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CapitalPress.com
McMorris Rodgers calls for ag
committee hearing in E. Washington
Crop insurance,
falling number
problems top
grower priorities
Oregon hemp commission
proposal passes muster
Committee also
approves bills
related to farmland
preservation,
sudden oak death
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris
Rodgers wants the House Ag-
riculture Committee to hold a
farm bill hearing in Eastern
Washington.
McMorris
Rodgers,
R-Wash., said she would
like to see the hearing held
in Pullman so the committee
could also review research at
Washington State University.
“I’m going to keep request-
ing and hoping we can get a
farm bill hearing in Washing-
ton state to give everyone an
opportunity to bring their pri-
orities forward,” she said.
No members of the House
from Idaho, Oregon or Wash-
ington currently serve on the
House Ag Committee.
McMorris Rodgers said
she has a “great” relationship
with the committee chair-
man, Rep. Michael Conaway,
R-Texas, who is still putting
the hearing schedule togeth-
er.
She held a farm bill listen-
April 21, 2017
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press File
U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers wants the House Agriculture
Committee to have a farm bill hearing in Eastern Washington.
ing session April 17 in Col-
fax, Wash.
Growers emphasized to
her the importance of crop in-
surance and the need for more
research on the falling number
problem in wheat, she said.
Lawmakers have already
proposed amendments to the
dairy Margin Protection Pro-
gram. The program allows
farmers to insure the margin
between the average nation-
al milk price and the average
national feed cost. One pro-
posal would require USDA to
calculate margins in each state
instead of nationally.
Critics argue the current
program does not reflect ac-
tual feed costs or milk prices.
McMorris Rodgers said
she will continue to listen to
Eastern Washington growers’
priorities regarding the farm
bill.
SALEM — A proposed
Oregon Industrial Hemp
Commission, which would
promote and research the
crop, has secured the unan-
imous support of the House
Agriculture Committee.
The commission would
be appointed by the Oregon
Department of Agriculture
director by 2018 and decide
how much hemp growers
would pay to fund its activ-
ities.
After passing the House
Agriculture Committee on
April 13, House Bill 2372
has now been referred to the
Joint Committee on Ways
and Means, which decides
budget policy.
The Ways and Means
Committee is expected to
take a particularly critical eye
to legislation this year, given
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press File
A hemp crop grows in an Oregon field last year.
Oregon’s projected budget
deficit.
However, establishing the
commission isn’t expected
to have any fiscal impact on
ODA and the referral isn’t
likely to be an obstacle for
HB 2372, said Courtney Mo-
ran, an attorney specializing
in hemp who supports the bill.
“I don’t foresee any prob-
lem with that at all,” she said.
The committee’s chair-
man, Brian Clem, D-Salem,
reflected on the crop’s long
journey since Oregon law-
makers initially legalized
hemp production in 2009.
16-2/#4N
Back then, Clem said, he
considered the proposal by
former Sen. David Nelson,
R-Pendleton, to be “strange,”
but he now realizes hemp of-
fers a new opportunity to Ore-
gon farmers.
Hemp breeders would also
be able to certify their seed
purity through Oregon State
University, the same as with
other seed crops, under House
Bill 2371.
The proposal, which would
also create a hemp research
pilot program at OSU, was
unanimously approved April
18 by the House Agriculture
Committee for a vote on the
House floor.
In other business:
• The committee unan-
imously voted in favor of
House Bill 3151, which ap-
propriates $695,000 to the Or-
egon Department of Forestry
for the fight against phytoph-
thora ramorum.
Discussion of the fun-
gal-like pathogen, commonly
known as sudden oak death,
elicited expressions of regret
from a couple representatives.
“It’s a shame we didn’t
react properly and we didn’t
pay attention,” said Rep. Sal
Esquivel, R-Medford, of the
disease’s early years.
Rep. Caddy McKeown,
D-Coos Bay, warned against
being “penny wise and pound
foolish” in light of the patho-
gen’s “existential threat.”
The bill has also been re-
ferred to the Joint Committee
on Ways and Means.
An interagency task force
has battled the disease since
2001 in Oregon’s Curry
County — where it’s found in
the wild — and the pathogen
was found in two dozen Ore-
gon nurseries in 2003, which
resulted in restrictions on
shipping ornamental nursery
stock.
• A bill creating the Or-
egon Agricultural Heritage
Fund, which is aimed at farm-
land preservation, passed the
committee 7-2 with a referral
to the Ways and Means Com-
mittee.
The amount dedicat-
ed to the fund isn’t speci-
fied in House Bill 3249, but
rule-making and support for
the commission overseeing it
are expected to cost $190,000
in the 2017-2019 biennium
and $90,000 in the 2019-2021
biennium.
Money from the fund
would buy conservation ease-
ments from farmers, ensuring
their property won’t be devel-
oped, and assist with drawing
up succession plans.
Rep.
Greg
Barreto,
R-Cove, said he understood
the succession problems fac-
ing Oregon’s farmers but he
doesn’t believe it’s the gov-
ernment’s role to buy up de-
velopment rights. He was
joined by Rep. Esquivel in
voting against the bill.
Clem responded that he’s
uneasy about the govern-
ment directly buying land,
but in the case of easements,
the property remains in pri-
vate hands and on the tax
rolls.
• Farmers would be eligi-
ble for tax credits of 25 per-
cent of the value of crops they
donate to food banks under
House Bill 3041, up from the
current level of 15 percent.
The proposal is supported
by the Oregon Farm Bureau
but opposed by Tax Fairness
Oregon, a group that seeks
to preserve state revenues
from tax breaks. The bill was
unanimously approved by the
House Agriculture Committee
and has now been referred to
the House Revenue Commit-
tee.