Zippy and WOTUS

Congress is moving forward with a $3.5 trillion fiscal year 2022 budget resolution. The spending in the legislation resulting from the reconciliation language in the budget resolution will need to be offset by some combination of federal spending reductions, additional deficit spending and tax increases. The potential tax increases include an increased corporate tax rate, the elimination of stepped-up basis and imposition of capital gains at death.

This would be devastating to American agriculture.

Many farmers and ranchers hold assets such as land for decades, passed on from generation to generation.

The American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall says farmers and ranchers are also telling the Environmental Protection Agency what they need from the Waters of the U.S. Rule rewrite effort.

“EPA has been holding listening sessions about rewriting the rule and taking comments,” said Duvall. “And we're very proud that about 75 percent of the sessions were farmers and ranchers that volunteered. I think that was a great showing, so we're really proud of the way agriculture stepped up to let EPA know that we want clean water, but we also have to have clear rules."

Duvall says farmers and ranchers need to be engaged in these issues.

“I know our farmers and ranchers are busy, but I'm telling you, we need to make sure that our farmers and ranchers stay engaged on what's going on in Washington, D.C. We encourage them to be part of an organization like Farm Bureau, and alongside Farm Bureau be part of their commodity organizations, so that we can work in tandem, working for the same outcome. If you're not part of an organization, you might be like that lone wolf howling in the night. You join up with organizations like ours, we put together a pack of voices that cannot be ignored,” said Duvall.