Agricultural News
Mary Kay Thatcher Predicts Compact Congressional Session Ahead
Tue, 13 Jan 2015 17:06:05 CST
A new Congress, the final years of the Obama Administrations looks to make for some interesting challenges for the nation's largest agricultural organization. American Farm Bureau Senior Director of Congressional Relations Mary Kay Thatcher looks for there to still be some gridlock in Washington, but it hopeful Congress will be able to pass quite of few bills through the Senate and the House. She said the big unknown will be how many bills President Obama will veto this next year.
"I don't know of a single piece of legislation now that the Obama Administration would veto, that we have 67 or two-thirds majority to override," Thatcher said.
Radio Oklahoma Network Farm Director Ron Hays interviewed Thatcher at the 2014 American Farm Bureau Federation Annual Convention in San Diego. Click or tap on the LISTENBAR below to listen to the full conversation.
In looking at the new Congress, Thatcher anticipates several fiscal cliffs starting with the first one the end of February when the Department of Homeland Security has to funded, which includes immigration, the Highway Trust Fund comes up in May and the nation will reach the debt limit this summer, along with expiring tax provisions. With a Presidential election in 2016, that is going to compress the Congressional session. Thatcher looks for much of the activity to take place before the August recess.
"So it's going to have to be a pretty action packed next seven months, if we are going to get a lot of those big ticket items done," Thatcher said.
In looking at the potential for progress this year, Thatcher said one message that the House and Senate and Republicans and Democrats had to take away from the last election was that people want Congress to govern. She believes there is going to be a more open process especially in the Senate.
"Unlike what has happened in previous years, where you sort of pass legislation on its own, I think this year you are going to a lot more packaging of legislation into big packages that make it even more difficult for the President to veto," Thatcher said.
While the leadership has changed for the House and Senate Ag Committee, Thatcher looks for things to remain strong with solid leadership with Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas and Congressman Michael Conaway of Texas. She looks for the committee to have a lot of hearings in overseeing the implementation of the 2014 Farm Bill. Thatcher said one of the best things to come out of the Farm Bill was Congress making the livestock disaster programs permanent. With few programs to help livestock producers she has not heard anyone fighting the amount of money that has been spent in helping livestock producers recover one of the worst droughts in the nation's history.
In looking at the next Farm Bill debate, Thatcher looks for the target to be placed on crop insurance because that is the largest amount of money that goes to ag producers. She looks for American Farm Bureau to rely more heavily on its members to tell their story on how much each farmer is spending on crop insurance to demonstrate the individual impact.
American Farm Bureau's top priority for Congress to address this session is immigration reform, but Thatcher said unfortunately the subject is very touchy, so getting total reform will be tough. Secondly tax reform needs to be addressed, but she also sees that as unlikely. She also looks for Congress to address the tax extenders package but not until late in the year.
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