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December 2, 2011
 

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PAST ISSUES/ARCHIVES
 
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'12 Annual Meeting Registration Open

Meeting information, including housing and travel, as well as online registration, for the NCC's '12 Annual Meeting, Feb. 10-12, at the Omni Fort Worth Hotel in Fort Worth, TX, is now available at www.cotton.org/news/meetings/am. A general information booklet also has been mailed to industry members.

Room reservations also can be made by calling 1-800-843-6664. For air and car rental reservations, contact Mary Saemenes, the NCC's travel consultant at Travelennium, at 888-232-1738 or msaemenes@travelennium.com.

The '12 annual meeting will continue under the shortened meeting format introduced at the '11 annual meeting. The convention's first events begin at 1:30 pm on Friday, Feb. 10. The final event, the General Session, begins at 10 am and concludes at noon on Sunday, Feb. 12. The joint session of delegates will convene on Saturday morning at 8:00 am and include the NCC's planting intentions survey. The Saturday luncheon will feature Alex Castellanos, one of the Republican party's best known and most successful media consultants and strategists, discussing "Politics and Election 2012: A Look into the Future."

 
Renewed Effort Made on Pesticide Permits

As of Nov. 1, Clean Water Act (CWA) permits are required for certain pesticide applications.These new permits are the result of a '09 Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decision that vacated an EPA rule exempting pesticides from such permitting.

In March '11, HR 872 was introduced in the House. That bill would amend both the CWA and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide & Rodenticide Act to overturn the Sixth Circuit decision. The bill passed the House with a strong vote, 292-134, under an expedited process known as the suspension of the rules. It also passed the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee on voice vote.

Sens. Boxer (D-CA) and Cardin (D-MD) have put a hold on the bill, preventing any further Congressional action. Sen. Crapo (R-ID) currently is circulating a Dear Colleague letter asking the Senate leadership to allow the bill to go to a vote. Agricultural groups have been urging Democratic Senators to sign the letter with the goal of obtaining 60-plus signatories.

 
NCC Comments on Child Labor Proposal

The NCC co-signed comments to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to revise child labor regulations in agricultural and non-agricultural occupations, including regulations for determining and assessing civil penalties in child labor enforcement proceedings.

An NPRM is a procedure used by government and agencies to gather comments on a topic before drafting a proposed rule. A Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is sometimes announced when additional comments are desired, before an actual proposed rule is submitted to the public for comment. The public has another opportunity to engage when a formal rule is announced.

The proposal would implement recommendations made by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health as well as changes identified through the Department of Labor's (DOL) enforcement actions.

In comments to the DOL, 72 agricultural organizations joined together to criticize the proposal as one which "would significantly curtail the employment opportunities available to youth working in U.S. agriculture…" The full comments are at www.cotton.org/issues/2011/upload/11childlaborcomments1201.pdf.

The comments address misrepresentations in a Human Rights Watch report issued last year that DOL quoted in a press statement; raise concerns about DOL's interpretation of the exemptions for children working for their parents and as student learners; oppose new and additional restrictions on tractor and other power driven machinery use by minors; oppose the overly broad expansion of the Hazardous Occupation Orders (HO) relating to livestock, timber, construction, elevated surfaces, storage bins and silos; and discourage the DOL from issuing a new agriculture HO that would limit exposure of young farm workers to extreme temperatures.

It is unknown when DOL will complete an evaluation of the submitted comments and a final regulation will be proposed, but the NCC remains engaged and is monitoring the process.

The NCC also joined 38 other organizations in a letter to DOL, which asked for another extension in the comment period in order to further analyze the proposal and respond. The letter is available at www.cotton.org/issues/2011/dollet11.cfm.

 
House Committee Approves Dust Bill

The House Energy & Commerce Committee voted favorably (33-16) on H.R. 1633, the Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act.

The bill, introduced by Reps. Hurt (R-VA), Noem (R-SD), Boswell (D-IA) and Kissell (D-NC) on Apr. 15, '11, has broad bipartisan support with 120 co-sponsors.The NCC and National Cotton Ginners Assn., along with 185 other national and state agricultural organizations, signed on to a letter of support for this legislation.

H.R. 1633 develops a two-prong approach to preventing the EPA from regulating dust in rural America while still maintaining the protections of the Clean Air Act to the public's health and welfare. The bill prohibits revision of the current dust standard for one year from date of enactment. It also provides flexibility for states and localities to regulate "nuisance dust."

If there is no state or local regulation in place, the EPA must determine that the type of dust or particulate matter in question causes adverse health effects and that the benefits of further EPA regulation outweigh the costs to the local and regional communities, including economic and employment impacts.

A companion bill, S. 1528, has been introduced in the Senate and currently has 26 co-sponsors.

