of Oregon House rules, in par- ticular the role of the speaker in making committee assign- ments. The speaker appoints both majority and minority party members to committees. The speaker is required to appoint the same proportion of ma- jority to minority members to committees as are in the Ore- gon House as a whole. Legislative committees review legislation in specifi c policy areas. The dispute fol- lowed some hubbub in late December over the removal of Buehler from the House Com- mittee on Human Services and Housing. Republicans contended Buehler was removed due to his skepticism of rent control, while the Speaker’s offi ce said at the time that Buehler, an orthopedic surgeon, was removed in order to serve as a member of a Human Services budget subcommittee that meets at the same time. Holvey said that the new rules include provisions re- quiring the speaker of the house to consult with party caucus offi ces about commit- tee choices. He also said the idea of having caucuses make com- mittee appointments “seemed practically, very, very diffi - cult to accomplish,” and that Kotek had made a practice of reaching out to members of the House to learn their com- mittee preferences. Farmers look ahead to year of unknowns By Eric Mortenson Capital Press More water but maybe less regulation. Expanding yields and shrinking labor pools. Big Ag and Big Data taking root amid the blossoming of small farms. A po- litical climate in which some want to drain the swamp while others clamor to conserve the watershed. Got a crystal ball? Or, more in step with the times, a prognosticating drone? The ag- ricultural outlook for 2017 is cloudy. “I think we’re going into a very un- certain period for producers and the food system, because the new administration coming in will be a little less predictable, perhaps,” said Rose Hayden-Smith, a for- mer county extension agent who edits the University of California’s “Food Observer” blog. California snow water equivalents Percent of the historic average snow water equivalent for Jan. 10, measured in inches. Northern Sierra/Trinity: 111% of normal Redding Central Sierra: 130% of normal 5 Sacramento 80 N Southern Sierra: 171% of normal San Francisco Fresno 50 miles 5 Statewide average: 135% 15 Bakersfield 40 Los Angeles 10 Source: California Dept. of Water Resources 8 Trump and trade No matter how you voted, the incom- ing administration poses a conundrum for some producers. Many of them supported him — Trump took up to 80 percent of the vote in many rural counties — but dis- agree with some of his espoused policies. For example, producers who ship wheat, blueberries, Christmas trees and other goods to Asia favored the Trans-Pa- cifi c Partnership, the trade agreement Trump vowed to cancel. And if Trump’s campaign bad-mouth- ing of major trade partner China are an in- dication of what’s ahead, “Holy cow,” said Hayden-Smith. “We are not a food system in isola- tion,” she said. “If we have poor relations with China and the World Trade Organiza- tion, it could throw the global food system into crisis.” Immigration issues Then there’s Trump’s “build that wall” rhetoric regarding immigration. It worries producers who rely on manual labor to tend and harvest fruits, nuts, vegetables and berries, because they already have a hard time fi nding and retaining enough workers. The second largest Washington apple crop on record this past fall, for example, stretched seasonal workers ever thinner, and employers are still scrambling to fi nd packing shed workers. Reggie Collins, general manager of Chelan Fruit Cooperative in Chelan, Wash., said a bigger crop means more people are needed for more shifts, and he didn’t know of any packer who wasn’t in the same fi x. “We’re not gaining on it,” he said in December. “As many as we hire, we lose about the same number. We’re still short 80 to 100. People move or go to California or Mexico. We’re trying every method we can to hire people.” The Washington Employment Securi- ty Department says there were an average of 54,124 seasonal ag workers per month in the state in 2015 with a low of 28,584 in January and a high of 90,782 in June. It won’t have 2016 numbers until next fall. Washington growers have turned in- creasingly to H-2A visa foreign guestwork- ers in recent years, hiring 13,641 in 2016. California, Oregon and Idaho use far fewer but are beginning to use more. “There is an absolute shortage and as the economy picks up it will only get worse,” said Kerry Scott, program manager of masLabor in Lovingston, Va., the largest provider of H-2A (agricultural) and H-2B (nonagricultural) workers in the nation. Answers to the labor shortage include mechanization and immigration reform. With the latter, growers want work au- thorization for illegal immigrants but the Alan Kenaga/Capital Press greater need, they say, is improvement or replacement of the H-2A program. Regulatory relief Labor shortages and trade disputes may be hurtful — “The TPP is obviously dead” — but some changes accompany- ing a new administration could have “re- ally big benefi ts” for producers, said Gail Greenman, national affairs director for the Oregon Farm Bureau. “I expect a lot of change in the regula- tory burden imposed on Oregon