Policy Updates and Issue News November 2023

On November 17, a bipartisan Congress passed a stopgap funding bill that was signed by the President. The two-step continuing resolution funds government in two tranches, one until January 19 and the other until February 2. The first funds military construction, Veterans affairs, Agriculture, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and energy and water programs. The second funds the Department of Defense and nondefense social programs.  The legislation did not include emergency spending for the war in Ukraine, military aid to Israel, humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, Isael and Gaza, or additional security along the U.S.-Mexico border. That fight comes separately. The legislation also included a one-year extension of the 2018 farm bill which expired September 30.

Farm bill extended

The federal stopgap spending bill passed by Congress in mid-November included a one-year extension of the 2018 farm bill and provides funding for some relatively small programs that expired on September 30. The extension allows commodity and marketing loan programs such as Agriculture Risk Coverage, Price Loss Coverage and Dairy Margin Coverage to continue in effect for the 2024 crop year. Crop insurance is permanently funded and doesn’t need to be reauthorized. Major conservation programs were funded through 2031under the Inflation Reduction Act. The challenge will be to get the new farm bill done by July 2024. After that, the Senate and House are scheduled to be out except a few weeks between the Republican Convention in July and the November elections.

More protection for poultry growers

Contract growers have long complained that they are at the mercy of large poultry integrators with little recourse. USDA’s new poultry rule aims to change that to increase contract transparency, give growers information they need to make wise investment decisions, and prevent grower discrimination in the industry. The poultry rule is among several USDA initiatives intended to address competition across the agriculture industry.

The buzz is about bee vaccine

American youngblood is a honeybee disease caused by a bacterium that attacks young honeybees and wipes out entire hives within weeks. The bacteria are believed to infect around half the world’s honeybee hives. The vaccine is put in “queen candy” eaten by worker bees who feed the queen bee. The queen’s offspring in turn have greater immunity to American Youngblood.

Farmers and small businessmen must report ownership

Farmers and businessmen across the country must start filing disclosure reports with an obscure federal agency in the Treasury Department known as Financial Crimes Reporting Network (FinCEN). Lawmakers tucked the Corporate Transparency Act into the fiscal 2021 defense authorization bill to target small businesses, LLCs, limited partnerships, S and C Corporations and some individuals as key avenues for illegal money laundering. Publicly traded companies and nonprofits are exempt from filing.

Grange urges Congress to pass multi-cancer screening

The National Grange partnered with numerous health care advocates and patient groups in urging Congress to pass the Medicare Multi-cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage Act (H.R. 2407and S. 2085).  The legislation would require Medicare and Medicaid to reimburse patients to cover the screening for many additional types of cancers with a single blood draw.  The MCED test targets the early detection of cancers which greatly improves treatment options and patient survival rates. National Grange’s Burton Eller was included in the testimonials that accompanied the letter to Congress. The Acts now have support of a bipartisan majority of both the House and Senate.

Concern for dialysis patients

The National Grange joined dialysis patients and advocates to urge Congress to pass H.R. 5074, the Kidney PATIENT Act of 2023 for patients on dialysis suffering from life-threatening End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD). These patients rely on a treatment called Phosphate Lowering Therapies (PLTs) to lower their blood phosphate level to lower the risk of heart attack or stroke.  Today, patients have access to these drugs but that would change under a Center or Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) plan to add PLTs to the End Stage Renal Disease payment bundle. Wedging these payments into a limited payment bundle where they would be competing with other treatments for coverage means some patients would inevitably have less access to these drugs, especially in rural areas where a disproportionate number of patients experience ESRD. The Kidney PATIENT Act would instruct CMS to delay adding PLTs to the ESRD bundle until 2033 or until an intravenous treatment for lowering phosphate is approved.

Oregon opens rural crisis hotline

When Oregon farmers, ranchers, ag workers, loggers and fishermen experience an emotional crisis or need someone to talk to, counselors are now available. The Agristress Helpline launched in September thanks to donations an seed money from the Oregon legislature. The Helpline joins similar programs in Connecticut, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia that are staffed 24-7 by specially trained mental health counselors familiar with those who work in social and geographic isolation professions. The National Grange is working to get language and funding in the new Farm Bill that would expand Agristress to a nationwide network. Agristress is urgently needed because less than a third of people with severe psychological distress who have used the nationwide 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline are likely to use it again, according to a recent study by the New York University.

Support for expiring tax provisions

The National Grange and the Rural and Agriculture Council of America sent a letter to the Senate and House leadership to highlight the need to reauthorize several tax provisions important to agriculture. These include:

• Full expensing of research and development investments
• Full expensing of new equipment
• Maintain the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) standard instead of the more restrictive earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT)
• Maintain the Child Tax Credit

Congressional minority caucuses support ACP

The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) established in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act gives eligible households $30 per month toward high-speed internet plus a one-time credit toward purchase of a computer or tablet device. The National Grange is supporting a nationwide campaign for enrollment in rural and unserved areas. However, funding for ACP could be depleted by spring. Adding to a groundswell of support, members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, and Congressional Black Caucus recently asked the Senate and House leadership to allocate $6 billion to extend the program.

President Biden takes rural swing through farm country

In early November, the President and several top USDA officials kicked off a two-week rural tour to “barnstorm the country” to highlight $5 billion in rural infrastructure and conservation programs. The trips began at Dutch Creek Farms in Northfield, Minnesota that employs climate-smart agricultural practices. In addition to conservation programs, funds will go to USDA’s ReConnect Program to expand rural internet access, rural water infrastructure, the transition to clean energy electricity generation, safer roads and bridges, better access to medical care for rural veterans, expand independent meat and poultry processing capacity and more.

Grange adopts policy at Niagara Falls convention

At its largest convention in several years November 14-18, The National Grange delegates adopted 41 policy resolutions whose subject matter ranged from agriculture and food to conservation, citizenship, health, education, taxation, labor, telecommunications, transportation and legal matters. Policy resolutions are drafted by local Grange chapters and forwarded to their respective state Grange chapters for consideration. Policy resolutions that are national in scope adopted at the state level are then considered by the National Grange delegates at the national convention. Resolutions adopted there become policy direction for National Grange leadership and staff.

“The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings”.  ~  Kate Chopin

“A love or tradition has never weakened a nation; indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril; but the new view must come, the world must roll forward”.   ~  Winston Churchill

“Every heart that has beat strong and cheerfully has left a hopeful impulse behind it in the world and bettered the tradition of mankind”.  ~  Robert Louis Stevenson