February 20, 2015
CapitalPress.com
3
Farm groups oppose merging state agencies
Proposed legislation would examine consolidation
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
SALEM — Legislation
that would examine merging
natural resource agencies in
Oregon is opposed by farm
and timber groups as a “solu-
tion in search of a problem.”
Under Senate Bill 24, a
task force appointed by leg-
islative leaders and the gover-
nor would “study the benefits
of abolishing or consolidat-
ing” 14 state agencies charged
with managing natural re-
sources.
Aside from the possibili-
ty of saving money, consol-
idation could improve the
state government’s efficiency
in analysis and permitting,
said Sen. Michael Dembrow,
D-Portland.
However, the task force
may decide that Oregon is bet-
ter off with the current struc-
ture, Dembrow said during a
Fed. 16 hearing of the Senate
Committee on Environment
and Natural Resources.
The Oregon Farm Bureau
is confident the agencies are
already functioning smoothly
and doesn’t think it’s neces-
sary to spend time contem-
plating alternatives, said Katie
Fast, the group’s vice president
of public policy.
Promoting agriculture is an
important part of the Oregon
Department of Agriculture’s
mission but may get swamped
by other priorities if it was
merged with other agencies
that are solely focused on reg-
ulation, she said.
The boards and commis-
sions that oversee state agen-
cies have also developed
expertise that’s specific to
natural resource industries,
Fast said.
These governing bodies are
already asked to handle many
complex issues, said Heath
Curtiss, director of govern-
ment affairs for the Oregon
Forest Industries Council.
If boards or commissions
were merged to oversee a
broader regulatory sphere,
their members would struggle
to develop expertise and would
have little choice but to defer
to agency officials, he said.
It would be possible to
merge natural resource agen-
cies without eliminating de-
partment directors or com-
missions, but at that point the
added efficiency is question-
able and consolidation may
just amount to another layer of
government, Curtiss said.
A larger bureaucracy is
undesirable because it could
encumber the resolution of
regulatory questions or seek to
overrule the decisions of state
agencies, said Mike Freese,
vice president of Associated
Oregon Industries.
The committee also consid-
ered two other bills character-
ized as “agency consolidation
light” by Richard Whitman,
natural resources policy direc-
tor for Gov. John Kitzhaber.
Senate Bill 201 would cre-
ate “natural resources align-
ment coordinators” to work
with regional teams and help
agencies make regulatory de-
cisions, while Senate Bill 203
would establish a “natural re-
sources partnership coordina-
tor” to find cooperation oppor-
tunities with private interests
as well as other government
entities.
Sen. Alan Olsen, R-Canby,
asked why new positions are
necessary since state agencies
are already trying to coordi-
nate with each other.
“We are doing it on an ad
hoc basis and leaving oppor-
tunities on the table that we
should be taking advantage of,
frankly,” said Whitman.
Obama immigration action creates pitfalls for employers
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
Judge stalls Obama’s executive action on immigration
WENATCHEE, Wash. —
So you’re an employer and an
employee asks for your help
in applying for a work per-
mit granted under President
Obama’s controversial immi-
gration executive actions.
By law, you should fire the
employee because he just gave
you “constructive knowledge”
that he’s an illegal worker, said
Tom Roach, a Pasco immigra-
tion attorney.
Constructive knowledge is
when people know facts that
indicate they should know an-
other fact. As far as the govern-
ment is concerned, constructive
knowledge is as good as factual
knowledge, Roach said. In this
example, if the employee asks
for help applying for a work per-
mit it indicates he is in the coun-
try illegally and cannot remain
employed.
Most employers will prob-
ably say they didn’t hear what
the employee said and that they
can’t help, he said.
But if the employee doesn’t
admit he’s illegal and doesn’t
say why he needs his employ-
ment records, the employer can
provide them, Roach told at-
tendees of a recent Washington
Farm Labor Association labor
conference in Wenatchee.
It’s even better for the em-
HOUSTON (AP) — The White House
promised an appeal Tuesday after a federal
judge in Texas temporarily blocked President
Barack Obama’s executive action on immi-
gration and gave a coalition of 26 states time
to pursue a lawsuit aiming to permanently
stop the orders.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen’s de-
cision late Monday puts on hold Obama’s
orders that could spare from deportation as
many as 5 million people who are in the U.S.
illegally.
Hanen wrote in a memorandum accom-
panying his order that the lawsuit should
go forward. Without a preliminary injunc-
tion, he said, the states would “suffer ir-
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
Tom Roach, a Pasco, Wash., immigration attorney talks about
President Obama’s executive action for illegal immigrants at
the Washington Farm Labor Association’s annual meeting, in
Wenatchee, on Feb. 12.
ployer if the employee simply
uses his paycheck stubs as proof
of employment to apply for the
permit, he said.
Three years ago, under his
Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals, Obama gave deporta-
tion deferrals to 600,000 immi-
grants under age 30 if they had
come to the U.S. illegally before
age 15. In November, he extend-
ed that action to 300,000 more
immigrants.
Obama also issued the De-
ferred Action for Parents of
Americans for an estimated 4.5
million adults, who have illegal-
ly been in the U.S. for at least
five years and who have chil-
dren who are U.S. citizens.