producers for many, many years,” she said. “Regula- tory relief is a big one.” Producers could wave goodbye to the EPA’s onerous “Waters of the U.S.” regu- latory gambit, and might see some “honest to goodness” tax reform, including helpful adjustments to the estate tax, she said. Conventional wisdom holds that a Trump administration will provide “more good opportunities than bad for ag,” Greenman said. Zippy Duvall, president of the Ameri- can Farm Bureau Federation, was particu- larly pleased with the selection of Oklaho- ma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head the EPA. In a prepared statement, Duvall said it was welcome news to all who are “threatened by EPA’s regulatory overreach — and should help provide a new degree of fairness for U.S. agriculture.” Still, it’s unclear whether the presi- dent-elect is paying attention to agricul- ture. Into the last week of December he still hadn’t nominated an ag secretary to replace Tom Vilsack, who held the post for eight years in the Obama administration. Then there’s the 2018 Farm Bill. Some observers wonder if Trump realizes it’s about more than commodities, but in- cludes programs ranging from farmland conservation payments to school lunches and SNAP food stamps. Price outlook The outlook for specifi c ag sectors is mixed. A November article in CropLife magazine said ag retailers believed 2017 would be “another in the current string of down years, with low commodity prices” depressing grower income. But an updat- ed round of conversations showed some retailers now believe 2016 will prove to be the bottom of the down cycle and the coming year will be fl at at worst and may- be up a little. Analysts at Northwest Farm Credit Services expect headwinds in internation- al markets due to a strong U.S. dollar and uncertainty of how the new administra- tion’s scrutiny of trade will affect ag ex- ports. Michael Stolp, vice president of cus- tomer insights at FCS, said things are looking up for dairy farmers but several commodities are currently selling for less than the cost of production. Global milk production is down but U.S. production is up 2 percent and pric- es are strengthening, Stolp said. Class III milk prices are in the high $16s per hun- dredweight, with futures prices out to Au- gust nearing $18, he said. The cattle industry, however, is in about year two of a six-year down cycle, he said, and prices are below the break- even point for most cow-calf producers. Hay markets are showing regional dif- ferences in supply and prices: Low sup- plies in the Southwest but ample supplies of low- to mid-quality alfalfa in the North- west, Stolp said. Wheat prices also remain depressed, due to strong U.S. and global supplies and a projected record harvest in Australia. Strong production in potatoes and onions across the Northwest depressed prices, but the sugar beet and nursery-greenhouse in- dustries are seeing positive returns. Pot-pourri At least one edgy ag sector — marijua- na growers — apparently believes it has little to fear from a Trump administration. Writing at cnbc.com, Grow Solutions Holdings Inc. President Jeff Beverly not- ed Trump has already endorsed medical cannabis use and said recreational pot use is a matter of state’s rights. In addition, several states that provid- ed him critical electoral votes also passed measures legalizing various forms of can- nabis use. Water relief Even political rainmakers like Trump can’t make it snow, but his administration is likely to begin with the best water out- look in years for Northwest and some Cal- ifornia ag producers. The water content of snow draping the Cascade range in Washington and Oregon was more than 160 percent of normal in many areas as of Dec. 21, according to the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. December snowstorms brought snow accumulation to above-normal levels in many areas in Southern Idaho, and well above normal in the Eastern Snake Plain. The U.S. Drought Monitor shows the Pa- cifi c Northwest to be drought-free except in southeastern Oregon, which is still in moderate drought or abnormally dry. However, most of California is still in a drought, and it’s rated as extreme or exceptional throughout the middle of the state and along the Southern California coast. The good news is that a parade of rain clouds since mid-autumn has put many ar- eas in Northern California above their nor- mal seasonal rainfall totals. Redding, for instance, has sopped up 17.8 inches of rain for the season as of Dec. 21, well above its average of 10.47 inches, according to the weather service. But California’s snow water content was only 64 percent of normal statewide and 66 percent of normal in the northern Sierra, according to the state Department of Water Resources California Data Ex- change Center. Through the remainder of the winter, below-normal rainfall is most likely for Southern California while the remainder of the state faces equal chances of above- and below-normal precipitation, the cli- mate center forecasts. “If this trend continues, that would be awesome,” said Mike Kochasic, a NWS forecaster in Sacramento. “We still have a long way to go, but it’s a good start.” January 11, 2017 Wallowa County Chieftain