Legislative Update – Feb. 16, 2022

/ Scott

Yesterday, we passed the legislative halfway point, House of Origin cutoff. Below is a list of some priority bills that we have been tracking and working on so far this session. 

Buffers & Environment

HB 1838 would have imposed massive no-touch buffers and died in committee. The bill was introduced by request of Gov. Jay Inslee (after zero consultation with farmers or agricultural organizations).

The bill would have made farming, building, or cutting tress illegal by no later than 2032 in a riparian management zone (RMZ). RMZs were defined as not less than 100 feet and up to 249 feet from the edge of any stream, river, or active flood plain. This would have eliminated farming as an eligible land use on most of the land in the valleys of western Washington and some flood-prone valleys in eastern Washington. The bill offered landowners approximately 10-15 percent of the total value of the land over 10 years. If farmers continued to farm these RMZ designated lands, they could face fines of $10,000 per day. The bill died in the House Rural Development, Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee. WSDF vociferously opposed this bill. 

HB 1117 would require net ecological gain on “publicly funded projects, including voluntary grant programs….” The bill sets up the Department of Fish and Wildlife to make rules, including the definition of “net ecological gain.” This is the same agency that recommended no-touch buffers of up to 4,700 feet from a normal river’s edge in some places. Our conservation programs, which protect agriculture, fish, wildlife, and more, are threatened by HB 1117. The bill passed the House, and a hearing was held Feb. 16 in the Senate Housing & Local Government Committee. WSDF is opposed to HB 1117.

WSDF and other agriculture groups are currently working with legislators to increase funding for several voluntary conservation programs that have never been adequately funded, including VSP, hatchery options, and the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program. 

Long-Term Care

HB 1732 and HB 1733 make changes to the Long-Term Services and Supports trust program. A new payroll tax took effect on Jan. 1, 2022, to fund this program, known as WA Cares, to provide financial assistance for long-term care. The rollout, including exemptions, was rocky. HB 1732 delays the implementation of the program by 18 months (until July 2023), and HB 1733 establishes certain voluntary exemptions. These bills passed the Legislature and were signed by Gov. Jay Inslee. WSDF supported this delay. If you began withholding the payroll tax from your employees’ paychecks on Jan. 1, you need to remit the withheld amount back to your employees within 120 days. The Employment Security Department is required to return within 120 days any taxes employers have sent in. 

Labor & Employment

HB 1750, a bill sponsored by Rep. Larry Hoff allowing for seasonal flexibility from overtime pay, was not granted a hearing in the House Labor & Workplace Standards Committee. As such, it died in committee. WSDF supports this concept and bill. 

HB 1837 would allow the Department of Labor & Industries to write ergonomics rules again, negatively affecting all employers in Washington. Approximately 20 years ago, L&I wrote disastrous and costly ergonomics rules, which were repealed by voters via Initiative 841. That initiative included a prohibition on passing similar rules in the future. HB 1837 removes that prohibition, allowing the department to begin imposing costly ergonomics regulations again. The bill passed the House by a 50-48 vote following 10 hours of overnight debate. The bill now moves the Senate Labor, Commerce & Tribal Affairs Committee. WSDF is strongly opposed to this bill.

HB 1847 and HB 2102 are two bills by Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self that would have required a one-sided, biased study of farmworker needs. These two bills died in House committees. WSDF was opposed to both bills.

SB 5873 would help employers by reducing some social tax factors in the unemployment insurance system for 2022 and 2023. This bill passed the Senate and is now under consideration by the House Labor & Workforce Development Committee. WSDF supports this bill. 

SB 5649 would make several changes to the state Paid Family and Medical Leave program. Of particular interest are the financial portions of the bill. This year the Employment Security Department, which administers this program, informed legislators and stakeholders of a financial shortfall in the program. SB 5649 includes the establishment of actuarial services at ESD and mandates actuarial reports and performance audits of the program. The bill passed the Senate and is currently in the House Labor & Workforce Development Committee. WSDF supports these necessary reforms. 

SB 5761 would require employers with 15 or more employees to disclose in each job posting for each job opening the wage scale or salary range and a general description of all benefits and other compensation to be offered to the hired applicant. WSDF is opposed to this bill, which passed the Senate and is currently in the House Labor & Workplace Standards Committee.

Update from the WSDA Animal Disease Traceability Program

/ Scott

By David Hecimovich

The WSDA Animal Disease Traceability Program supports the state veterinarian by quickly identifying infected or exposed animals during an animal disease outbreak.  Several projects have been completed to build infrastructure at markets and harvest facilities in recent years.  While continuing to support those efforts, new projects will continue to build capacity for rapid response and containment to protect our livestock industry.

Markets

Over the last few years, WSDA has worked to upgrade existing market systems management software to speed up commerce and provide electronic tools to improve efficiency.  Six Washington livestock markets are now using the Saletime Veterinary Module that allows the market veterinarian to combine animal information collected at the vet chute with consignor or consignee information. This can then produce electronic health certificates, brucellosis vaccinations, and Trichomoniasis test records. The module is adaptable to meet each market veterinarian’s specific needs. The current software architecture is used to read Low Frequency RFID tags, but it is expandable to read High Frequency RFID tags.

Harvest Facilities

RFID tag reading equipment was installed at LimitBid Packing in Odessa and Pure Country Harvest in Moses Lake. This brings the total number of USDA inspected slaughter facilities reporting RFID tags for tag retirement to six facilities. This increased our RFID tag retirement capability to 99.1% of all cattle slaughtered in the state.

New Projects in 2021

Thanks to your input from the ADT Program fall survey, two new pilot projects have been selected to enhance traceability in 2021. The first project provides free, official 840 RFID tags to youth for agricultural exhibitions. The second project aims to make handheld readers more available to producers. 

Places of commingling of animals present unique risks for disease outbreaks, such as agricultural exhibitions. The objectives of the voluntary projects are to increase use of official identification of fair cattle and swine to promote rapid disease response and containment, use of electronic certificates of veterinarian inspection (CVIs) for interstate movement, and eliminate costs for youth exhibitors to purchase official electronic identification for exhibition.

The ADT program teamed with Allflex and WSU Extension to provide free RFID tags and 3- digit FAIR visual tags for fair cattle and swine. Tags will be applied at weigh in/exhibition at Benton, Franklin, and Grant county fairs. Other interested fairs will be invited to participate after the processes are refined. 

In the last two years, 85 hand held readers have been distributed to veterinarians across the state. The objective of the second project is to expand the scope of that effort to extension and producer groups. WSDA will partner with WSU Extension, fairs and county cattlemen’s associations to increase availability, education, outreach and training on the use of handheld readers. WSDA is working to get readers in the hands of key association leaders and extension agents. Please contact David Hecimovich (dhecimovich@agr.wa.gov) for more information or to request a reader for member/organization use.