House Approves Omnibus Spending Bill; Senate Expected to Act Soon
By a vote of 219 to 206, the House of Representatives approved legislation that would fund most federal government operations, including the Department of Agriculture, through the end of fiscal year 2015; left out of the full-year funding was the Department of Homeland Security, which will operate under a continuing resolution set to expire in the spring. The House also approved a short-term continuing resolution (CR) to keep the federal government funded through midnight on Saturday to allow time for a Senate vote; the previous CR only ran through December 11.
The House vote, which saw 67 Republicans vote against the measure and 57 Democrats vote for it, sets up action in the Senate. The exact timing of consideration is unclear given the procedural hurdles that need to be cleared in the Senate, but it is expected to pass ahead of Saturday’s deadline for action.
Tax Extenders Package Likely Last Item on Senate’s List for Action
The Senate will likely take up the tax extenders legislation (H.R. 5771) passed by the House last week as the last item on its “to-do” list before adjourning for the year. As noted last week, the measure would retroactively extend a number of tax provisions that expired in December 2013; it should not be missed that this extension is only for the 2014 tax year and does nothing to extend them for 2015. Also included in the House-passed bill is an 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 is Section 179 enhanced expensing, 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 50 percent bonus depreciation, the Research and Development Tax Credit, the New Markets Tax Credit and the one dollar per gallon tax credit for biodiesel.
House Energy & Commerce Holds Hearing to Look at FDA Role in Regulating GMOs
The House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee held a hearing on Wednesday to discuss the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) role in regulating GMOs in food products. The three hour hearing consisted of two panels. The first featured Mike Landa, Director of FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. A second panel featured Alison Van Eenennaam, a cooperative extension specialist and researcher in animal genomics and biotechnology at the University of California-Davis, Tom Dempsey, president and CEO of the Snack Food Association, Stacey Forshee, a Kansas farmer and member of the Kansas Farm Bureau, Scott Faber, Senior VP of the Environmental Working Group and head of the “Just Label It” campaign, and Kate Webb, Assistant Majority Leader of Vermont House of Representatives.
Throughout opening statements and Q&A, members on both sides of the aisle agreed there needs to be a national solution to the individual state labeling initiatives. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., declared in his opening statement that labeling GMOs “could be inherently misleading.” Mike Pompeo, R-Kan. and co-sponsor of H.R. 4432, the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act, asked each member of the second panel if they believed GMOs were safe and all panelists agreed they were. The debate seemed to shift from the safety of GE technology to whether or not the consumer has a right to know how their food was produced. Michael Landa commented during questioning that if a labeling law is based on the consumers’ right to know, then what don’t the consumers have a right to know when it comes to how food is produced.
NCFC is working with the Coalition for Safe Affordable Food to have a modified version of H.R. 4432 introduced in the house early in the new congress.
Upcoming Events:
- 86th NCFC Annual Meeting—February 11-13, 2015—Paradise Point Hotel, San Diego, Calif.