The 2018 Farm Bill is now at its final destination, the White House, as we wait on President Donald Trump to sign the measure which he is widely expected to do so in the next few days. In the meantime, Colin Woodall, chief lobbyist for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, says he is just relieved that the process is almost done.
“We do feel very good about this. There was a lot of concern with the Conference Committee bogged down in the fall. A lot of concerns over the SNAP work requirements…But once that was removed, then we saw two extremely strong votes - 87 on the Senate side and well over 300 on the House side,” Woodall said. “Those are both great indications it’s a good bill and people were happy to support it and all indications are that the President will sign it. So, we are going to claim victory and say this a good bill for cattle producers.”
This bill came with several priorities for the beef industry, many of which making it through to the final product. Of those, securing funding for the establishment of a Foot & Mouth Disease vaccine bank was of the utmost highest priority for NCBA and its livestock industry partners. Woodall says adequate mandatory funding was provided for in this bill, enough to get the bank up and running. One provision, though, that he says is probably what NCBA feels the best about is the increased funding for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).
“EQIP is probably the program that is used most by cattle producers across the country. So, we will have more money there, which means more EQIP contracts available,” he said. “That is also another win for the cattle industry in the Farm Bill.”
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