ANCW Legislation and Issues
ANCW committee briefed on beef industry legislation and issues.
DENVER, Colo. (July 25, 2012) — This year is a turbulent year in Washington, D.C., and many issues are especially pertinent to the beef industry. Issues like the Farm Bill, antibiotics, the estate tax, and transportation are before legislators now. Members of the American National CattleWomen (ANCW) Legislation and Issues Committee were briefed on these issues and more at the 2012 Cattle Industry Summer Conference in Denver, Colo.
Stacy Revels, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) legislative intern, explained some of the hot topics and NCBA’s, and thus ANCW’s, stance.
NCBA wants to keep livestock out of the Farm Bill to ensure freedom of operation, she said. NCBA would rather focus on funding conservation and research priorities while keeping a free, open and private marketplace.
The Farm Bill had passed through the Senate and the House Agriculture Committee, but needed floor time in the House, Revels said. Major discrepancies between the Senate and House versions of the bill were causing a holdup. Especially troublesome were proposed funding cuts to the food-assistance program SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).
A positive amendment to the House version of the Farm Bill, said Revels, would not allow California to extend production restrictions from Proposition 2 to other states. NCBA is concerned, she said, with the agreement between the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the United Egg Producers. Revels noted that it is “very dangerous for the federal government to mandate on-farm production practices.” This amendment to the Farm Bill was not brought forward to the Senate out of committee. As a compromise, though, a hearing will be allowed, so the issue has not disappeared.
NCBA fights for continued use of antibiotics, because there hasn’t been credible science to prove harm, Revels said. “The fact that they are making laws on faulty science, or none at all, is concerning.”
The estate tax or “death tax,” is an ongoing issue. Because most farming operations are asset rich and cash poor, paying the death tax ultimately breaks up many family farms by necessitating the selling of land and assets to pay the tax. NCBA is working to gain support for a permanent repeal of the death tax, or at least keep the current tax levels.
Under current levels, estates worth more than $5 million per individual and $10 million per couple are taxed at 35%. Without voting to keep the current levels, they would revert to taxing estates worth more than $1 million at a rate of 55%. Revels shared an economic assesment of the tax provies the tax creates more implementation costs than revenue. Results of the study will be presented in NCBA testimonies.
The highway bill (P.L. 112-141) preserves the right for agricultural commerical drivers to operate without costly and burdensome requirements, Revels explained. The exemptions for covered farm vehicles include commercial driver’s license; drug-testing; medical certificates; hours of service; and vehicle inspection, repair and maintenance.
Dust legislation was a recent legislative win for the beef industry, she noted. Additionally, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) withdrew the rule requiring all confined animal feeding operations report a laundry list of information, which would be published online. Homeland Security and Law Enforcement had also weighed in against the rule.
EPA aerial surveillance is the catalyst for new legislation because EPA isn’t working with the industry to gain information. “This is an example of the overreach and overregulation of the current administration,” Revels said.
With these many issues affecting the beef industry, the ANCW committee plans to provide two toolkits (online resources available on www.ancw.org) to address how to communicate effectively with legislators, and a guide to in-person visits with legislators. They also recommend keeping up with legislative issues at the Legislative Watch on www.beefusa.org, and contacting local and state representatives.
To read other summaries from this conference, click here.
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