The Federal Omnibus Appropriations Bill passed in Congress today and included a couple of key provisions for cattlemen.
Perhaps foremost was the full repeal of mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL). This came only days before the U.S. faced trade retaliations in excess of $1 billion from both Canada and Mexico.
Other key components of the Bill included the maintaining of Congressional oversight to ensure the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans remain within the scope of nutrition and health and are based on the latest nutritional evidence, the requirement for a more stringent regulatory process for allowing beef imports from regions with a history of animal disease outbreaks, and the maintenance of several environmental regulations. Specifically, the bill keeps the Environmental Protection Agency in check by continuing to prohibit them from requiring livestock producers to obtain Clean Air Act permits or report greenhouse gas emissions on livestock operations.
Also key to the agriculture economy was the passage of the tax extenders legislation that permanently extended Section 179 deductions to $500,000 and set bonus depreciation at 50% for property acquired during 2015, 2016 and 2017.