A federal judge in Texas has
issued an injunction blocking im-
plementation of that program as
a lawsuit filed by 26 states claim-
ing Obama has overstepped his
authority makes its way through
the courts. The administration is
set to appeal the injunction.
About 90,000 to 100,000
people in Washington state quali-
fy for DAPA, Roach said.
If the program is allowed
to proceed, when people meet
DAPA requirements they will be
issued a temporary work permit
and a Social Security card valid
only with the permit. At that point,
Roach said, employers could fire
employees for previously lying
to them about their legal status,
but they don’t have to. Employers
should treat everyone consistently
and not single out employees they
don’t like, he said.
reparable harm in this case.”
“The genie would be impossible to put
back into the bottle,” he wrote, adding that he
agreed that legalizing the presence of millions
of people is a “virtually irreversible” action.
In a statement early Tuesday, the White
House defended the executive actions issued
in November as within the president’s legal
authority, saying the U.S. Supreme Court and
Congress have said federal officials can estab-
lish priorities in enforcing immigration laws.
“The district court’s decision wrongly
prevents these lawful, commonsense pol-
icies from taking effect and the Depart-
ment of Justice has indicated that it will
appeal that decision,” the statement said.
It’s best to fill out new I-9
forms using the work permit as
the sole document proving em-
ployment eligibility, he said.
Leon Sequeira, a Washington,
D.C., labor attorney, said he’s not
sure a lot of people will apply for
a permit because they may not
want to risk exposure to the fed-
eral government for a three-year
permit if they’ve already gone
undetected for many years.
Paula McKay, manager of
Mar-Jon Labor, an Othello la-
bor contractor, said most farm-
workers are making more mon-
ey than they were five years ago
but if they obtain permits they
may move on to higher-paying
non-agricultural jobs.
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By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
The USDA has deregulat-
ed two genetically modified
apple varieties from British
Columbia for propagation and
sales in the United States.
But the company that de-
veloped the varieties, Okana-
gan Specialty Fruits of Sum-
merland, B.C., may have a
hard time finding growers in-
terested in growing the apples
in the U.S. because of public
concern and opposition to ge-
netically modified foods.
“We’re super excited. It’s
been 57 months of waiting,
so it’s very good news for
us,” Neil Carter, president of
Okanagan Specialty Fruits,
told Capital Press.
The company’s Arc-
tic-brand Golden Delicious
and Granny Smith apples have
been engineered to silence a
gene that causes browning
when sliced. The company is
working on other varieties.
Carter believes non-brown-
ing and GM apples with other
attributes could increase apple
consumption and returns to
growers. He says biotechnol-
ogy is needed to help agricul-
ture meet an ever-expanding
global food demand.
While supportive of the
science, the Washington ap-
ple industry has opposed de-
regulation of the GM apples
because it believes it could
damage apple sales.
Chris Schlect, president of
the Northwest Horticultural
Council in Yakima, said that’s
still the case. He noted plant-
ing orchards is expensive and
that growers will be unlikely
to invest time and money into
varieties that are controversial
and risky.
Two years ago, John Rice,
co-owner of Rice Fruit Co. in
Gardners, Pa., the largest ap-
ple packer on the East Coast,
said he wanted to plant the
GM apples. Ten years earlier,
he lost peach orchards to a vi-
rus that potentially could have
been saved by GM rootstock
had it existed.
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
Neal Carter, president of Okanagan Specialty Fruits, Summer-
land, B.C., is shown with the Arctic Golden and Granny apples at
the Washington State Horticultural Association annual meeting
in Wenatchee, Wash., in 2013. The USDA has deregulated the
genetically modified apples.
But now Rice no longer
wants to plant GM apples.
“My position has evolved,
driven by what seems to be
an increasingly militant point
of view adopted by consumer
groups and the national media
that seems to make GM foods
seem like part of an evil con-
spiracy to make people un-
healthy by selling foods more
profitable to the grower,” Rice
said. “That was never my
idea. I’ve always looked at
it as the same as breeding to
improve apples for the con-
sumer by making them more
flavorful or crisp or nutritious
or requiring less pesticides.”
Rice expressed admiration
for Carter but said he thinks
Carter will have a hard time
finding people in the U.S.
willing to plant Arctic apples.
He said the processing coop-
erative he uses — for apples
for juicing, sauce and pie
filling — has already said it
won’t use any GM apples. He
said he doubts food service
distributors will want to go
there either.
Carter said he sees the food
service industry as a greater
market for his non-browning
apples than the fresh market.
Arctic apples could lessen
costs and boost sales of the
sliced-apple snack business,
he has said. But a leader in
that business, Crunch Pak of
Cashmere, Wash., has said
it has no intention of using
them.
In deregulating Arctic ap-
ples, USDA’s Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Ser-
vice said it found the apples
are unlikely to pose a risk to
plants or the human environ-
ment.
Carter said consumers can
be confident in rigorous re-
view of the apples and that
the USDA found them just as
safe and healthy as any other
apple.
“All we’ve done is reduce
the expression of a single
enzyme. There are no novel
proteins in Arctic fruit and
its nutrition and composition
is equivalent to conventional
counterparts,” he said.
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USDA approves GM apples developed in Canada
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