Latest / CattleUSA Daily / 77: Capitol Hill Update on the Farm Bill and New World Screwworm with Rep. Tracey Mann

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77: Capitol Hill Update on the Farm Bill and New World Screwworm with Rep. Tracey Mann · CattleUSA Daily

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  Welcome to another episode of the Cattle USA Daily podcast.
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  Today we are welcoming Representative Tracy Mann from
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  the First District of Kansas onto the podcast today to
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  discuss the farm bill and New World Screw worm.
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  We're getting updates from him on Capitol Hill, what everything
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  is looking like as far as updates and negotiations and
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  borders and research and everything else.
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  He talks a little bit about the reconciliation bill and we even
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  go into trade at the end as well.
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  So without further ado, let's go ahead and hop into this quick
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  episode with Tracy Mann. Welcome to the Cattle USA Daily
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  Podcast, your go to source for the latest livestock markets,
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  industry insights and the updates shaping agriculture
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  today. I'm your host, Lauren Moylan, a
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  passionate advocate for agriculture here to keep you
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  informed and connected. Now let's dive into today's
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  episode. Tracy, welcome to the podcast.
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  Thank you so much for taking some time out of your busy
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  schedule to come on and chat with us today.
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  We are. We're excited to have you.
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  Thanks for having me, thanks for doing this and you know, huge
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  value for our great AG producers all over.
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  So thanks for doing this and thanks for having me on.
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  Absolutely. Well, let's jump right into it.
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  I want to first and foremost talk about the Farm Bill.
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  Can you give us the 411 and update what's what's going on
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  with the Farm Bill right now? Yeah, well, you know, one of the
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  most frustrating things as I've been in Congress is the slowness
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  of a farm bill. I've been on the floor of the
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  House 3738 Times Now urging the rest of Congress should get
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  serious about doing a five year farm bill.
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  And I, I think it's important, Lauren.
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  I mean, I'm constantly reminding members of Congress that aren't
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  from AG districts why we're even having this conversation.
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  I mean, why are farm bills five years?
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  And I would argue the answer is because five years is long
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  enough to provide some certainty, but short enough to
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  adjust and change with the times.
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  And as we all know, agriculture changes year to year, certainly
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  every five years. So it's important that we do
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  this. It's important that we get the
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  old one updated moving forward. Biggest thing happening
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  legislative, right, legislatively right now in
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  Washington, DC is the big beautiful bill.
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  It's a big reconciliation bill. A lot of provisions that are
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  good for production agriculture. We're actually, we're
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  endeavoring to work into that bill, which is a good thing, you
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  know, to really supplement farm bill here moving forward.
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  Yeah, absolutely. So the farm bill and what that's
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  looking like moving forward, are you still I for those of you
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  that weren't aren't familiar, I was in DCA few weeks ago and
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  talking to Tracy and we were still very optimistic about
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  getting it moving forward. Are we still feeling like we're
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  able to get this moving forward or do we think that we're maybe
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  going to be seeing another repeat?
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  Well, I'm optimistic because of the reconciliation bill.
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  So I think to remind everybody, but the farm bills today, 83% is
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  food nutrition, 17% is everything else.
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  And in the everything else category are things that impact
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  our livestock producers. Also crop insurance, CRP, you
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  know, those programs, But that's really the my less than 20% of
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  the bill. Now 80% of it is a food
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  nutrition side. One of the things we're working
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  on on the food nutrition side to reconciliation is how do we
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  stamp out the waste, fraud and abuse in those programs?
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  And if we can do that, it shrinks your overall cost for
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  the farm bill. That makes it easier to get done
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  for our producers. So really looking at work
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  requirements for able bodied individuals that do not have
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  dependents, right? You know, nobody's for the the
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  mom that has little kids, they absolutely need food assistance.
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  We're not talking about that. We're talking about people that
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  are able bodied, they're adults, they have no dependence.
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  They really should return to the workforce.
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  You know, how do we do things like that?
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  How do we make sure that the states who are implementing food
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  nutrition programs that that they are not just waiving work
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  requirements that they're really implementing and stamping out
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  the errors that they're making. So all those things we're in the
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  wheeze a little bit, but that matters to then reduce the cost
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  to then try to get a five year farm bill into the end zone.
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  So. Absolutely.
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  Can you talk a little bit more about what we're looking like
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  for provisions for livestock producers within the farm bill?
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  Any changes that we're going to be seeing from the previous one
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  that we need to kind of be keeping our eyes focused on?
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  Yeah. Well, well, specifically things
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  that we're doing in the this resiliation bill to invest, you
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  know, for production agriculture, livestock forest
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  disaster program, you know, LFP payment duration that could
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  double from one month to two-month, increasing the
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  drought eligibility for producers.
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  Counties could qualify for seven out of eight weeks of drought,
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  adding some needed flexibility. So, so how do you make that
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  program in the livestock forage and Disaster program just more
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  workable, more real world? So that's big LIP, you know,
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  livestock indemnity program, some specific changes we're
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  trying to make to that The compensation rate for livestock
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  deaths due to predation in what we just passed would increase
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  from 75% to 100% over the prior year's fair market value.
