Lucas Re-elected House Agriculture Committee Chair

West Coast Ports Strike Ends

'13 Annual Meeting Registration Open

Beltwide Cotton Conferences Deadline Approaching

Bird Conservancy Targets Neonics

Water Quality Trading May Be Limited For Farmers

Safety Advocates Push for I2P2

Cotton Board Appointments Announced

Sales, Shipments Strong

The House Republican Conference re-elected Rep. Lucas to serve a second term as chairman of the House Agriculture Committee during the 113th Congress.

Chairman Lucas issued a statement that read in part, "It is an honor to serve in this leadership position and I am grateful for the opportunity to continue working on behalf of America's farmers, ranchers, and rural constituents. And, we advanced a strong, reform-minded, fiscally responsible farm bill that can save billions of dollars and provide certainty to our agricultural producers. This process is not complete though I am confident that it's just a matter of time."

Chairman Lucas announced the new Republican Members who have been recommended by the Republican Steering Committee to join the Agriculture Committee for the 113^th Congress. The recommendations are expected to be officially approved by the Republican Conference in January.

The new Republican Members are Reps. Dan Benishek (MI-1) and Jeff Denham (CA-19); and Reps.-elect Chris Collins (NY-27), Rodney Davis (IL-13), Richard Hudson (NC-8), Doug LaMalfa (CA-1) and Ted Yoho (FL-3). There is one vacancy remaining to be filled. Republican Members expected to return to the Committee are: Lucas (OK), Goodlatte (VA), King (IA), Neugebauer (TX), Conaway (TX), Thompson, (PA), Gibbs (OH), Scott (GA), Tipton (CO), Southerland (FL), Crawford (AR), Roby (AL), DesJarlais (TN), Gibson (NY), Hartzler (MO), Ribble (WI) and Noem (ND).

The House Republican Steering Committee approved the following six Republican Members to join the 113th Congress' House Appropriations Committee: Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA-3), Chuck Fleischmann (TN-3), Jeff Fortenberry (NE-1), David Joyce (OH-14), Thomas Rooney (FL-16), and Rep.-elect David Valadao (CA-21). That Committee recommended the following Republican Members join the 113^th Congress' Ways & Means Committee: Reps. Tim Griffin (AR-2), Mike Kelly (PA-3), Tim Scott (SC-1) and Todd Young (IN-9).

Harbor employers representatives and officers with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 63 Office Clerical Unit (OCU) reached agreement on Dec. 4 on terms of a new labor contract, ending the OCU's eight-day strike at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Though the OCU has limited membership, its strike was backed by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union whose 10,000 members refused to cross picket lines. The strike had closed almost all of the terminals at the two points, which forced freighters to anchor at sea or deliver to different ports.

Earlier, a coalition (that included the NCC) representing US manufacturers, farmers, wholesalers, retailers and transportation/ logistics sent a letter to President Obama expressing deep concerns about the situation and urging the Administration to use whatever means necessary to get labor back to work.

The letter is on the NCC's website at www.cotton.org/issues/2012/upload/westcoaststrikelet120412.pdf.

Meeting information, including housing and travel, as well as online registration, for the NCC's '13 Annual Meeting, Feb. 8-10, at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, TN, now is available at www.cotton.org/news/meetings/am/2013/index.cfm.  A general information booklet also has been mailed to industry members.

Room reservations also can be made by calling 1-800-732-2639 and pressing 2. 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 '13 annual meeting will continue under the shortened meeting format, first introduced at the '11 annual meeting. The convention's first events begin at 1:30 pm on Friday, Feb. 8. The final event, the General Session, begins at 10 am and concludes at noon on Sunday, Feb. 10. The joint meeting of program committees will convene on Saturday at 8:00 am and include the NCC's planting intentions survey. The Saturday luncheon will feature Mike Allen, chief White House correspondent for Politico, who will provide a political update and discuss the '12 elections' impact.

Cotton industry members, university and USDA researchers, Extension personnel, consultants, and equipment and service providers are reminded that Monday, Dec. 17, is the last day discounted room rates will be offered by the Marriott Rivercenter/Riverwalk hotels in San Antonio, TX. Those are the headquarter hotels for the '13 Beltwide Cotton Conferences, set for Jan. 7-10.

The Conferences will open on the afternoon of Jan. 7 with the Consultants Conference in the Marriott Riverwalk Hotel. On Tuesday, Jan. 8, the Production Conference General Session will be held in the Lila Cockrell Theatre of the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. The Production Conference workshops will run from 10:30 am on Jan. 8 until noon on Jan. 9.

Housing and Conferences registration instructions, along with a schedule of events and general information, are at www.cotton.org/beltwide.

The American Bird Conservancy (ABC), in comments submitted to EPA, stated that preliminary results of a study it is conducting show that EPA is underestimating the aquatic toxicity to birds and other wildlife of the neonicotinoids based on preliminary research results conducted at Carleton U. by Pierre Mineau, an environmental toxicologist with Environment Canada and a Carleton U. adjunct faculty member in Ottawa, ON.

ABC is preparing a comprehensive review of the neonicotinoids' effects on birds and including recommendations to EPA on how to better assess those chemicals' risks. The review is expected to be completed by February. If adopted by EPA, the study's recommendations would serve as yet another change to the agency's ecological risk assessments for the neonicotinoids.

Neonicotinoids have come under scrutiny in the United States and abroad after being linked to declines in bee and pollinator health, but their alleged avian toxicity has not received public attention.

