Senate Jobs Bill Contains Agriculture Provisions

Yesterday, the Senate passed a roughly $140 billion jobs bill aimed at stimulating job growth in the struggling economy, as well as covering other areas of concern in this time of economic recession. Also included in the bill were provisions that America's agricultural producers might find helpful.

As Sally Schuff writes for Feedstuffs online, the Senate bill included a $1.5 billion agricultural disaster package and a one-year extension of the biodiesel tax credit that is retroactive to January 1, 2010. According to Schuff, the Senate bill will now proceed to the House "as part of the tax extenders legislation." Agricultural leaders in Congress are hoping the bill will move quickly through the House so the legislation can be enacted and farmers can receive the help they need.

Here's how the disaster money breaks down: $1 billion for crop losses suffered in 2009; $75 million in disaster moneys for poultry; $50 million for livestock; $20 million for aquaculture, "and relief for cotton handlers." There is also $300 million included for specialty crop producers. The bill also includes a one-year extension of the tax credit for short line railroads, "and a one-year tax credit for a new markets program [.]"

Hoosier Ag Today online reports that to be eligible for the disaster payments, those suffering losses must be in a county declare a "primary" disaster area by the US Department of Agriculture. The biodiesel tax incentive will allow biodiesel producers to continue with their current work, or in some cases, even expand production.

As Gail Russell Chaddock reports for the Christian Science Monitor, the $140 billion legislation passed the Senate 62 to 36. In addition to the previously mentioned provisions, the bill also extends unemployment insurance, provides support for state Medicaid programs, and "blocks mandated cuts in reimbursement for doctors service Medicare patients.

The House of Representatives passed a version of the tax extenders legislation back in December, 2009. Since the two bodies of Congress used different offsets to help pay for their legislation, it looks like a conference on the package is inevitable.

How long it will take to proceed to such a conference, let alone conduct one, remains to be seen.

To read the Feedstuffs online article click here.
To read the Christian Science Monitor article click here.
To read the Hoosier Ag Today article click here.

Posted: 03/11/10