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


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          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


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          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


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          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