EPA already is planning to update its current risk assessment for pollinators with a new quantitative, tiered approach that could result in more conservative risk estimates for a wide range of pesticides. ABC is waiting for EPA to release records, which it sought in October through a Freedom of Information Act request, on the avian acute, sub-acute and reproductive studies submitted during the registration of the seven neonicotinoids.

EPA, which has been working intensely with states to reduce the nutrient load in the Chesapeake Bay, also has turned its attention to the Mississippi River Basin. The agency believes that water quality trading can help reduce nutrient and sediment runoff.

A water quality trading program, as envisioned by EPA, operates like a cap-and-trade program. The Clean Water Act requires a state to identify impaired water bodies and, for each, develop a total maximum daily load (TMDL). The TMDL for a given water body establishes the level of pollutants that each point source, such as a wastewater utility, and nonpoint source, such as a farm, may discharge without adversely affecting the water quality standards. This value would serve as the cap on pollutant levels for trading purposes. Reductions below an established baseline could be voluntarily sold to a facility that cannot make further feasible reductions due to cost or lack of means. The trading program thus could reduce the overall cost of compliance.

In water quality trades involving point and nonpoint sources, farmers are usually the sellers because they have the ability to generate credits by planting tree buffers along streams or by implementing nutrient management plans. The farmers can, in turn, sell the credits to wastewater utilities or other point sources to meet their cap, or be assigned pollutant loads cheaper than through installing costly treatment equipment.

According to Marc Ribaudo, a senior economist at USDA's Economic Research Service, however, participation of farmers in water quality trading may be limited if the starting point, or baseline for trading nonpoint sources of pollution, is based on more stringent agricultural practices than those in current use. Baselines that assume stringent pollutant controls would limit farmers' ability to generate credits.
For example, Virginia law will discourage farmers from participating in trading because the state has set very stringent baseline criteria for nonpoint sources. Virginia requires the presence of five water quality management practices -- a soil conservation plan, a nutrient management plan, a cereal crop cover, stream buffers and livestock fencing -- as the baseline for trading. Baselines are essential to any trading program because they determine the amount of credits that can be generated by additional control measures. There is not much left to implement after employing all five practices.

At the water quality trading workshop cohosted by the Water Environment Federation and the World Resources Institute on Nov. 29, Ribaudo said that states considering a trading program should carefully review the tradeoff between encouraging farmers to trade and potential degradation in water quality.

Two of the nation's largest worker safety associations -- the American Society of Safety Engineers and the American Industrial Hygiene Assoc. -- are pushing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to make the injury/illness prevention program (I2P2) rule a top priority in '13.

The groups will urge the Obama Administration to push for a program rule that is heavily risk-based, meaning it would require employers to do whatever is necessary to protect worker safety. Hazard assessment and a written safety and health program, which are key parts of an injury and illness prevention plan, are parts of minimum acceptable professional practice on any work site, they claim.

OSHA Chief David Michaels has stated publically that the I2P2 rule is his top regulatory priority.

The rulemaking has been long delayed. OSHA's most recent regulatory agenda listed a March start date to begin a small business review of draft regulatory text. In February, that was pushed back indefinitely due to a "delay in the preparation of the package." The rule's text has not been made public.

Business advocates fear that President Obama's re-election will give OSHA a green light to move ahead with the aggressive enforcement agenda that has characterized its last four years and worry that an onslaught of cumbersome new regulations will choke off economic growth.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the appointment of seven members, seven alternates and one consumer advisor to the Cotton Board. All appointees will serve three-year terms beginning on Jan. 1, '13, and ending on Dec. 31, '15. In addition, Vilsack appointed one member and one alternate member to fill Alabama producer positions with terms ending on Dec. 31, '13.

The re-appointed members are: Kevin G. Rogers, Mesa, AZ; George "Teel" T. Warbington, Vienna, GA; Jeffrey T. Posey, Roby, TX; Mark Williams, Farwell, TX; Janet C. Ydavoy, Feasterville, PA; Sonja Chapman, Boonton, NJ; and John ("Jack") E. Mathews, Pennington, NJ.

The re-appointed alternate members are:  Adam S. Hatley, Mesa, AZ; Benjamin O. Boyd, Sylvania, GA; Randy L. Braden, Midland, TX; Linda F. Taylor, Wolfforth, TX; Catherine B. Allen, Athens, TN; and Jonathan W. Brewer, LaHabra Heights, CA. The newly appointed alternate member is Charles McMurray of Menomonee Falls, WI, and the appointed consumer advisor is Karen E. Kyllo of Springfield, NJ. Walter L. Corcoran, Eufaula, AL, formerly an alternate member, was appointed to fill a producer member position. Timothy J. Mullek, Robertsdale, AL, was appointed to fill the Alabama alternate position.

Research and promotion programs are industry-funded, authorized by Congress and date back to '66, when Congress passed the Cotton Research and Promotion Act. Since then, Congress has authorized establishment of 20 research/promotion boards which empower farmers/ranchers to leverage their resources to develop new markets, strengthen existing markets and conduct important research/promotion activities. USDA's Agriculture Marketing Service provides oversight, paid for by industry assessments, which ensures fiscal responsibility, program efficiency and fair treatment of participating stakeholders.

Net export sales for the week ending Nov. 29 were 456,300 bales (480-lb). This brings total '12-13 sales to approximately 8.2 million bales. Total sales at the same point in the '11-12 marketing year were approximately 10.4 million bales. Total new crop ('13-14) sales are 502,800 bales.

Shipments for the week were 223,300 bales, bringing total exports to date to 2.7 million bales, compared with the 2.1 million bales at the comparable point in the '11-12 marketing year.