As we begin the New Year, we welcome a new and different Congress that must operate in a unique political environment. The power shift in the Senate now gives Republicans the control of the legislative agenda, and they must prove to the nation they can legislate in a timely and thoughtful manner. It will be important to see how the moderates and those to the far right resolve their differences on each of the items on the legislative agenda.
Watching Congress carry out its business in “regular order” as it is supposed to will be something new for the American people and for most members of Congress. While Republicans have majorities in both houses, they do not have enough votes to override presidential vetoes, which mean that there are limits to how far they can push the president on any given issue. The legislative agenda must be such that minority voters are not disenfranchised, because they will be needed if Republicans want to win the White House.
Senate Republicans have 24 seats to defend in 2016 compared to 10 for Democrats. President Obama, on the other hand, will now focus on “legacy” issues he would like to accomplish in his final two years. Assuming that Congress will not let him control the agenda, he will resort to executive orders to accomplish those items on his political bucket list, as was illustrated last year on immigration. These kinds of decisions are intended to address a problem and add to the political base of the party.
Presidential politics will dominate the political space in 2015. With the presumption that Hillary Clinton will be the Democrats’ nominee, she will not face a contentious primary process that will damage her going into the 2016 general election. On the other hand, Republicans have a large cast to choose from, no strong frontrunner and a potentially long and bruising primary, which is clearly counterproductive for them. Oh what a year it will be!
Each New Year brings resolutions and predictions. So what issues will impact our industry that we must be mindful of and act on?
Mexico
It is our hope that by the time you are reading this article the suspension agreements between the U.S. and Mexican governments have been finalized and we can move forward with fair sugar trade between our two countries. There has been a tremendous amount of work by our legal team and industry leaders to resolve this uniquely difficult problem. We will review this issue in greater detail once there are final decisions as to the path forward.
Appropriations
Our number one responsibility is to defend U.S. sugar policy against our opponents who relentlessly wish to modify or cripple it, either directly or indirectly. Attempts are often made on annual appropriations bills to eliminate funding to actually implement provisions of the farm bill. We can expect an agriculture appropriations bill on the floor in both houses this year that attempts to harm the sugar provisions.
Trade Negotiations
Completion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations is expected in the first six months of 2015. These negotiations are critically important to make sure this agreement does not commit to imported volumes of sugar that would threaten the proper operation of our policy.
Free trade negotiations with the European Union will also proceed with some questions as to whether they can be completed in 2015. Again there is always a threat that this agreement would provide access for sugar to our market that is already adequately supplied.
GMOs
GMO labeling has been and will continue to be a hot issue at both the federal and state levels. A top priority in 2015 will be to pass federal legislation that clarifies when products need to be labeled. You simply cannot have a patchwork set of differing state labeling requirements that make interstate commerce in food products almost impossible. There must be national uniformity in labeling and 2015 is the year to accomplish it. The amount of money spent on these state-by-state ballot initiatives has been ridiculously expensive ($100 plus million by food and technology companies). The challenge for the sugar industry is that we produce an identical product (sugar and molasses) from a conventional or biotech sugarbeet. The sugar is the same and should be treated as such.
Biotechnology
The National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences will continue its work in 2015 to review biotechnology in agriculture and issue a report in early 2016. This work is being done in response to many of the concerns put forward by the anti-biotech activist groups. We are closely monitoring its work and will be submitting our industry’s perspectives on the importance of the technology to our growers.
Glyphosate weed resistance is now in 38 states. It is absolutely critical that our industry fight this problem as hard and as intelligently as possible. No one has ever addressed weed resistance in a collaborative community effort, and our industry is working on a pilot project that would be the first to do so. It is still in the development phase to present to various growing areas. You will likely hear a great deal more about this in the months ahead.
Crop Insurance
Last fall the sugar industry began providing information to analysts to provide trend adjusted APH for sugarbeets. It is our goal to have all of the data in by the end of 2014 so that the analytical work can be completed and the trend adjusted APH can be in effect for the 2016 crop. We are also pressing for supplemental coverage option for sugarbeets.
2015 Price Election
Rather than a nationwide announcement, RMA simply inserts the new 2015 price election into the county-by-county actuarial documents for each county with sugarbeets. A spot check for states and counties shows the new established price of $44 (2014 was $40). California/Imperial County is $45. You can verify your own area at http://webapp.rma.usda.gov/apps/actuarialinformationbrowser.
Tax Issues
The American Sugarbeet Growers Association joined more than 40 agricultural organizations pressing Congress to extend section 179 (small business expensing and bonus depreciation) which, as you know, is a critically important tax provision for American growers and equipment manufacturers. If this is not addressed in the lame duck session, it will be a high priority for 2015.
Annual Meeting
As you can see, it will be a very busy year. We will be discussing many of these issues at our Annual Meeting in Long Beach, Calif., on Feb. 2-3. Visit www.americansugarbeet.org for more information.
Internship
Applications for the 2015 Cleavinger Internship at ASGA are being received and the deadline is March 30. It’s a tremendous opportunity for a young person from a sugarbeet family. You can get an application on our website.