Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays spoke with Ethan Lane from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) to discuss the recently enacted big beautiful bill. On the Fourth of July, President Donald Trump signed the one big beautiful bill into law. This wide-reaching legislation includes the permanent extension and expansion of the Trump tax cuts from 2017. One of the most notable features is the significant increase in death tax exemptions. “The exemptions go up significantly,” noted Ron, highlighting the impact on estate and gift taxes for farmers and ranchers.
Ethan Lane of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association emphasized the importance of this law for cattle producers nationwide. “This was a huge bill for a lot of our priorities,” Lane said, referencing tax reforms and agricultural protections. Among the provisions are reimbursements for livestock losses from federally protected predators and strengthened defenses against foreign animal diseases. Lane explained, “It bolsters the three-legged stool for protecting the cattle industry from foreign animal disease,” including continued funding for the FMD Vaccine Bank to be housed at the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan, Kansas.
The law also delivers sweeping changes to tax policy that directly benefit producers. Lane detailed, “This bill increases the estate tax and gift tax exemption to $15 million per individual, $30 million per couple,” with annual inflation adjustments. These changes, he noted, are now permanent, eliminating uncertainty for families worried about losing ground due to reverting tax thresholds. Additional wins include expanding the Section 199A small business deduction from 20% to 23%, doubling Section 179 expensing limits, and reinstating 100% bonus depreciation for five years.
Finally, Lane praised the legislative process itself, calling it a model of proper governance. “I think it’s incredibly important and hasn’t been talked about enough that the House of Representatives effectively used regular order to pass this bill,” he said. Committees across the House held extensive markups, including a near-record 27-hour session by the Energy and Commerce Committee. “The result is a bill that has a lot of imprints of different members in it,” Lane noted, making it not only bipartisan in parts but deeply representative of diverse stakeholder interests across agriculture.
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