News from Northeast Dairy Farmer Cooperatives
2/21/25
By: Mike Oscar, Policy Advisory to Northeast Dairy Farmer Cooperatives
This Week in Congress
This week, the House is in recess and the Senate voted on the nominations of Howard Lutnick for Secretary of Commerce, Kelly Loeffler to lead the Small Business Administration, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Jamieson Greer to be the United States Trade Representative, along with votes on a budget resolution.
Budget Reconciliation Update!
Last Wednesday, House Republicans released their budget resolution. The measure proposes raising the debt ceiling by $4 trillion, authorizing committees to increase the deficit by $4.5 trillion over ten years to accommodate tax cuts, mandating at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, and requiring a $300 billion increase in expenditures on defense, immigration enforcement, and border security.
During a markup session of the House Budget Committee last Thursday, two amendments were accepted into the resolution. The first amendment added a provision to adjust authorized net tax cuts in relation to total mandatory spending cuts below or above $2 trillion. For instance, if the reconciliation package includes $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, it could incorporate no more than $4 trillion in net tax breaks. However, if it includes $2.5 trillion in spending cuts, the amount authorized for tax cuts would increase to $5 trillion. The second amendment directs committees to pass the REINS Act, which necessitates congressional approval for all major agency rules (defined as any rule with an annual economic impact of $100million or more). The Committee favorably reported the amended measure on a party-line vote of 21-16. The House is currently in recess this week, but leadership intends to bring the resolution to the floor next week.
Last week, the Senate Budget Committee also marked up its budget resolution, reporting it out by a party-line vote of 11-10. This measure proposes increasing defense and border security funding by more than $300 billion over four years, along with implementing certain energy policy changes, all of which are to be fully offset by spending cuts.
Senate leadership attempted to advance its preferred two-bill strategy ahead of the House by bringing its budget resolution to the floor this week. Under Senate rules, the measure would be subject to up to 50 hours of floor debate followed by a vote-a-rama, during which Democrats are expected to offer numerous politically charged amendments. Final passage would require simple majority support. Ultimately, both chambers will need to agree on a single approach and pass identical budget resolutions to initiate the budget reconciliation process, thereby allowing the relevant committees to begin drafting legislation.
Government Funding Saga Continues!
Government funding expires in 25days. The parties continue negotiations to agree on a top-line spending number, but Republicans might have to pass another continuing resolution (CR)to fund the government for some temporary period or through the end of the fiscal year (September 30). Republicans and Democrats have already started messaging to try to cast the blame on each other for a potential government shutdown.
Democrats have significant leverage in this process. If the parties can move forward on a FY 2025 spending package, Democrats will, at a minimum, require certain guarantees that the executive branch will spend appropriated funds. If they cannot come to agreement, Republicans will need Democrats to help pass a CR in the House(several House Republicans never have voted in favor of a CR) and the Senate(moving a CR through that chamber would require 60 votes).
In one sense, moving forward with a CR would be politically easier for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), because spending levels would remain the same, so he would not risk revolt by budget hardliners while also trying to advance a budget reconciliation package. But the Fiscal Responsibility Act, negotiated by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and former-President Biden in 2023, would trigger defense and non-defense spending cuts if all 12 FY 2025 appropriations bills are not passed by April30, and that would anger Republican defense hawks.
Federal Employee Terminations
The Trump administration has intensified the termination of federal employees. The Office of Personnel Management directed the dismissal of trial and probationary employees last week. These employees, who are generally in their first year or two of employment, have fewer protections compared to more established workers .Although the exact number of terminated employees is unknown, multiple sources confirm that various agencies within the Departments of Health and Human Services (including CDC, NIH, and FDA), Agriculture, Energy (including the National Nuclear Safety Administration), Interior, Veterans Affairs, and others are affected. Democratic members and unions representing government workers have pledged to contest these firings, arguing that the Trump administration has not met the necessary requirements.
Congressional Republicans largely support the terminations. Senate Majority Leader Thune (R-SD) stated last Friday that there was "an enormous room for reduction in force." According to OMB data, the directive could impact more than 200,000 workers. House Oversight and Government Reform Chair Comer and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Lee advocated for “rightsizing” the federal government as they introduced a bill (S583) to support President Trump's reduction efforts.
Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) Compliance Reinstated!
The nationwide injunction prohibiting enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) has been stayed; meaning, FinCEN will resume enforcement of the required beneficial ownership information (BOI) filings. Simply put, the CTA filing requirements are reinstated. FinCEN has issued a notice that reset the filing deadline for most companies to March 21, 2025.
The law is springing back into force as Congress still works through potential legislation to delay the reporting deadlines by a year. The House last week unanimously passed legislation, H.R. 736, that would delay the CTA reporting requirements until January1, 2026. In the Senate, a group of Republicans led by Senator Tim Scott, have introduced a companion bill (S. 505).
The Trump administration has continued to defend the CTA in court. The press is reporting that FinCEN said today that the administration could revise the rules to reduce the compliance burden for “lower-risk entities, including many U.S. small businesses.” But there is no more clarity than comments. We will update you if there is any official action on those comments.
As a reminder, the Corporate Transparency Act requires most small businesses in the United States to make a filing with FinCEN (see here: https://boiefiling.fincen.gov/). Each required entity must file a report containing the following information about the company:
o Entity’s full legal name
· Trade names
· A complete current address
· The jurisdiction it was formed in or jurisdiction in which a foreign company first registers
· Internal Revenue Service Taxpayer Identification Number and Employer Identification Number
· Information about each beneficial owner of the company, including this about each person:
o Full legal name
o Date of birth
o Current business or residential address
o A unique identifying number from an acceptable identification document (i.e., passport, driver’s license, etc.)
Rep. Langworthy (R-NY)’s Letter to the EPA Regarding the Role of Rendering in Recycling Agricultural Organic Wastes
NDFC supports Rep. Langworthy’s letter to the EPA, alongside NMPF and the North American Renderers Association, advocating for the inclusion of rendering in recycling agricultural organic wastes. Last year, NDFC backed a similar effort by Rep. Langworthy (R-NY). The letter requests EPA Administrator Zeldin update the Waste Food Scale and National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste to recognize the role of rendering in recycling organic wastes.
Per the letter, “in October2023, EPA released a report entitled From Field to Bin: The Environmental Impacts of U.S. Food Waste Management Pathways which updated long-established guidance and informational graphics related to the recycling of consumer-centric organic food waste. This new document made two omissions about which we are concerned:
1) It excludes the agricultural rendering process, even though renderers across the country currently recycle roughly 56 billion pounds of raw materials each year.
2) It excludes the high value finished products from rendered ingredients, including pet food, industrial products and advanced biofuels feedstocks, from evaluation.
While we understand that EPA intended to base the report on the latest science, it excludes agricultural rendering, the largest organic recycler by volume, from its analyses. We believe that this exclusion is having, and will continue to have, a detrimental effect on the recycling process used in domestic animal agriculture, food service, and advanced biofuels industries while wasting valuable inputs that could produce products widely needed across American industry and households.”
The rendering process has an essential role in recycling a significant portion of waste from agricultural production. Rendering converts these resources into animal feeds, feedstocks for advanced biofuels, and oil/grease used in industrial products such as lubricants, paints, and varnishes. It also addresses biosecurity concerns by safely disposing of contaminated animal wastes and eliminating contagious pathogens.
