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 A former state Senator, LaHood was elected to the U.S. House of
Representatives in a special election in September of 2015. In the
House, he replaced Representative Aaron Schock, who had resigned
earlier in the year.
As a freshman Representative, LaHood has been assigned to sit on the
Natural Resources Committee as well as the committee for Science,
Space, and Technology. His aspiration is to be appointed to the
Agriculture and Transportation Committees, and is hopeful that he
will have that opportunity if and when he is re-elected to office.
In the meantime, as a voting member of the House, he currently has
the opportunity and responsibility to vote on House issues with the
best interest of his Illinois constituents in mind. Because the 18th
District is the ninth largest agriculture district in the nation,
LaHood voiced on Thursday that understanding the needs and desires
of the farming community is of great importance.
At the Thursday meeting, there were 27 people in attendance in
addition to LaHood and his staff. Those present represented the
agriculture industry throughout the 19 counties. Among those in
attendance, the large majority were grain farmers producing corn and
soybeans. However, there were a few exceptions including beef and
hog producers as well as at least one vegetable crop producer from
Mason County who said her farm products included corn, soybeans and
peas.
 Those present representing Logan County included Jim Drew, John
Fulton, Bill Graff and Tom Martin.
Sitting at the head table with LaHood were Steve Turner, a producer
in northern Cass and southern Mason Counties region, and Gary
Niemeyer, a grain producer in Sangamon County. The two were
appointed to serve as co-chairs of the Ag Advisory Committee and
were tasked with keeping the conversation moving among the committee
members.
After some opening comments from LaHood, guests were asked to
introduce themselves and briefly comment on their largest concern
for the agriculture industry at the moment.
A majority of those present said that their biggest concern was the
"Waters of the U.S." (WOTUS) rule that the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency is trying to get pushed through which has the full
support of President Barrack Obama and opposition from the U.S.
House and Senate.
On the heels of a year that saw considerable early season flooding
as well as December severe flooding, several in the room voiced
their disappointment in the Army Corp of Engineers. Many feel that
the levy system along the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers is greatly
lacking, but requests for improvements, especially in this region
are consistently denied. There is also a huge concern for the lock
and dam systems on these two rivers, as processors such as Archer
Daniels Midland and Cargill, utilize the waterways for transport of
grain. The lock and dam system is in need of updating and that has
been a topic in Washington over the last several years, but it still
appears that nothing is being done to make those improvements.
Other topics of concern included the devaluation of the dollar, farm
profitability, and crop insurance, as well as the Affordable Care
Act. There was also mention made of bringing youth back to the farm,
and improving rural economic development.
After the introductions, LaHood reiterated that the comments from
the committee were important to his performance in Washington. He
noted that his press person would be sending out a summary of the
meeting to each of the members. He said he wanted to continue
conversations, and wanted the members to contact him at any time.
LaHood moved on to comment about some of the items on the table in
Washington that are in response to comments made by the members. One
such issue was the manipulation in trade.
 Trans-Pacific Partnership and devaluation of the dollar
LaHood spoke about the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He said that he
was concerned about how China manipulates trade and the value of the
dollar; and said that Washington needs to figure out how to stop it.
He said he’d like more input from the committee on how to do this.
He noted, “You give the authority to do these things, so we pass a
bill, but then its implementation or follow-through is left to the
current administration. I’m hopeful that we will get a new
Republican administration next January because then all of these
executive orders on day one can be stopped.” He went on to say, “One
thing that worries me a little bit is if we pass the implementation,
who is going to enforce the mechanism to go after manipulation.”
In response to the comment, one of the committeemen said that
manipulating trade and the devaluation of the dollar was not just
about China. He noted that Canada and Mexico are large importers to
the United States, and, he said, “I don’t know how you get that
Canadian dollar up and the U.S. dollar down, but they are killing
us.”
He went on to say that if the producer is doing accrual accounting,
money is being lost because the value of the inventory is down. He
went on to say “the banks will roll with you one year, but if we
have the problems in '16 we had in '15 with profitability, there
will be a number of people who will not be with us next year.”
Health insurance and “Obamacare”
LaHood moved on to talk about the health insurance situation. He
said the promises made in the Affordable Care Act had not come to
fruition. He noted the premiums are not lower, and promises of
choices of doctors, is also not there. He said the House and
Congress have voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and submitted
an alternative plan, which the President promptly vetoed. Again, he
mentioned that would change with a new Republican president. He
said, “A year from now, with a Republican president that (the
alternative plan) will be signed day one.”
Bill Graff mentioned that the biggest problem with the ‘Obamacare”
is that there is no other alternative. He went on to say that the
two things good in the plan were the expansion of child at home
coverage to age 26, and the guarantee that insurance cannot be
canceled due to health claims.
Farm Bill
Being encouraged by the two co-chairs to throw out anything on the
mind of attendees, one member brought up the Farm Bill. The Farm
Bill is set to renew in 2018. One member said he felt it would be in
the best interest of agriculture to make sure the Farm Bill goes to
Congress as it is now. He said that if the Farm Bill is “opened up
to fix one thing, there will be many other things that people will
try to put in it.” This is a typical practice in Washington D.C.
often referred to as a Christmas Tree Bill.
By definition, the Christmas Tree is
“a political term
referring to a bill that attracts many, often unrelated, floor
amendments. A Christmas tree bill consists of many riders. The
amendments which adorn the bill may provide special benefits to
various groups or interests. The term refers to the proposed
legislation being subject to having each member of Congress hang
their own amendment on it.”
