House Approves Tax Extenders Bill Including Ag-friendly Provisions & Barge User Fee Increase
By a vote of 378 to 16, the House this week approved legislation (H.R. 5771) that would retroactively extend a number of tax provisions that expired at the end of 2013 through the end of this year; as part of the legislation, the House also included the increase in the inland waterways user fee that has been a priority of barge operators and agricultural shippers for several years.
Among the tax extenders renewed through December 31 are several of special interest to producers and their co-ops. Chief among these are the Section 179 expensing provisions which would extend the small business expensing limitation and phase out amounts that have been in effect since 2010. Also extended in the package are the 50 percent bonus depreciation provisions, the Research and Development Tax Credit, the New Markets Tax Credit and the one dollar per gallon tax credit for biodiesel among several renewable energy tax credits.
The inland waterways provisions merged into the bill are from the Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act of 2014 that would increase the barge fuel tax by 9 cents per gallon (the chief purpose of the ABLE Act was to provide new tax-free savings accounts for people with disabilities—as often happens in Washington it served as a vehicle for the unrelated barge user fee increase). It is estimated that this provision would raise some $260 million over the next 10 years to modernize the country’s locks and dams. Both barge operators and their customers—including NCFC members and other agricultural shippers—have been strongly supportive of such an increase.
The legislation will now head to the Senate which will need to act on the measure next week before Congress’s schedule December 12th adjournment. While common sense would dictate that the measure should pass easily, several Democratic members of the Senate Finance Committee have expressed reservations about the measure as they would like to see a two-year extension of these provisions through the end of 2015.
House Set to Act on Government Funding Bill Ahead of December 11 Deadline
With the continuing resolution (CR) funding federal government operations set to expire on December 11th, Congress’s last piece of business before adjourning for the year next week will be addressing the budget. Complicating matters, however, has been the uproar among conservatives over the President’s immigration announcement from two weeks ago. Some have suggested, in fact, that any government funding bill should be used to push back against the new policy, something which would surely invite a presidential veto.
Seeking to avoid the optics of a pre-Christmas government shutdown and the prospect of starting the 114th Congress mired in last year’s budget battle, GOP House leaders have developed a hybrid funding plan that has been dubbed the “cromnibus,” a name that is a mash up of “continuing resolution” and “omnibus spending bill.” The proposal would fund most of the federal government, including USDA, through the end of fiscal year 2015 on September 30th. However, the Department of Homeland Security, which is responsible for implementing the president’s immigration policy, would be funded by a temporary continuing resolution through March or April.
It remains unclear as to whether such a package could pass the House at this point—many of the more conservative Republican members want to address the immigration issue now, not in five months’ time, and the extent of Democratic support for the gambit is unknown. Also unknown is what the Senate Democrats or the President would make of such a funding strategy.
House Energy & Commerce Set to Hold GMO Hearing Next Week
The House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Health will hold a hearing next week to examine the Food & Drug Administration’s (FDA) role in regulating genetically modified food ingredients. As you may recall, the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act (H.R. 4432), introduced earlier this year by E&C Committee member Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) would formalize in statute FDA’s role in the approval and regulation of GMOs; the bill would also provide a federal framework for a voluntary labeling program for GMOs.
While the list of hearing witnesses has not yet been released, it is expected that a representative from FDA will testify on one panel and that another panel would feature stakeholders with diverse views on GMOs. Anti-GMO activists are already targeting the hearing, using it for fundraising and to stir up their grassroots. The Coalition for Safe & Affordable Food, of which NCFC is a member, will be looking to counteract these efforts in both traditional and social media next week.
Upcoming Events:
- 86th NCFC Annual Meeting—February 11-13, 2015—Paradise Point Hotel, San Diego, Calif.