BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 751 Page 1 ASSEMBLY THIRD READING AB 751 (Cooper) As Introduced February 25, 2015 Majority vote ------------------------------------------------------------------- |Committee |Votes |Ayes |Noes | | | | | | | | | | | |----------------+------+---------------------+---------------------| |Agriculture |10-0 |Perea, Gallagher, | | | | |Cooper, Dahle, Dodd, | | | | |Eggman, Grove, | | | | |Irwin, Quirk, Salas | | | | | | | |----------------+------+---------------------+---------------------| |Appropriations |17-0 |Gomez, Bigelow, | | | | |Bonta, Calderon, | | | | |Chang, Daly, Eggman, | | | | |Gallagher, | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Eduardo Garcia, | | | | |Gordon, Holden, | | | | |Jones, Quirk, | | | | |Rendon, Wagner, | | | | |Weber, Wood | | | | | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------- AB 751 Page 2 SUMMARY: Extends the Vertebrate Pest Control Research (VPCR) Program and Advisory Committee until January 1, 2026. EXISTING LAW: 1)Requires the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) to establish and administer a research program to control vertebrate pests, as specified. 2)Requires CDFA to establish the VPCR Advisory Committee, and requires the VPCR Advisory Committee to make recommendations to CFDA regarding VPRC each year. 3)Requires each county agricultural commissioner to pay a specified fee to CDFA based on the amount of vertebrate pest control material sold, distributed, or applied in the county. 4)Establishes the VPCR Account in the CDFA Fund, and continuously appropriates the funds in the account for purposes of carrying out the provisions relating to VPRC. AB 751 Page 3 5)Repeals all of the provisions specified above on January 1, 2016. FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Committee on Appropriations this bill has an annual special fund cost of approximately $500,000 for program research and activities, funded through a $0.50 assessment per pound on pest control materials. Over recent years, assessment revenues have been sufficient to fund program research and activities. COMMENTS: The VPCR Program was established in 1990, in response to changes by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that relate to the requirements of manufacturers of rodenticides and similar products. The manufacturers concluded that they could not recover the cost for development of such data and dropped the registration of the products. CDFA recognized that there was a need for such products and developed an oversight and fiscal structure to support the research and funding of data requirements for EPA, thereby creating this research program. The VPCR law was updated in 2005 to provide a more defined scope for this research program, as well as, better parameters on how the funds are used. CDFA, upon recommendation from the VPCR Advisory Committee, may charge up to one dollar per pound of vertebrate pest control material sold, distributed, or applied. The VPCR program focuses on finding safer alternative methods to control pest. The research is funded with the sale of rodenticides, which has helped develop or improve control of vertebrate pests. The program raises and spends an average of AB 751 Page 4 roughly $480,000 per year. The author states that without this program, CDFA loses the authority to register rodenticides and could cause the rodenticides to be unavailable to the public. The sunset to these provisions has been extended three times, in 1995, 2000 and 2005. This bill will extend the VPCR Program and Advisory Committee until 2026. Analysis Prepared by: Victor Francovich / AGRI. / (916) 319-2084 FN: 0000557