Legislative Committee

Legislative Committee

LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE REPORT
SDASCOE BOARD MEETING
HURON, SD January 2011

sdascoe@yahoo.com

SDASCOE

The NASCOE Legislative Conference will be held in WDC March 7-9. There will be 6 of us
attending. Peggy Groen, President, Becky Zirpel, Vice-President, James Anderson, Past
President, Larry Olsen, NWA Alternate, Bill Chase, Legislative Co-Chair, EJ Goetz, Legislative Co-
Chair.

The legislative conference is set to begin on Tuesday March 8th with NASCOE presenting
position papers. Those papers will be reviewed with the delegations, so they know how to
present them to our members of Congress. Wednesday will be spent making our visits on the
hill.

We will have a full report of the Legislative Conference at the SDASCOE convention.

With all the bills being introduced to cut federal benefits, we will have our work cut out for us. In
the past few weeks there have been a couple bills that we will need to keep our eyes on.

HR 270 proposes a two week furlough for FY 2012.

Spending Reduction Act of 2011 proposes a five year salary freeze and a 15%
workforce reduction. They would accomplish this reduction by replacing one worker for
every to that leave.

NASCOE is focusing on the PAC as a major goal for 2011. This is one of the most important
tools we have for NASCOE. It was amazing to learn how comparatively large our PAC is
compared to others in the agriculture production arena. If we can be successful in our
enrollment goal our PAC will move into the top 10 PAC’s in the production agriculture arena. To
carry on with the PAC enrollment incentive, NASCOE plans to hold a drawing for 5 - $100 cash
prizes for new PAC participants.

NAFEC: NASCOE recognizes the influence of the National Farmer Elected Committee
organization and how they can help open doors for us in the next Farm Bill. NASCOE plans to
assist NAFEC in offering some new tools for promoting membership.

CAPWIZ: Will become more important than ever as we prepare for the next Farm Bill. Make sure
you don’t access CAPWIZ from your work computer.

Respectfully submitted,

Bill Chase & EJ Goetz, Legislative Co-Chairs