As NCBA’s CattleCon 2025 came to a close, Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, spoke with Ethan Lane, to get a policy wrap-up from NCBA’s Vice President of Governmental Affairs. Oklahoma Farm Report’s coverage of CattleCon 2025 is powered by Farm Data Services of Stillwater.
The NCBA Board of Directors for both the policy and federation divisions met one last time on Thursday evening, and according to Lane, NCBA’s membership sees the new administration and renewed congress as advantageous opportunities.
“I think the membership that was here this week was really focused on how we take advantage of this opportunity, especially while we have a good price environment and strong consumer demand and are seeing input prices come down a little bit,” he described. “Across the board, I think this feels like opportunity for our producers and they want to make sure we don’t leave any of that on the table.”
Whether focusing on regulatory rollbacks from the Biden administration related to his aggressive attempts to undo the NEPA and Endangers Species Act, or rejuvenating improvements seen in the last Trump administration such as the work on the Packers and Stockyards Act, or on the lack of trade activity over the past four years.
“That is all on our members’ radars right now and included in those policy priorities as items they want to see some progress on over the next year,” Lane stated.
While he admitted that, as much as he would like to, he won’t be able to wrap his arms around everything the membership wants to accomplish, instead, he will hone in on the things that have the most reasonable chance of moving through the congressional body.
“Recognizing where Congress is at and what their real ability is to process bills given those tight margins and where you know there is going to be definitive movement, that is where you focus to make sure you are getting some points on the board for your membership,” Lane detailed. “We know taxes are a top priority for Congress right now, and they have an avenue to deal with it through the reconciliation process. We are watching the horse race right now between the House and the Senate as far as who is going to really take leadership of that process, but we know there is a commonality of intent across Capital Hill to get something done before those tax cuts expire at the end of this year. That is a pretty obvious place for us to lean in and make sure our members’ priorities are protected – whether that be the death tax, or some of those deductions, 179, 199-A. Making sure that those tools remain available to producers is going to be a top priority.”
He said that the advancement or stagnancy of the farm bill is a million-dollar question. In the currently tight legislative environment, he can’t predict whether there will be an interest in going back to the drawing board and re-examining some of the nutrition programs, spending on conservation programs, and other parts of the bill that aren’t very popular with President Trump but were with members of the previous presidential cabinet who are no longer there.
“Does that prompt new conversations?” Lane speculated. “I don’t know, but I think that it is sort of a non-traditional landscape. I think it is probably bold to assume that we are going to see the farm bill move forward in a very orderly way this year, given this tight legislative environment.”
Lane spoke more about the Reconciliation Bill and the likelihood of its resolution. Click the listen bar at the top of the page to hear the complete conversation.
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