11-3 NWR Farm Bill and Election

This is your Northwest report for Thursday, November 3, I'm David Sparks and according to agri-pulse.com  andtthe results of next week's election could shape what the Farm Bill might look like but a senate Republican says the results should not change the bill’s timing. Sen. Chuck Grassley is a member of the Senate agriculture committee. While there is a chance Democrats could take the Senate next Tuesday, Grassley says that should not matter. He thinks the bill should be passed sooner than later. "Whether we have Democrats or Republican control of the United States Senate, because of low prices and because of the movements that are going on right now from farm organizations and from individual farmers that we ought to advance by one year, a new Farm Bill for the 2018 crop year, instead of waiting till 2019, I think under both Republican and/or Democratic leadership, they are going to get that pressure and that's why I feel we should move and sense the committee acts pretty much in a bipartisan way on farm policy, I expect we're going to see the same thing happen whether we have a Democratic majority or Republican majority.”

 

Elsewhere, The tempo of minimum wage increases and new overtime pay requirements is quickening in the Northwest, spelling expensive implications for ag-sector payrolls. The groundswell of legislated and regulated pay hikes occurs despite, and in part a result of, Congress' firm stand against raising the national minimum since it bumped the rate to $7.25 an hour in 2009. Instead of a new national rate, many NorthWest states, are upping their wage floors. Already, 29 states and the District of Columbia have a minimum wage above the federal mandate, and further boosts are expected or already scheduled.