Agricultural News
WOTUS Repeal, Tax Reform NCBA's Top Priorities - President Craig Uden Eager to Work with Feds
Fri, 13 Oct 2017 11:32:08 CDT
Earlier this past spring, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, announced that his agency would seek to repeal and replace the controversial 2015 version of the Waters of the United States and replace it with more suitable language. In addition, Congress and the White House are working diligently to pass comprehensive tax reform, hopefully before the end of the year. These are just a few of the policy issues National Cattlemen's Beef Association President Craig Uden says his organization is focused on in Washington, D.C. He spoke recently with Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays during the Texas Cattle Feeders Association in Amarillo, and says he is looking forward to seeing how these issues turn out.
"We continue to hear that it's coming down the road and that there's a lot of moving parts," Uden said referring to the repeal of WOTUS. "We've stayed engaged on that since March. It's a very aggressive stance to get this thing turned over and fixed. We know there will be a lot of challenges, but hopefully we'll start to see some movement here real soon, so it can be tackled by early next spring before we get into all the midterm elections."
Uden believes the administration as a whole has been very friendly to agriculture, and says the members of President Trump's cabinet have all done a good job working towards the goals they have promised voters - Pruitt included. He points to the administration's framework for its proposed tax reform changes as evidence of the President's sensitivity to the hardships of those in agriculture and other hard-working industries. While there are still some provisions NCBA hopes to get folded into the final revision of the tax code, the fact that the repeal of the death tax is already included in the initial framework, already makes this battle feel like a win. Nonetheless, nothing should be considered a sure thing yet. Uden cautions that the devil will be in the details as the tax reform process moves forward.
"We're going to continue working on tax and hopefully that comes to the floor real soon and we can start moving," he said. "And, we're asking for it all. We've got a lot of challenges out there and it's a pretty tough time in agriculture in general. People need to understand what the capital intensity of agriculture is."
Listen to Uden and Hays discuss some of the top priority issues that NCBA is currently tracking in DC, on today's Beef Buzz.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today's show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
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