Subject: MWA 2005 Post Legislative Conference Report

Please Distribute this to the membership in your State!  Thank You!

The 2005 Legislative Conference was attended by 33 members from the MWA, all the states in the area was represented.  The National Officers, Area Legislative Chair, Tammy Eibey and the rest of the Legislative Committee did a commendable job.  This conference started in Baltimore and ended in Washington.  The move (on Monday morning) went well.  A testament to the “can do people”.  We did however dodge a bullet, as there was an eight inch snowfall in the forecast for Monday that did not materialize.  Thank goodness because that would have shut the city down. 

The position papers which were carried to the hill and discussed with the congressional offices are posted on the NASCOE web site under the legislative tab.  Every employee and NASCOE member owes it to themselves to review these position papers.  They should also be reviewed with the staff at the congressional member’s home office in your state.  If you have any question or need further clarification please contact your state or area officers. 

Under the present budget climate, any way that programs can be implemented or services delivered, that reduces the burden placed on the public and/or reduces redundant business processes, will get the attention of congressional members.  Why?  Because it reduces the strain placed on the Federal Budget.  This is the result of increased efficiencies of delivering the services.  Two of the three position papers accomplished this.

Administrator Jim Little welcomed the group on Monday after the move to Hotel Washington was completed.  Also giving a brief address followed by a Q/A panel session were the following:

·                                            Keith Gray, Director of National Affairs, Alabama Farmers Federation

·                                            Ben Noble, VP of Federal Affairs, Troutman Sanders Public Affairs Group

·                                            John Minnick, SR VP, Washington Operations, National Cotton Council of America

·                                            Mary Kay Thatcher, Director of Public Policy, American Farm Bureau Federation

·                                            Dana Brooks, Director of Congressional Relations, American Farm Bureau Federation

·                                            Robert L. Guenther, VP of Public Policy, United Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Association

Lunch and dinner meetings were held on Monday and Tuesday with key congressional offices.  This has become an acceptable way to conduct business and review issues.  Compared to having an office meeting in which you may have 15 minutes to review issues, a dinner/lunch meeting will allow for a more relaxed setting and provide more time to discuss our concerns.

On Wednesday Dan and Mike Mayberry from Tennessee presented a slide show of our potential role in animal ID with our GIS capabilities.  This was presented to Mr. Mike Yost and will also be presented to Cheryl Maddox of the Homeland Security Department.  It is my understanding they were very impressed.

We have already gotten some support by the minority members of the house Ag Committee who have written up a letter requesting the Secretary to increase staffing for FSA.  Though it is not a bill, it is a start.  This would not have happened without our presence on the hill last week!

The latest CAPWIZ numbers show the MWA has a little over 100 participants.  A total of 686 are signed up for all Areas.  Folks, this is a very important tool that we can all use, members, and non members.  This is even more important as we enter into the period of field hearings for the next farm bill, which have already begun.  Let me give you an example of how important this tool could be for our agency.  Let’s say they want to close one of my shared management offices.  We could use a letter set up by NASCOE to send to the congressional offices to counter this action.  Not only employees could send this letter but COC and other producers and business people in the community.  That is why we have the “tell a friend” program for CAPWIZ.  Timing could be vital, therefore it is important to sign up today.  I plan to attend all of the state conventions this spring and sign new members up into CAPWIZ.  If you would like to sign up prior to the convention go into the NASCOE website and click on CAPWIZ.  Remember this must be done on your HOME computer! 

An immediate to intermediate goal of NASCOE is to get into law a permanent employee baseline of 9500 employees.  CAPWIZ could be used as a tool to get this issue told to the congressional offices.  This tool will also be used to support introduced legislation that is beneficial to our membership, such as, increasing the Governments share of health insurance premiums.   If online capabilities are not available at the conventions I will have a manual signup sheet to enroll participants that own their own home computer.

The National Officers, Area Executive and Area Negotiation/Consultant are working to prepare NASCOE responses to items submitted by our membership.  Thank you to those states that responded promptly to some surveys sent out.  We needed to gather more information and frequency of occurrence o some of the items submitted before writing our response.  The final negotiation session with Management will take place the first of May.

David asked me to attend the NACS/NASE Zone meeting held in Indianapolis last week in his absence.  It was good to interact with the FL side of FSA as well as RD.  If you know of anyone in your county that attended hopefully they thought I was a good guest. 

Mark your calendars for the MWA/NWA Rally to be held in Nebraska City, Nebraska June 3-5!  A registration form should be sent out within the next couple of weeks. 

As always if you have any question or concerns on some issues, please feel free to contact me. 

Chris Hollis

MWA Executive