 
Jackson Announces New Pesticide Chief

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has named EPA's Office of Air official Jim Jones to serve as the acting head of the agency's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP), which has the responsibility for regulation of pesticides. Steve Owens, the current OCSPP director, announced that he will leave the position at month's end.

Jones, a 20-year EPA employee and the current deputy assistant administrator in the Office of Air and Radiation, started his new role on Dec. 1. Beyond his current role, Jones spent four years as principal deputy assistant administrator for OCSPP and six months as OCSPP's acting assistant administrator. He also previously served as director of the Office of Pesticide Programs.

President Obama has yet to announce a nominee to head OCSPP, a position that requires Senate confirmation. He might hold off on naming a new nominee until after the '12 election, given the fight in the Senate over the President's candidate to head EPA's water office. Sen. Barrasso (R-WY) is blocking the nomination of Ken Kopocis to lead EPA's Office of Water, saying he wants the nominee to provide his personal views on the scope of the water law and explain his past efforts to expand the law's scope.

 
Withholding Provision Negated

The House passed and sent to the President legislation which repeals a provision that would require the government to withhold 3% of some payments to contractors.

The bill (H.R. 674) passed the House previously, but was amended in the Senate to attach tax credits for hiring unemployed veterans (219 DTR G-3, 11/14/11). The House voted 422-0 to approve the measure as amended.

The legislation repeals a '05 law that was to be implemented in '13. It would have required the federal, state and large local governments to withhold 3% from payments more than $10,000 to vendors. Congress and business owners said the legislation would constrict the cash flow of businesses and would cost more to implement than it would produce in revenue.

 
House Panel Approves Litigation Costs Bill

The House Judiciary Committee approved legislation in a party line vote of 19-14 that would narrow eligibility requirements for individuals and organizations able to receive payment for legal fees if they successfully sue the federal government.

Bill supporters argue that current law has allowed well-financed environmental groups to push their political agendas at taxpayer expense.

Under current law (the Equal Access to Justice Act), individuals whose net worth is $2 million or less and organizations worth $7 million or less can recover attorneys' fees of up to $125 per hour if they successfully sue the federal government. This act was meant to be an anti-bully law to help small businesses and ordinary American taxpayers defend their rights in litigation against the federal government.

Whether the bill is serving its intended purpose is in doubt, Judiciary Committee Chairman Smith (R-TX) said, contending that attorneys' fees are being paid to certain frequent litigants, particularly 501(c)(3) organizations exempt from the $7 million net worth limitation, for what he called ideologically driven lawsuits.

"American taxpayers should not be forced to pay attorneys' fees and costs in some of these circumstances," Smith said.

H.R. 1996, the Government Litigation Savings Act, would specify that litigants would need to have been directly affected due to medical costs, property damage, benefit denial or lack of payment. It also would: 1) remove the current exemption 501(c)(3) groups from a provision that disqualifies organizations worth more than $7 million, 2) limit awards to not more than $200,000 in any single adversary adjudication or for more than three adjudications in the same calendar year, 3) require payment amounts to be reduced if litigants unreasonably or unduly drag out cases and 4) require the Administrative Conference of the United States to create an online searchable database with information on who receives awards, the amount of awards and other information.

 
Sales Slump, Shipments Steady

Net export sales for the week ending Nov. 24 were 86,600 bales (480-lb). This brings total '11-12 sales to approximately 10.4 million bales. Total sales at the same point in the '10-11 marketing year were approximately 13.4 million bales. Total new crop ('12-13) sales are 408,100 bales.

Shipments for the week were 168,300 bales, bringing total exports to date to 1.8 million bales, compared with the 2.8 million bales at the comparable point in the '10-11 marketing year.

 

 
Effective Dec. 2-8, ’11

Adjusted World Price, SLM 11/16

 78.49 cents

*

Fine Count Adjustment ('10 Crop)

 1.65 cents


Fine Count Adjustment ('11 Crop)

  1.70 cents


Coarse Count Adjustment

  0.00 cents


Marketing Loan Gain Value

 0.00 cents


Import Quotas Open

4


Limited Global Import Quota (480-lb bales)

268,120


ELS Payment Rate

0.00 cents


*No Adjustment Made Under Step I

 

Five-Day Average




Current 5 Lowest 3135 CFR Far East

99.05 cents


Forward 5 Lowest 3135 CFR Far East

NA


Coarse Count CFR Far East

NA


Current US CFR Far East

103.30 cents


Forward US CFR Far East

NA


 

'11-12 Weighted Marketing-Year Average Farm Price  
 

Year-to-Date (Aug.-Oct.)

92.96 cents

**


**August-July average price used in determination of counter-cyclical payment