What a great way to start the New Year with a visit to Ohio LICA to participate in their Annual Convention. As the political transition occurs in Washington, I shared my thinking about how key LICA markets – agriculture, construction and tax – will transition and be considered by the New Congress and Administration.
Congress failed to pass a long-term Farm Bill and although they have a one-year extension to develop a new proposal, it may not be the best thing to have a huge spending bill be the first one up on the new congressional agenda. Roughly 80 percent of farm bill funding is for food and nutritional programs so the battle will be intense to preserve program funding while trying to focus funding on traditional commodity support programs. Conservation programs which saw a huge financial boast in recent years will struggle to hold on to funding as the new Administration is sure to cut back on smart climate programs which generated significant revenue.
Infrastructure will again be a focal point for the Trump Administration but instead of funding the focus will be on how do we build faster and build efficiently. That will be achieved through regulatory reform to remove some of the burdens industry faces between federal, state and local requirements.
The Trump Administration is expected to go big and early on a massive budget and tax reconciliation bill on day one. The reconciliation process is used to expedite legislation and only requires a majority vote in the Senate. The challenge will be to get on board those members who oppose recent Continuing Resolution funding bills that have the Christmas tree effect of including many unrelated provisions but are viewed as necessary to gain passage.
These and other stories will make for an exciting and hopefully productive 2025!