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WOTUS will continue to be the big issue in 2015

Over the weekend the Senate approved a spending bill that will keep the government funded through October 1, 2015.  Mary Kay Thatcher, director of congressional relations for the American Farm Bureau says this bill looks to roll all of the spending bills together – with the exception of Homeland Security.  Which, she says, also includes immigration issues.  “It was a big year,” she says. “It lit up a little like a Christmas tree in the end and everything went in it. But, it means that when we come back next year we again have to start on the next year’s budget and we have to start on taxes again for next year.”

She tells Brownfield this is the fifth straight year that the government is operating without a budget.

As she looks ahead to 2015, she says there is more than one big issue for agriculture.  “Our biggest priority is going to be repealing Waters of the US,” she says.  “That’s going to be very difficult but we’re going to have to find some ways to at least push it backwards.”

Thatcher spoke at the Indiana Farm Bureau annual meeting this past weekend.