By Lloyd Ritter, DWEA Policy Director

We are hard at work on policy and advocacy as always, but happy to have a long Congressional recess that began last week and runs till after the November elections. Staff have extra time to chat during the break, which is a plus. And we have more time to plan for possible outcomes of the election.

Some quick updates. First, we continue to work on the Farm Bill re-authorization. It’s still not going very well and is likely to slip into next year though talk continues of a bill during the “lame duck.” Our main priority is getting the renewable under-utilized tech reserve into the base bill for REAP. As you’ll recall the House does NOT have it, but Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow’s summary does include it.

On appropriations we are fighting for the overall WETO budget to go higher, and to make sure the low Senate number ($15 million) goes up to the House level ($25 million). I’ve contacted several of you already in this regard to help out. And even if you haven’t heard from me feel free to reach your Senators and urge that the Senate accede to the House distributed wind line item.

Meanwhile, please keep any and all ideas flowing for a new DW marker bill in the next Congress! We are working on this topic, as well.