NCGA Comments on House Budget Reconciliation Legislation

The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) today praised the passage of key tax extensions, championed by the organization, which passed the House Committee on Ways and Means as part of the budget reconciliation process.

"We applaud the members of the House Committee on Ways and Means and Chairman Smith for approving these tax policies, which are important to the financial viability of the nation's corn growers," said Illinois farmer and NCGA President Kenneth Hartman Jr. "These important provisions in the federal tax code must be extended this year."

The bill includes many of NCGA's federal tax priorities, including:

• Permanently extending key provisions from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, including the expanded estate and gift tax exemptions and the qualified business income deduction.
  
• Renewing 100% bonus depreciation for five years.
  
• Extending and modifying the clean fuel production tax credit, referred to as 45Z, until 2031. The tax credit can help the biofuels industry make inroads into the aviation sector and attract investment into opening new markets for U.S. corn.

NCGA also weighed in on the measure that passed the House Committee on Agriculture on Wednesday night. Corn growers recognized Chairman Thompson and members of the Agriculture Committee for shepherding key agricultural initiatives in a complicated political and budgetary environment.

"We appreciate Chairman Thompson's efforts to include key agricultural investments in must-pass legislation," he said.

The bill contains several of NCGA's longstanding farm bill priorities, including:

• Addressing the affordability of federal crop insurance coverage for producers. The language expands support for beginning and veteran farmers and ranchers and provides improvements to the Supplemental Coverage Option.
  

• Doubling mandatory funding for the Market Access Program and Foreign Market Development Program, which will develop new markets and promote U.S. goods, helping to boost U.S. agricultural exports.
  

• Strengthening the producer safety net by investing in modifications to the Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage commodity programs that are more responsive to the current economic environment. Hartman said corn growers appreciate that the legislation increases the ARC coverage level and payment band and increases the statutory PLC reference price for corn to $4.10.

However, corn growers remain concerned with the imbalance of investment across various commodities and potential impacts of the changes to the PLC program. NCGA is particularly concerned with the adoption of a new floor price of $3.30 for corn, which would create a new gap in price coverage if the national marketing year average prices for corn were severely depressed. The legislation unfairly expands the concept only to corn growers.

NCGA continues to advocate for more meaningful reforms to existing base acres that underpin the eligibility for the ARC and PLC commodity programs. Those reforms were not fully included in the committee's budget proposal. NCGA will continue to advocate for policies to ensure that all base acres, program eligibility and payments better reflect growers' recent planting history.

While acknowledging that the House Committee on Agriculture's budget proposal contained some of NCGA's farm bill priorities, the organization also voiced concerns with the overall process and its implications for future farm bills.

"NCGA's farmer leaders have long stood on the policy position that farm bills should be comprehensive and bipartisan, and that they should include farm programs and nutrition programs," Hartman said. "Given that budget reconciliation provides only a partial pathway for select components of the farm bill, we would like return to a bipartisan, comprehensive approach to future farm bill debates."

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce included language that would rescind the latest EPA multipollutant rules and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's CAFE Rule. NCGA has called for inclusion of the language in the budget reconciliation bill. This is a significant action that would protect ethanol demand in the future.

NCGA has called for inclusion of language in the budget reconciliation bill that would eliminate a regulatory barrier to consumers' year-round access to fuels with 15% ethanol blends, referred to as E15.

"NCGA will continue to make the case to legislators to include E15 in the final reconciliation package," Hartman said. "Providing nationwide, year-round access to these fuels would save consumers money at the pump and help farmers financially, while serving as a boon to rural economies. Including this fix in reconciliation offers the added benefit of eliminating the need for regulatory waivers and our analysis shows it would achieve significant cost savings."