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NCBA’s priorities: Taxes, Trade, Transportation

Taxes, trade and transportation—those are three of the top congressional priorities of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association in 2015.

NCBA’s Colin Woodall says cattlemen need more certainty in the tax code and will push hard for general tax reform.

“The reason why is to try to prevent what we saw at the end of 2014 where we had to hustle to try to get the tax revisions that expired at the end of 2013, such as bonus depreciation and Section 179, put back in place,” says Woodall. “It was a bit of a Chinese fire drill that we cannot afford to do year in and year out.”

NCBA will also lobby for reauthorization of the transportation bill.

“Whether it’s infrastructure for trucks carrying cattle to market, or if it’s trying to increase the trailer weights, which has been a priority for NCBA for quite a number of years—we need to make sure that we are addressing that and not just doing two-year, short-term reauthorizations,” says Woodall.

“We need a true change in the overall approach to infrastructure.”

On trade, Woodall says NCBA favors giving the president fast track Trade Promotion Authority and seeing the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement finalized and passed.