Farming Community Watching D.C. Closely In The Weeks Ahead

The month of December is a critical one for the Ag community, and the American people, as lawmakers on Capitol Hill struggle over the next few weeks to keep the government open, able to borrow, as well as vote on key pieces of the president’s agenda. The first job will be keeping the government open, when short-term funding expires on Friday. The expectation at this point is that another stop-gap funding bill extending old funding levels into the New Year, short of unlikely completion of new spending bills.

Also likely to be extended again in stop-gap funding, Livestock Mandatory Reporting, though Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley wants it done separately to allow his and Nebraska’s Deb Fischer’s cattle market reforms.

“The Livestock Mandatory Reporting legislation, when that bill comes up late this year or next year, for reauthorization, my and Fisher’s bill must be right along with that—and it’s very appropriate that it would, because it’s just kind of an extension of the transparency, for the cattle feeders to know that they’re getting a fair price.”

And then, there’s a looming fight over the president’s $2 trillion social spending and climate agenda package, strongly opposed by Republicans and Farm Bureau for its cost and taxes.

“If they go up on taxes, even if they give us a ‘cut-out,’ everybody else, every other business in this country is going to have to pay additional taxes…it’s going to dwindle down to farmers and consumers, all across America…and we are huge consumers.”

Farmers so far, have escaped elimination of the coveted stepped-up basis tax break, though other new taxes in the bill could hit farm and other businesses.

A few weeks ago, House Democrats passed their version with no GOP votes, but the massive bill faces an uncertain fate in the Senate, where moderate Democrats Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema hold the votes to change, delay or even kill the proposal.

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