At the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association Convention, Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, talked with the Vice President of Governmental Affairs of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Ethan Lane, about the appropriations process in the House.
“This Congress [the House] has moved quicker this year than we expected them to,” Lane admitted. “They have all twelve bills out of committee, they are working them on the floor. Ag Approps, we expect to be on the floor this week. If you will remember, that is the one that shut down the appropriations process last September. We will see if they have a better handle on where everybody is at this time around.”
He said that, as usual, it would be a full-featured, floor vote and markup. He expects to see amendments from those who weren’t a part of the former ag appropriations markup. “A lot of times, some of that stuff is pretty outside the mainstream,” he cautioned. “We see the Harriett Hagemans of the world from Wyoming and others really pushing some of those minority opinions whether it be on traceability or any of these other issues.”
He expects debate about defunding the packers and stockyards rulemakings at USDA, and NCBA will be fighting for funding for electronic ear tags to provide as much relief and support for producers as possible. He said they will also discuss language that would restrict what the USDA can do with the data from the traceability program.
“We want to make sure that it can’t be used for anything environmentally, or emission-related, or for any other purposes other than that stated core purpose of animal disease traceability. That is all that NCBA supports. That is all that we have policy for, and we intend to make sure that the government isn’t allowed to do anything, but that with our producer data,” Lane stated.
Lane shared that early in the process, the appropriations leadership said that they would get as far as they could in the appropriations process, with as much floor and committee action done as possible, and when they reach a point where they have done all that they can, negotiations can begin from there.
“But they have twelve bills out of committee. They have strong negotiating positions in the House,” he said. “Chairman Tom Cole of Oklahoma has done fantastic work here. The fact is they’ve got a negotiating position now, so anything else they get across the House floor just gets that much stronger as far as their ability to negotiate with the Senate, who is behind them in that process.”
Flipping between the Democratic and Republican parties in the House and the Senate in November raises big questions. “If the Republicans gain the Senate, but lose the House, that certainly changes the dynamics. NRCC Chairman Richard Hudson who is leading Republican reelection in the House this cycle has said repeatedly, ‘This comes down to money on the ground. This comes down to raising money and deploying it in those winnable districts to make sure they don’t get outspent by the super packs or special interests.’”
Lane said that by looking at the polls, anything could happen. He believes that Republicans stand a good chance of gaining a couple of seats in the House, and the Senate looks obtainable.
“I think that the thing people need to keep in mind is that the margins are going to be tight, either way, and as long as the margins stay tight, neither party will be in a position to run off with the ball,” Lane observed.
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