American families, farmers, workers, and small businesses could soon see a massive surge in economic growth, wage gains, and higher incomes if the Big Beautiful Bill eventually becomes the law of the land. President Trump’s One, Big, Beautiful Bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday, and now heads to the Senate for consideration.
Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, spoke with Senior Vice President of Government Affairs at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Ethan Lane, about provisions in the bill that will aid the cattle industry.
“This was a huge bill for a lot of our priorities, quite frankly, in the larger farm bill that hasn’t passed yet,” Lane said. “I think that was a lot of G.T. Thompson’s goal in his portion of this markup process through this reconciliation bill, to make sure that if this is the only train that leaves the station in this very tightly margined Congress, farmers and ranchers around the country aren’t left out in the cold.”
The reconciliation bill includes provisions that are crucial to the success of cattle producers and will:
- Reimburse cattle producers for losses due to depredation by federally protected predators.
- Expand access to the livestock forage disaster program for producers experiencing drought.
- Continue funding the feral swine eradication program.
- Bolster the “three-legged stool” that protects the cattle industry from foreign animal disease, including the National Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Program (NADPRP), the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN), and the National Animal Vaccine and Veterinary Countermeasures Bank (NAVVCB). The NAVVCB currently houses emergency supplies for responding to a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak.
“Additionally, this is a massive win for cattle producers on the tax front,” Lane shared.
Should the bill pass the Senate and reach President Trump’s desk, it will protect the legacy of family farms and ranches for future generations by:
- An increase to the estate and gift tax exemption amounts to $15 million per individual and $30 million per couple, adjusted for inflation annually. The package also makes this exemption permanent.
- Preserved stepped-up basis.
- A permanent increase to the Section 199A Small Business deduction from 20% to 23%.
- Expanding the limitation on Section 179 expensing from $1 million to $2.5 million.
- Reinstating the 100% bonus depreciation for five years.
- Extending the Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2023.
“This is a big deal for cattle producers around the country, and we’re really excited to see just what is going to happen now that this bill has passed the House of Representatives and is going to move over to the Senate, where they will put their mark on this package,” he said. The above bullet points were borrowed from an NCBA press release.
Lane touted how important it was to notice that the House of Representatives used regular order to pass the reconciliation bill. “They had all of their committees across the House hold markups – I think Energy and Commerce went to 27 hours. I think they came within thirty minutes shy of the record for the longest markup in history. The committees all did their work, and the budget committee assembled that work into a bill; the rules committee debated it for basically a full day. This process was regular order.”
As a result, the bill is imprinted by many members of the House, and Lane gave credit to Mike Johnson and looks forward to seeing what John Thune’s leadership in the Senate brings to the table.
“The Senate is described as the world’s greatest deliberative body, and I think we are going to see just how deliberative they can be as they receive this bill,” Lane stated. “The president has even mentioned in the last 24 hours that he like a lot of their ideas even better than what is in the House bill. I think you can expect to see the same kind of engagement, if needed, from the president and his team. This is a major priority for him. I don’t think any of them want to see this thing go to August recess.”
With the debt ceiling increase a major part of the bill, Lane reasoned that the Senate will definitely want to come to a resolution before or by August, therefore, he expects them to be very busy in June.
“Speaker Johnson commented last night that he is hopeful that this thing can be wrapped up by the fourth of July,” Lane shared. “I think that would be a pretty aggressive timeline for the U.S. Senate, but we will see what they can do.”
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
