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Cattlemen's Capitol Concerns Archive
Contact:
Bethany Shively,
The Cattlemen's Capitol Concerns (CCC) is a weekly report from Washington, D.C., giving an up-to-date summary of top policy initiatives concerning the cattle industry; direct from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA). Please feel free to reprint in full or in part. If you would like to include NCBA's logo, contact us at 303-694-0305. | |
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Cattlemen Welcome Legislation Providing Death Tax Relief
The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) is supporting legislation introduced by Congressmen Mike Thompson (D-CA) and John Salazar (D-CO) that would provide farmers and ranchers with relief from the death tax.
H.R. 3524, the Family Farm Preservation and Conservation Estate Tax Act, would exempt working farm and ranch land from the death tax, as long as the land is kept in production agriculture. The bill also provides estate tax relief for land under qualified conservation easements. Should the land be used or sold for other purposes, a recapture tax would be imposed.
"The death tax is one of the leading causes of the breakup of family farms, as producers are forced to sell their land to pay off taxes on their inheritance," said Gary Voogt, NCBA President and rancher from Marne, Mich. "This legislation is an important step in ensuring hardworking farmers and ranchers can keep their land in their families."
Currently, estates valued at more than $3.5 million, or $7 million for a couple, are taxed at a 45% rate. President Obama has proposed freezing it at this level so it can be dealt with at a later date. But if Congress doesn't act to freeze or reduce the estate tax, in 2011, it will revert to a staggering 55% tax on estates worth only $1 million or more.
"Our country can't afford the consequences of taxing our farmers and ranchers out of business," Voogt said. "NCBA will continue to press for relief from the death tax, and we look forward to working with Congressmen Thompson and Salazar to ensure that cattle producers can continue to work their land and feed our nation."
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NCBA Submits Comments on the National Animal Identification System
The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) on Tuesday submitted the following to comments to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) with regards to a National Animal Identification System (NAIS).
"As the oldest and largest national association for cattle producers, we represent 230,000 cattle farmers and ranchers through our membership and the membership of our state and breed affiliates. NCBA policy is generated at the grassroots level, is debated by producers, and is voted on by all NCBA members before it is finalized.
"NCBA recognizes and supports the need for a National Animal Identification System for the purpose of enabling state and federal animal health officials to respond rapidly and effectively to animal health emergencies, such as foreign animal disease outbreaks or emerging domestic diseases. We also support the use of animal identification systems for genetic improvement and marketing arrangements. In fact, albeit recognizing the need for continued refinements to be developed, NCBA policy supports the adoption of the NAIS as the national animal identification program.
"NCBA has encouraged our members to participate in animal identification systems, and has produced and implemented a media campaign to get producers to register their premises. Many of our members already participate voluntarily in numerous animal identification programs as one of many tools to improve their herds, monitor disease, and better market their cattle. The private sector plays a tremendous role in the administration of these voluntary programs, and NCBA believes that private sector involvement and the resulting competitive market forces benefit producers while maintaining the objectives of the NAIS.
"However, our members continue to have concerns with NAIS, which is why NCBA's policy supports a voluntary - rather than a mandatory - system. The first concern is that private producers' confidential information would be housed in a USDA-maintained database. The federal government does not have a strong track record of preventing the leak of private information. Furthermore, USDA has not been able to guarantee us that the information in a mandatory system would be protected from release under a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request. USDA's own Office of General Counsel has told us and the House Agriculture Committee that protection is different between a voluntary and mandatory system.
"Another concern is the need for a system that will move at the speed of commerce. The working, processing, and marketing of cattle cannot slow down in order to be scanned and entered into the system.
"Finally, we want to make it very clear that animal ID is NOT a food safety tool. There are many firewalls and inspection procedures in place to keep our beef supply safe. The NAIS will not serve to enhance food safety, nor was it intended to. Additionally, animal ID does not prevent animal disease; it is merely a tool to respond to an animal health emergency.
"In short, NCBA encourages USDA to develop an efficient system that meets the needs of the country's beef producers by:
-Minimizing additional costs to the beef industry
-Maintaining the confidentiality of producer, animal, and premises information
-Operating at the speed of commerce
-Integrating private-sector databases
-Ensuring that the system is phased-in within and between species
-Providing that any animal tracking database should be user friendly to producers of all sizes
-Ensuring that current or future business plans include significantly more details to allow producers to understand day to day impacts of the plan, prior to the final rule-making process
"NCBA is committed to working with USDA in working towards these, and other continued refinements to NAIS, and we look forward to these discussions in the further development of a workable system."
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Senate Fiscal Year 2010 Agriculture Appropriations Bill Includes Assistance for TB Eradication Efforts
The Senate-passed version of the Fiscal Year 2010 Agriculture Appropriations Bill (HR 2997) includes an amendment by Senator Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) to provide some much-needed relief for cattle producers working to eradicate bovine tuberculosis (Bovine TB) from their herds. The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) thanks Senator Johanns for his work on this key amendment which would dedicate $3 million to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to make indemnity payments to producers who are required to depopulate their herds due to bovine tuberculosis.
Bovine TB is a contagious animal disease that the cattle industry and Federal government have been working to eradicate for close to 100 years. In order to eventually eradicate this disease, infected herds must be depopulated quickly and the farmer or rancher must be compensated in a fair and equitable way for the value of lost cattle.
