Key stakeholders at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) weren’t bashful in sharing their enthusiasm for the new guy in Washington, even though it’s the old and familiar new guy.
However you describe the newest POTUS, NCBA officials in their preview of Washington issues on Tuesday were effusive for the era of Trump 2.0.
From business tax policy, energy resources, endangered species, multiple use of public lands, managing wildfires, to ending the death tax, the NCBA lobbying team told those in attendance at NCBA’s CattleCon in San Antonio, Texas, that better days lie ahead for beef producers with President Donald Trump.
“There is among all of the different [groups] in Washington, when a Republican administration takes control of the federal government, those of us in the West breathe, I think, a little bit of an extra sight of relief,” said Ethan Lane, NCBA senior vice president of governmental affairs. “A lot of you in this room have heard me say this, the West ends up being a laboratory for bad federal policy, and there is no time like the beginning of a new Republican administration to start to see a little bit of that boot off the neck, right?”
With the convention kicking off one day after Trump issued a 30-day delay to his 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico products, trade issues were among the first topics touched on by Kent Bacus, executive director for government affairs.
Trump has given multiple reasons he wants to issue tariffs on border countries, from economic trade to containing illegal migrants, cracking down on fentanyl and now a new disagreement on banking restrictions. Bacus said the negotiations that led to the Feb. 3 de-escalation were primarily concessions on border and drugs.
“Obviously, there was a lot of ups and downs and changes and everything that happened there, but that [border agreement] that's what was agreed to in the middle of all this.”
As for Chinese tariff retaliations, Bacus said beef has been left off the list of commodities China is targeting, but that could change.
“We all know how China operates, and so not everything's going to be in the light,” he said. “There's a lot of things that also happen later on when you start having trade disruptions, or you start having issues with particular companies and people's congressional districts.”
But Bacus was generally positive for how Trump can use tariffs.
“President Trump definitely knows how to use this for negotiations, for leverage, and so that's why it's important for us to have a good understanding of how our products are, why the access that we have, how we're performing in different markets and how that can be effective.”
Other government issues the NCBA lobbyist team are watching include the following.
Energy expansion
Kaitlynn Glover, executive director of the Public Lands Council and NCBA’s Natural Resources team, said Trump’s executive order signing a national energy emergency will urge a return to more traditional energy exploration and cited hard rock mining, coal, oil and natural gas.
“So when you look at the 640 million acres across the West that are open for multiple use, that means that you're going to have cattle and hikers and hunters, and potentially oil rigs – all occupying that same space.”
The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in Loper Bright Enterprises vs. Raimondo overturned a 40-year precedent known as the Chevron doctrine, allowing a federal agency to interpret its own meaning into regulations, rather than by congressional intent.
That ruling will spur significant action by Trump to enforce energy licenses and permits in the coming year.
Furthermore, NCBA chief counsel Mary-Thomas Hart, also added that the court’s decision to grant immunity protection to the president executive, as ruled in Trump vs. United States last year, creates a standard of “unitary executive theory” that will create a vast arena of what executive decisions can stand on the ruling.
“And so how does the Chevron holding and the unitary executive theory work together? … That's the question that I'm most excited about this year and really over the next four years,” Hart said.
“Every issue that we've talked about, every executive order that has dropped in the last couple of weeks is going to run into this question of is this an extension of administrative power beyond what Congress intended, or is it OK because the president can do whatever they want?”
Death tax and tax policy
Representatives said the effort to rescind the death tax will be pushed into a new bill under the GOP-led Congress.
“We want to make sure that we have as many co-sponsors on that bill as possible when it hits ground,” said NCBA’s Kelsey Kemp, “and we'll be reaching out to some of our state affiliates to help with support for that as well.”
Kemp said another bill introduced by Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) offers an estate tax reduction act that would reduce the estate tax rate from 40% to 20% and only apply to those estates that are above the exemption limit.
Kemp also said making the small business deduction, created in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, permanent is also a pursuit. That measure “is a tool for pass-through businesses to deduct 20 percent of their qualified business income from their total taxable income, and our tax survey showed that many of you take advantage of that tool.”
Product of the USA labels
While the Product of the USA label is still voluntary, the new rule passed a year ago closes loopholes and requires products using it to use animals that were born, raised, slaughtered and processed in the U.S. NCBA will work with the USDA to help small regional processors use the program to capture premiums and boost demand.
Endangered species
Removal of gray wolves from states such as Montana, Wyoming and Idaho stirred some fierce response from NCBA in the past. But the decision to reintroduce wolves into Colorado last year has stoked more significant opposition.
“How quickly can we get the new administration to reintroduce gray wolves to downtown Denver? Specifically, I know where to find some in Colorado. We can just move them over,” joked Lane.
Garrett Edmonds of NCBA said the “active partnership in this Congress” includes a new plan from Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colorado) and Tom Tiffany (R-Wisconsin) to delist the wolf, shows "we're seeing some movement there."
New Cabinet picks
Multiple speakers had praise for two of Trump’s key picks for the Cabinet, Department of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Secretary of Agriculture-nominee Brooke Rollins.
Said Edmonds of Burgum, the former governor of North Dakota, “This is an individual who comes from a business background and understands the need for expediting review processes that allow businesses to thrive and allow our operations to thrive. But more importantly, understands the multiple-use component of federal lands and ensuring grazing can coexist among the many energy priorities this administration is going to have.”
Tanner Beymer, a senior director for government affairs, noted Rollins' good working relationship with Texas ag officials and familiarity with ag issues all bode well with her professionalism. After what Beymer called some “questionable Cabinet picks that were made in this second Trump administration, we were just kind of unsure what [the USDA] pick was going to look like.”
“But all of the undersecretary nominees we that we’ve seen so far … the vast majority of them are people that are in it for the right reasons. And it’s just so refreshing to see lights on at USDA now.”
