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Agriculture, food and environmental issues on the agenda for Congress this fall

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Anna Boroff

Anna Boroff, MCGA Public Policy Director.

Now that Congress is back in session following the Labor Day recess, it’s a good bet that several issues important to agriculture will be up for discussion. Let’s take a brief look at some of those issues and summarize what they might mean for Minnesota corn farmers.

WOTUS Repeal
The Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule has taken a bizarre turn. Before WOTUS was officially set to go into effect about two weeks ago, a judge in U.S. District Court in North Dakota blocked its implementation.

However, the judge only blocked implementation in 13 states that filed suit (Minnesota was not part of the suit).

We’ll have more details on the WOTUS situation in a future post, but for now, the possibility of a repeal of WOTUS is still up in the air. President Obama has said he’d veto any bill that would throw out the rule and a bill to repeal hasn’t gone anywhere in the Senate.

As of now, our best hope is to put rider language in an omnibus spending bill agreement by Congress that would block WOTUS implementation. Stay tuned…..

Farm payments and sequestration
Speaking of an omnibus spending bill, if lawmakers can’t agree on one, sequestration kicks in and the new price support programs created in the 2014 farm bill would take a 6.8 percent cut. The first Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) payments on 2014 crops are set to go out after Oct. 1.

It’s a longshot that lawmakers will agree on a budget before the end of the fiscal year. Even if they give themselves more time through a continuing resolution, the sequestration cuts to ARC and PLC would still kick in.

More details on this situation can be read here.

GMO Labeling
The House has already passed a bill that would preempt state GMO labeling laws and create a voluntary, uniform federal label for foods containing genetically modified organisms (what we all know as GMOs).

Now it’s up to the Senate to pass the bill, and those prospects aren’t looking very good at the moment. The court of public opinion has shifted a bit in favor or GMOs recently. However, we need some political momentum is there to pass the House’s GMO labeling bill in the Senate. I’ll be in Washington D.C. next month with the Coalition for Safe and Affordable Food to meet with lawmakers about the bill. You can learn more here.

China biotech
Minnesota Corn was part of a coalition that signed on to a letter to President Obama asking for his engagement with China on agricultural innovation and trade, particularly in the area of pending biotech issues. In order to grow and strengthen markets for corn farmers in Minnesota and the rest of the United States, we need China to approve agricultural biotechnology products, and continued delays and new regulations threaten to extend biotech product approvals even further.

Here is an excerpt of the letter to Obama:

Your intervention with President Xi last year on biotech issues created much-needed momentum in the bilateral relationship, establishing a commitment to strengthen and elevate the dialogue on innovation in agriculture.  This significant outcome led to Chinese approval of agricultural biotechnology products and eased a significant cause of disruption in corn trade between the United States and China.  However, much of the momentum gained in 2014 has since been lost, as China’s Ministry of Agriculture continues to delay approvals and has proposed new regulations that threaten to extend timelines for approvals of biotech products even further.

Farewell Congressman Kline
Minnesota’s second district congressman John Kline recently announced that he will not be seeking re-election. Kline chairs the House Education and Workforce Committee, which is playing a role in extending the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act that sets higher meal standards in public schools.

Speculation on who might run for Kline’s seat has already started. If you’re interested in seeing one of the names being tossed around as a potential candidate, click here.

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