The work done by APHIS, the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), and state and industry partners has been critical in containing and managing this disease. FSIS maintains a robust TB surveillance program at harvesting facilities to ensure that no cattle with TB enter the food supply. This illustrates the effectiveness of the food safety measures utilized in the beef industry. In recent years, APHIS has intensified their TB surveillance and has indicated that the disease has nearly been eradicated. We also know that wildlife play a critical part in the transmission of the disease, and industry is working with both Federal and state governments to address this.
In our combined effort for eventual eradication, the national tuberculosis eradication program has successfully reduced the incidence of the disease in U.S. cattle. There continues, however, to be a low incidence of TB as evidenced by the handful of newly identified infected herds over the past several years. These additional cases are in part due to intentional intensified surveillance activities, and the infected animals, along with their herd mates, are then quarantined in order to control the disease and minimize its impact on cattle movement and markets. This has proven to be the most effective method to protect our domestic cattle herd since the national program began in 1917.
NCBA supports USDA's efforts to eradicate this disease, but historically we have not seen enough funding to adequately compensate farmers and ranchers for cattle that had to be depopulated. It is evident with the limitations of current technology, the wildlife vector, and the complicated nature of TB, that the current amount of Federal funding is not adequate. More funding and research is needed to provide better answers and solutions. Until those solutions are found, we need timely and adequate funding to depopulate any current beef herds and compensate cattle producers for their losses. Since TB is a concern across the country, this amendment will help to provide that needed compensation and allow the TB eradication program to be successful.
Other highlights of the Senate Fiscal Year 2010 Agriculture Appropriations Bill (HR 2997) include:
-$13,157,000 for cattle fever tick control
-$429,000 for tropical bont tick control
-$9,707,000 for Brucellosis eradication
-$76,281,000 for Wildlife Services operations
-$15,764,000 for the bovine TB program (of which, $3 million will be earmarked for depopulation indemnity payments per the Johanns amendment)
HR 2997 passed the Senate on Tuesday by a vote of 80 to 17. The bill is expected to go to Conference in September.
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NCBA Issues Member Call-to-Action
The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) is asking members to talk to their Senators and Congressional Representatives when they're back in their home states and districts during the month-long August recess. With Congress debating a number of bills that would add new federal regulation and impose additional costs on the agriculture sector, it's important for producers to let their Representatives in D.C. know how these mandates could impact their businesses. Specifically, NCBA is urging members to express opposition to three key pieces of legislation:
1) The Clean Water Restoration Act - The Clean Water Restoration Act (S. 787) would remove the word "navigable" from the definition of "Waters of the United States," opening up all waters-including prairie potholes, intermittent streaks, manmade ponds, stock tanks, ditches and any other water-to regulation by the Federal government. This bill would amount to a massive Federal land-grab, subjecting farmers and ranchers to unnecessary Federal regulation over every day activities like watering their cattle on their own private land.
For more information, visit: http://www.beefusa.org/NEWSCleanWaterRestorationActThreatensRanchers
SmallBusinessOwners39120.aspx
2) The Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA) - This bill would prohibit the use of non-therapeutic antibiotics in animals, severely impeding our ability to prevent diseases in cattle-which will ultimately lead to animal welfare concerns, food safety issues and economic losses due to increased illness and death. Healthy cattle are the foundation of a safe food supply and NCBA supports the careful and judicious use of animal antibiotics. Antibiotics are one of many important and necessary tools America's beef producers utilize to maintain cattle health and well-being while producing safe, wholesome and nutritious beef.
In multiple studies, no connection has been found between antibiotic use in cattle and antibiotic-resistant foodborne or other pathogens. Additionally, antibiotics used in beef cattle must go through a rigorous scientific testing process before being approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including a safety assessment more stringent than that of human antibiotics. Any decisions regarding the use of antibiotics should be based on sound science, not politics, which is why NCBA opposes this legislation.
3) The American Clean Energy and Security Act (Climate Change Bill) - The Climate Change Bill (HR 2454) would set a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases (GHGs). While NCBA worked closely with lawmakers to ensure the final bill exempts agriculture from regulation under the cap, and provides a list of eligible agriculture offsets, NCBA is opposed to the overall bill because of the economic burdens it would impose on cattle producers.
Agriculture is a minor emitter of GHGs and should be considered a solution, rather than a contributor, to the climate change problem. While agriculture would not be regulated under the bill, we remain extremely concerned about the effects it would have on energy costs-which would significantly raise everyday operational costs for the agriculture sector (which is highly energy-intensive). Estimates have shown that climate change legislation could decrease farm income by almost 30% by 2012. Congress should fully analyze the very-real ramifications this type of regulation would have on U.S. industry before moving forward with any legislation.
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Don't miss NCBA's Cattlemen to Cattlemen!
Don't miss NCBA's Cattlemen to Cattlemen, August 11-15! We'll learn more about adding value to calves through the Prime Protection Plus program, and we'll visit a winner of this year's Environmental Stewardship Award.
NCBA'S Cattlemen to Cattlemen debuts Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. and airs again Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. and Saturdays at 9 a.m. (all times are Eastern). Don't forget, you can watch NCBA's Cattlemen to Cattlemen online anytime by visiting www.CattlemenToCattlemen.org.You can also follow us on Twitter at NCBA C2C and on Facebook by searching NCBA's Cattlemen to Cattlemen. | |
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NATIONAL CATTLEMEN'S BEEF ASSOCIATION
1301 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 300
Washington, D.C. 20004 | |
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