YOUR DUES DOLLARS AT WORK

SUN SETS ON 2020-2021 LEGISLATIVE SEASON

CCA SEES SIGNIFICANT SUCCESS IN FIRE-FIGHTING SESSION

by Vice President of Government Affairs Kirk Wilbur

The 2021 California Legislative Session gaveled to a close just before 9 p.m. on Friday, September 10. After the COVID-19-plagued 2020 Session, this year’s session proceeded in a much more conventional manner – though lobbying efforts were still largely conducted remotely – allowing legislators to focus on priority issues such as housing and COVID-19 recovery. In the wake of 2020’s catastrophic wildfires – and in the shadow of 2021’s ongoing wildfire season – the legislature also turned its focus to CCA’s single greatest priority: wildfire prevention and forest resilience.

Thanks to that alignment in priorities and the significant efforts of CCA members, particularly CCA’s Fire Subcommittee, the 2020-21 session was an extremely successful year for the California Cattlemen’s Association. Most notably, AB 1103 (Dahle), which would establish a statewide framework for local “Livestock Pass” programs, and SB 332 (Dodd), which incentivizes prescribed fire application by minimizing practitioners’ financial liability, each sailed through both houses of the Legislature without taking a single “no” vote in policy committees, fiscal committees or on the floors of the Assembly and Senate. (A third CCA-Sponsored bill, AB 434 (R. Rivas), which sought to provide state land management agencies greater discretion to lease state lands for livestock grazing for firefuels suppression and other purposes, became a two-year bill and will be heard in 2022.)

CCA’s successes also extended to the 2021-22 Budget, which appropriated more than $1 billion for wildfire prevention and forest resilience efforts, made significant investments in prescribed fire and other fuels treatments and established a $20 million Prescribed Fire Liability Pilot Program to support prescribed fire practitioners.

Below are the bills that rose to the forefront of CCA’s advocacy efforts this year – though by no means every bill CCA engaged on this session (note, for instance, that a number of “two-year bills” which CCA engaged on this year, but which were eventually shelved until the 2022 session, are not discussed in this article).

Governor Newsom has until October 10 to act on bills advanced to his desk.

AB 9 (Wood) - Community wildfire preparedness and mitigation

CCA-Supported ENROLLED & AWAITING GOVERNOR’S ACTION

AB 9 would formally establishment within the Department of Conservation the Regional Forest and Fire Capacity (RFFC) Program. The RFFC Program would support local and regional efforts to develop and implement projects that create fire adapted communities and landscapes by improving forest health, community wildfire preparedness and fire resilience. AB 9 would also establish within the Office of the State Fire Marshal a Deputy Director of Community Wildfire Preparedness and Mitigation.

AB 332 (Committee on Environmental Safety & Toxic Materials) – Treated wood waste

CCA-Supported SIGNED INTO LAW

AB 332 re-authorizes the Department of Toxic Substance Control to institute “alternative management standards” for the disposal of treated wood waste, which includes discarded agricultural fence posts. Prior such provisions expired on Dec. 31, 2020, rendering treated wood waste “a fully regulated California-only hazardous waste” and creating disposal challenges for producers. AB 332 contained an urgency clause, and thus went into effect when the Governor signed the bill on August 31.

AB 558 (Nazarian) – Plant-based school lunches

No CCA Position HELD IN ASSEMBLY EDUCATION COMMITTEE

AB 558, a follow-up to Assemblyman Nazarian’s failed AB 479 (2019), would have provided reimbursements to schools for including a “plant-based food option” or “plant-based milk option” in school lunches. While CCA did

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not take a formal position on the bill, we did communicate to key legislators concerns about the bill – and highlighted the nutritional benefits of beef and milk, as well as California ranchers’ leadership on GHG emission reductions. Ultimately, the bill did not receive a hearing in the Assembly Education Committee this year.

AB 888 (Levine) - Mobile slaughter operations: livestock

No CCA Position ENROLLED & AWAITING GOVERNOR’S ACTION

CCA-sponsored AB 2114 (Bigelow, 2018) provided an exemption from licensing requirements under the California Meat and Poultry Supplemental Inspection Act, enabling cattle to be slaughtered by a mobile slaughter operation (MSO) at the cattle producer’s property after the animal has been sold to a consumer. AB 888 would primarily extend that licensing exemption to on-farm mobile slaughter of other livestock, but would also require producers (including cattle producers) that have MSO operations conducted on their property to register with CDFA and to maintain records related to the sale and slaughter of the livestock.

