The tax bill that sailed through the House this week is facing a major GOP speed bump in the Senate. The bill needs at least 60 votes to pass there, and many Republicans are demanding the chance to offer amendments. Their attacks on the bill mirror the criticism heard in the House this week from hard-line conservatives.
Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, for one, is unmoved by the lobbying that’s been done on the behalf of farmers, equipment dealers and others to pass the bill, which would restore 100% bonus depreciation and increase limits on the Section 179 expensing allowance.
Grassley, who was wearing his trademark John Deere cap as he came off the Senate floor Thursday, acknowledged those provisions are a “big deal” to farmers, but he said Congress should wait to do anything about them until the next Congress. Key provisions of the TCJA, including the Section 199A deduction on business income and an increased estate tax exemption, expire in 2025.
Keep in mind: The Senate will be turning next week to the border security supplemental, the text of which could come out as soon as today, according to Majority Leader Charles Schumer. Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, an independent who helped negotiate the border security measures, insists they’re much tougher than what has been rumored and “radically” different than current policy.
“We're ending catch and release. We are creating this emergency authority so that when the system is overwhelmed, we can shut it down. We're changing the asylum standard. Interviews will be conducted and decided by … asylum officers rather than immigration judges,” she told reporters.
But Senate GOP Whip John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters he didn’t know if former President Donald Trump’s opposition to the bipartisan deal could be overcome.
USTR looks toward 2024 resolution of biotech corn dispute
The Biden administration’s top ag trade negotiator, Doug McKalip, says U.S. officials are still on track to resolve this year a dispute with Mexico over biotech corn. Speaking on the sidelines of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association meeting in Orlando, McKalip said work on the case was slowed up by challenges in translating complex text.
“But the most important part for the American farmers is that we’re driving toward resolution in 2024 of that case,” he said.
A three-member U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement panel is tasked with ruling on the U.S. complaint against Mexico’s attempt to block imports of genetically engineered corn.
New pesticides named in endangered species lawsuit
Four pesticides have been added to a lawsuit seeking action from the Fish and Wildlife Service to address impacts to endangered species.
The Center for Biological Diversity filed the complaint in Arizona in 2022 to force the agency to issue final biological opinions that would specify actions needed to avoid jeopardizing listed species.
The 2022 lawsuit named chlorpyrifos and diazinon. The amended complaint includes methomyl, carbaryl, atrazine and simazine.
NRCS looks to revise conservation practice standards
USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service is revising eight of its conservation practice standards applying to practices in highly erodible land and wetlands.
The wetland restoration standard (Code 657) would be altered “to make plain that [it] covers restoration of the abiotic characteristics” -- hydrology, topography, and soils, NRCS says in its Federal Register notice, which comes with a 30-day public comment period. NRCS says “other conservation practice standards are used to restore the plant community.”
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The prescribed grazing standard (Code 528) would be changed to “grazing management” and include new language addressing climate change. Required contingency plans, for example, would need to consider if weather events may be intensified due to climate change.
The new filter strip standard would emphasize the importance of locating the strip downslope from the source area of contaminants.
Federal regulator to continue collecting employment data from four major railroads
The Surface Transportation Board says a multi-year hiring spree by the four largest U.S. railroads hasn’t been enough to restore staffing numbers to pre-pandemic levels. So, the board has ordered the carriers to continue submitting monthly employment data through the end of 2024.
In a recent decision, the board says employment levels for BNSF, CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific remain 14,000 employees below those from September 2019. The four companies cut back on staff in 2020 after sudden drops in container traffic, only to struggle with congestion following a surge in shipping demand a year later.
Take note: The board expects rail traffic to increase this year amid “forecasted improvements in economic conditions,” according to the decision.
Lawmaker demands action on USFS staff shortage
A Democrat on the House Ag Committee, New Mexico’s Gabe Vasquez, is pushing the Biden administration to address Forest Service staffing shortages that he says are putting communities at risk from wildfires. “It’s a risk that we can’t afford to take,” Vasquez says in an interview with Agri-Pulse Newsmakers.
Earlier this month, he called on the Office of Personnel Management to help address the problem, questioning in part why USDA has to do background checks on job applicants who’ve already been through one or possess a clearance.
In meetings with USFS officials, Vasquez says he’s “heard repeatedly about the agency's inability to hire and retain enough employees to adequately staff our national forests.”
This week’s Newsmakers will be available today at Agri-Pulse.com.
She said it: “I would just ask that folks consider reading the text before making a decision about what the text does or doesn't do.” – Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, on the border security legislation.