Niemeyer asked for a show of hands in the room, as to how many
people did not want to see the farm bill re-opened, the majority of
the room raised their hands.
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Brad Harding of the Peoria/Fulton County area said that he viewed
this in just the opposite. He said, “If we don’t open it on our
terms, someone else will open it on their terms. And if we stand and
defend something, the number of farmers (in the U.S. Congress) is
pathetically small, and the number of farmers in the state
legislature in Illinois is almost zero. So, if we cling to what
we’ve done in the past, and don’t have a plan to be pro-active, it
will get worse before it gets better. If we don’t show leadership
there, Speaker Madigan and everyone above him will do it for us.”
Army Corp of Engineers
[In its 2015 Fall
Farm Magazine, LDN spoke with Bill Dickerson of the Illinois Soil
and Water Conservation office in Lincoln about ponding issues that
occurred earlier in the year. During that conversation, Dickerson
noted the use of levies in a photo provided by LDN. He commented
that levies were no longer a viable option for controlling water
flow and flooding in Logan County because, in his 40 years of
service, he has never seen a request for a levy or levy improvement
granted by the Corp of Engineers.
The 18th District in its easterly to westerly direction runs from an
area east of Champaign to the western boundaries of the state. In
the district there are two major waterways, the Illinois and
Mississippi rivers, plus many tributary waterways.]
On Thursday, many of the members of the Ag Advisory Council
expressed grave dissatisfaction with the performance of the Army
Corp of Engineers in their district. During the two major flooding
occasions in 2015, levies were allowed to be temporarily reinforced
with sandbags, but requests to build up the levies permanently have
been denied. One committeeman also noted that there had been an
executive order from Obama to the Corp of Engineers in January 2015
to raise Illinois levies, but the Corp had not recognized that
order.
Another member commented that the Corp had been allotted
$230,000,000 per year for maintenance along the Mississippi River
south of St. Louis, but $0 had been allotted to maintenance north of
St. Louis.
WOTUS
[The Waters of the
U.S. rule, as written by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
has an impact on every business, industry, and landowner in the
United States, not just agriculture. The concept behind the WOTUS is
to control the flow of water and, therefore, diminish the amount of
chemical and other waste that is going into the waterways. However,
the rules written are too strict, too encompassing and at the same
time too vague to be workable according to many professionals. The
WOTUS act has the support of the President, but not the House and
Senate.
- In October of
2015, the 6th Appellate Court in Ohio placed a “Stay” or
injunction on the rule.
- On November
4th, 2015, the Senate voted 53-44 to approve Senate Joint
Resolution 22, disapproval of the EPA’s Waters of the United
States rule.
- On January 6,
2016, the House followed suit, approving the resolution with a
vote of 253-166.
- However, on
January 20th, President Obama vetoed the resolution.]
In relation to WOTUS, one member brought up the Nutrient Loss
Reduction Strategy already in practice in Illinois. The Nutrient
Loss Reduction Strategy is an initiative that began in 2014 with
the Illinois Water Resources Center, the Illinois Environmental
Protection Agency, and the Illinois Department of Agriculture.
He said he wanted LaHood to help educate his fellow
representatives who may believe that Illinois farmers are not
concerned about nutrient loss into U.S. waterways.
LaHood said he was not familiar with the Nutrient Loss Strategy.
The member said that the initiative is working toward the goal
of reduction of nutrient loss by 2045, and has established
10-year hurdles that must be crossed.
It was mentioned that the Illinois farmer is way ahead of the
EPA in doing what is right for the environment and in reducing
chemical residue in water runoff, and they are working to
accomplish this in a manner that is workable for producers.
Other topics
Other topics that came into play during the day to a lesser
degree included keeping youth in farming. The members voiced
concern that we are continuing to lose the younger generations
of farmers to the big city and big business.
 Discussion turned briefly to coal-fired power plants, and
members expressed concern that these plants should not be shut
down. LaHood agreed and said he was in support of keeping coal
plants working.
Other discussion observed how the national rail system is
growing, while river transport is not. Members along with LaHood
expressed that Illinois agriculture needs good waterway
transportation. Part of the issue is that the rail system is
privatized, and there are corporate dollars going into the
maintenance of rail, while there is no privatization of
waterways.
After the meeting concluded, LaHood stayed in the room, speaking
one on one with some of the committee members. Asked to speak
about the day’s events, Logan County Extension Advisor John
Fulton noted that Ag Advisory meetings such as this one were a
good conduit for making the voice of the Central Illinois farmer
heard in Washington D.C.
Tom Martin also a Logan County Farmer said he thought that the
meeting on Thursday was a good “first step” for giving LaHood
the tools he needs as a representative for Illinois agriculture.
Though not widely publicized, Jim Drew of the Illinois Farm
Bureau said that these types of advisory meetings are not
uncommon, and are helpful.
The U.S. 18th Congressional District encompasses parts of Stark,
Peoria, Tazewell, McLean, and Sangamon Counties, and entirely
encompasses Marshall, Woodford, Mason, Logan, Hancock,
McDonough, Adams, Schuyler, Brown, Cass, Menard, Morgan, Scott
and Pike Counties.
LaHood will run to retain his House position in 2016. To date,
he is the only candidate to have filed for the March Primary and
subsequent November election.
[Nila Smith]
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