Farm groups are reacting to the omnibus spending bill that avoided a government shutdown. Just as it’s being touted as giving some to both Republicans and Democrats, the compromise deal has its ups and downs for agriculture, and Farm Bureau and the National Corn Growers Association have both weighed in on those ag ups and downs.
Farm Bureau officials are pleased the spending and tax extender bills will bring relief to America’s farmers and ranchers, but they are disappointed the Waters of the U.S. rule was not stopped.
“This tax extender package gives farmers and ranchers critical tools to help them reinvest in their businesses,” AFBF President Bob Stallman said. “Tax provisions like Section 179 small business expensing and bonus deprecation free up cash flow for farmers and ranchers to put their money to work. New provisions will let our members make important upgrades that reduce costs, increase efficiency and help make their businesses sustainable for generations to come.”
A provision to stop the EPA’s unlawful Waters of the U.S. rule was surprisingly missing from the package, as was language that would have set a nationwide standard for labeling of food containing genetically modified ingredients. Congress’s failure to act will bring the heavy cost of a patchwork of state labeling mandates to farmers and consumers as early as next month.
“We are truly disappointed that Congress did not include legislation to stop implementation of WOTUS,” Stallman said. “The courts have already expressed serious legal concerns about the rule, and the U.S. Government Accountability Office has concluded that EPA broke the law with its covert propaganda campaign to drum up ill-informed support for it.”
AFBF also supports omnibus provisions to repeal of country-of-origin labeling requirements, which would effectively prevent Canada and Mexico from initiating retaliatory actions.
NCGA also expressed its approval of the COOL provisions, but it was also disappointed in some of the overall bill’s holes, including the GMO and WOTUS provisions.
NCGA President Chip Bowling, a farmer from Maryland, issued the following statement:
“The FY16 Omnibus Appropriations Bill certainly serves Americans by providing stable funding for the government but, in some respects, it falls short for America’s farmers.
“Notably, corn farmers are pleased the Congress included language bringing the United States back into compliance with our WTO obligation by repealing COOL for beef and pork. U.S. livestock accounted for more than 38 percent of demand for our corn in 2015, and it is important that we will avoid the negative impacts on that and other corn markets which retaliation by Mexico and Canada would have brought about.
“Yet, overall, Congress placed great importance on further bolstering Big Oil at the expense of taking up issues of great importance for America’s farm families. From failing to preempt the pending patchwork of state-level GMO labeling laws to refusing to prohibit funding of Water of the U.S. implementation, rural America will face a darker new year as the future grows even brighter for oil industry interests.”
Read Cindy’s breakdown of what’s in and out of the spending bill for ag here.