The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) celebrated President Trump signing into law the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” on July 4.
“The ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill’ is one of the most consequential pieces of legislation for American agriculture in years,” NPPC President Duane Stateler, a pork producer from McComb, Ohio, said in a release. “It helps producers protect our herds by fending off foreign animal diseases, and it also cuts red tape, allowing us to more easily pass down our farms to the next generation.”
NPPC said it valued Chairmen Thompson and Boozman for listening to the organization’s input and shepherding this legislation through their respective chambers.
“We look forward to continuing to work with congressional partners this year on a ‘skinny’ farm bill, which should include measures to prevent a patchwork of conflicting state farming regulations and bring further certainty to the pork industry,” Stateler said.
The following are pork priorities NPPC advocated for that were included in the “One Big, Beautiful Bill:”
- Preserving necessary resources to protect the nation’s food supply through foreign animal disease (FAD) prevention, including:
- National Animal Vaccine and Veterinary Countermeasures Bank
- National Animal Health Laboratory Network
- National Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Program
- National Veterinary Stockpile
- Maintaining market access programs for U.S. pork.
- Funding for the Market Access Program (MAP) and Foreign Market Development Program (FMD) was maintained. The MAP and FMD programs build export markets for U.S. agricultural products through generic marketing and promotion and the reduction of foreign import constraints.
- Also, $285 million for a new “Supplemental Agricultural Trade Promotion Program” will support critical market access.
- Maintaining resources for the feral swine eradication program to protect the health of our herds.
- Established in the 2018 Farm Bill, the hugely successful Feral Swine Eradication and Control Pilot Program helps address the threat feral swine pose to agriculture, ecosystems, and human and animal health, especially through FADs like African swine fever.
- Making the Qualified Business Income Deduction permanent, allowing producers to make organizational decisions for their businesses not based solely on tax liability.
- Making Bonus Depreciation permanent at 100% to provide producers with flexibility to plan cash flows for major asset acquisitions.
- Changing the way the Business Interest Expense Limitation is calculated to avoid harming producers who rely on borrowing to make improvements or normalize cash flow in poor market conditions.
- Increasing the Estate Tax Exemption and making it permanent to prevent new tax exposure for family-owned farms.
- Substantially increasing the expensing limitations of Section 179 to provide producers flexibility in planning cash flows around major asset acquisitions.
“President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill is a win for farmers, ranchers, rural communities, and American taxpayers. His leadership on this landmark piece of legislation is yet another example of an America First promise made and a promise kept,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins said in a release.