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  As we know we're in this, we're in this season where the the
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  value of, you know, prices are rising.
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  So we've got to make sure that the program is keeping up with
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  the increase in prices, which is good for producers.
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  Also expanding coverage to include unborn livestock up to
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  85% of market value. This is something I've been
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  working on for a long time. So these are some tweaks, some
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  changes, some improvements that I really would think would
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  strengthen this safety net out there for livestock producers.
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  Absolutely. I want to take a minute to jump
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  into another topic and that is New World Screw Worm.
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  Can you give us a little bit of an update on the closing of the
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  border and what that is going to be looking like for US cattle
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  to learn more today. Yeah, well, I mean, big picture,
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  we got to state the obvious and say that we want to make sure
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  that this does not get to the United States of America, right.
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  We've seen when this has happened before.
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  It's devastating. Took, you know, many ways
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  decades to really get over been disciplined, frankly with the
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  lack of response from some of the countries to the South of
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  us. Was really pleased to see
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  Secretary Rollins you know and and President Trump take the
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  actions they took to to secure the border to make sure that
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  this the scrimmer does not make it in the United States.
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  We really need to be fighting this pest farther S our
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  government is funding sterile flies being released you know
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  southern Mexico, which is really the antidote to to stamp this
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  out. We had some issues early on with
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  the Mexican government not cooperating.
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  We were trying to help them help themselves.
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  They were being difficult I'd like to think we're through that
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  but the border you know got sealed off for for bison and and
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  cattle here a few weeks ago. I think there's a right
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  decision. Painful to do that, but it's a
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  right decision and we got to make sure that never enters our
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  country. Absolutely.
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  I couldn't agree more. Can we talk a little bit about
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  research as far as New World Schoolroom goes and what that is
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  looking like and how you guys are kind of advocating for that?
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  Yeah. You know, and a lot of that gets
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  back to the farm Bill, right. I've been a big advocate for
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  less invest in our research institutions through the Farm
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  Bill. There's other ways to do it as
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  well, but the farm Bills a great way so that we are preventing
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  these diseases, these outbreaks before they start.
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  I mean, that's really the key. And then of course 3 legged
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  stool and we've got you know in Bath right in Manhattan and and
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  other things as well. We are making a few some
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  investments in our research institutions through what we're
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  doing regulation, which is kind of the pre FarmVille portion and
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  that's important. But the end of the day, we just
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  have got to make sure that we are making these investments to
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  prevent disease because it's so much less expensive to prevent
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  these things, certainly to prevent their spread, than to
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  fight them when we have a full blown outbreak.
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  Yes, absolutely. As far as just anything else you
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  want to leave to your constituents here in Kansas or
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  just the cattle producer in general, any other updates, any
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  other things that you want to leave with them today?
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  Yeah, Well, I would just say, you know, a lot of things going
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  on in agriculture right now. As we all know, prices are high.
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  That's a good thing. Also, risks are higher as well.
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  A big part of, I think, the future of the industry.
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  We've got to continue to work on trade deals.
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  And, you know, you're seeing President Trump renegotiate our
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  trade relationships in the world.
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  I was glad to see the deal struck week or so ago with
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  United Kingdom. You know, one of the main tenets
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  of that deal was making sure that we can export our beef into
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  that country, but we need to do that through the rest of Europe
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  as well. So I think we're making some
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  progress. We need to make sure as tariffs
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  come down, as the playing field becomes level that were
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  appropriately spending dollars on things like MAP market access
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  program, F&D, foreign market development program.
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  You know, once the barriers go down, then we've got to be
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  prepared to go in there and make sure that we're selling our beef
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  products and all of our AG products.
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  Frankly to these markets. It matters greatly.
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  It absolutely does. Are there any other foreign
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  markets that you guys kind of have your eyes on right now or
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  that you anticipate that Rollins and Trump are going to be
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  looking forward to for continued exports?
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  Well, you know, there's a lot of negotiations, you know, with 90
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  countries, you know, going on at the same time.
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  I think specific to agriculture, not as much on the cattle side,
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  but certainly I think we have huge opportunities in India both
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  for biofuels but also for sorghum.
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  I think that could be a win. You know, just just increasing
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  our exports overall matters greatly.
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  But I just think there's a lot of opportunities in Europe
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  still. You know that the Europe,
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  European markets have had a lot of protectionist policies for a
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  long, long time. And to see those being revised
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  and really open up those markets for, you know, US grown cattle
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  is a good, good thing. Absolutely.
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  It definitely is. Well, Tracy, thank you again so
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  much for your time today and coming on and sharing a little
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  bit of the updates that are going on with all of the things.
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  We really appreciate your time and as always, thank you so
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  much. For what?
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  You're doing Thanks for doing this and happy to come on again
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  and appreciate your. Time yes, just thank you for
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  what you're doing for Kansas and the cattle producer.
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  We it does not go unappreciated and we we really do appreciate
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  what you're doing up on Capitol Hill for us.
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  So thank you. More to do, more to come so.
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  Yes, absolutely. Well, thank you so much.
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  Have a great rest of your day. And.
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  Yes, have a good one. We'll see you later.
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  OK. Thank you.