AB 1103 (Dahle) –Livestock Pass programs

CCA-Sponsored ENROLLED & AWAITING GOVERNOR’S ACTION

AB 1103 would facilitate county adoption of “Livestock Pass” programs, providing ranchers and their managers access to their property during a wildfire or other emergency event to care for livestock and to provide local expertise to emergency responders. While some counties have already developed similar programs, many counties lack the resources to develop and implement such programs. AB 1103 would establish a statewide training program for Livestock Pass holders, codify a requirement that law enforcement and emergency responders give ranch access to Livestock Pass holders, and establish certain minimum standards for administration of the programs, facilitating adoption of county Livestock Pass programs throughout the state.

AB 1289 (Kalra) - Smart Climate Agriculture Program: plant-based agriculture

No CCA Position HELD IN ASSEMBLY AGRICULTURE COMMITTEE

AB 1289 would provide grants to agricultural producers to assist them in transitioning their land from livestock production or feed crop production to plant-based agriculture. While CCA did not take a formal position on the bill, we worked to “correct the record” regarding agricultural production in California, California agriculture’s leadership on minimizing GHG emissions, the environmental benefits of ranching and feed crop production and the nutritional value of beef and dairy. Additionally, we noted that AB 1289 would likely exacerbate groundwater pressures in critically overdrafted basins.

SB 11 (Rubio) – FAIR Plan eligibility for farm equipment and structures

No CCA Position SIGNED INTO LAW

California’s insurer of last resort, the FAIR Plan, excludes “farm risks” from coverage. SB 11 exempts from the definition of “farm risks” farm equipment and permanent structures primarily used for agricultural production, allowing producers to insure their farm or ranch equipment and structures under the FAIR Plan.

SB 322 (Laird) – Grazing land: California Conservation Ranching Incentive Program

CCA-Supported HELD IN SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

SB 322 would have created the California Conservation Ranching Incentive Program and would have authorized the Director of Conservation to enter into 3-year contracts with owners or lessees of productive rangelands, grazing lands or grasslands determined by the director to be important for the conservation of grassland birds, soil health and biodiversity. Such contracts would have required the Department of Conservation to pay the owner/lessee a specified amount to restore, enhance and protect the grassland habitat character of the land.

SB 332 (Dodd) – Prescribed fire liability

CCA-Sponsored ENROLLED & AWAITING GOVERNOR’S ACTION

Under existing law, when Cal Fire responds to a prescribed fire that becomes uncontrolled or escapes containment lines, the agency can recover from the prescribed fire practitioner the costs it incurs in suppressing that fire. SB 332 would immunize prescribed fire practitioners against cost recovery from Cal Fire unless the practitioner acted in a grossly negligent manner. CCA believes this immunity from cost recovery will remove a significant disincentive to burners’ use of prescribed fire.

SB 539 (Hertzberg) - Property taxation: taxable value transfers

No CCA Position ENROLLED & AWAITING GOVERNOR’S ACTION

SB 539 is ‘clean-up’ legislation intended to implement the intergenerational transfer provisions of Proposition 19 (2020). SB 539 defines the “family farm” (a term appearing in Proposition 19) at the parcel level and clarifies that a “family home” and any “family farm” upon which it is located are eligible for individual exclusions from property tax reassessment under Prop. 19, providing tax relief from Prop. 19 to many farmers and ranchers.

SB 703 (Hurtado) – Diseased animals: laboratory services

CCA-Supported ENROLLED & AWAITING GOVERNOR’S ACTION

SB 703 would give the California Department of Food and Agriculture the authority to set certification standards for veterinary labs providing diagnostic services relating to reportable conditions that are classified as “emergency conditions” and “regulatory conditions.” SB 703 exempts laboratories which are already state- or federally-certified to provide diagnostic services relative to emergency or regulatory conditions, including in-house veterinary labs which have been certified by the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory for the limited purpose of reading trichomonosis samples.