COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio Farm Bureau Federation (OFBF) recently returned from its annual county presidents’ trip to Washington, D.C., where they discussed federal and international policy with legislators. Prime topic? The farm bill.

“We want to make sure that the farm bill passes and more importantly that it passes for the complete five years or more rather than extending it for a year at a time as has been done the last few years,” said Barbie Casey-Booth, Butler County president. “The feedback was that there are bi-partisan efforts to be sure that we do get that accomplished and that the farm bill will be more agriculture-focused than it has in the past.”

The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) was also up for discussion, said Brady Bales, OFBF senior director of state and national policy. Many provisions in that act are set to expire at the end of 2025. One of those provisions is 199A passed-through entities.

“About 98 percent of farming operations are set up like that across the country,” Bales said. “A passed-through entity would be like a small business and a family’s income source comes from that small business. A person or couple would claim that as their personal income even though that is business income. State and local taxes give them benefits to enjoy some exemptions and that is set to expire at the end of this year.”

The estate tax exemption would also be affected if that act expires, Bales said. Currently, an individual can exempt up to $13.1 million of property, or $26.2 million a couple if they were to transfer that over to somebody for estate planning purposes. If that exemption were to sunset or not be made permanent that would go down to $5 million and $10 million respectively.

“We would like to see at minimum a renewal but there is a conversation about maybe making these provisions in the 2017 TCJA permanent,” Bales explained. “Just for those two provisions, if you were to combine them, if Congress does not renew that or make it permanent, those two aspects alone would result in a $9 billion tax increase for farmers across the country.”

Meanwhile, Casey-Booth and her group met with legislators and others discussing, among other things, the hot-button issue of trade and tariffs.

“We have found that it has been expressed to President Trump by both legislators, American Farm Bureau, and the legislators on the agriculture committees, that farmers cannot withstand the trade wars long-term, meaning 12 to 18 months,” she explained. “It is my understanding that there have been promises made that that will not happen.”

Casey-Booth’s biggest takeaway was that there are bi-partisan efforts to protect and support agriculture, something she had not seen in the past two years when she visited Washington advocating for agriculture. Agriculture seems to be a priority one thing now, she said.

“We found out from American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall that out of a meeting between him and the Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, President Trump now has a weekly one-page report on everything on agriculture on his desk,” she said. “That has not ever happened in history. President Trump is listening to the agriculture folks.”

Other events on the trip included U.S. Rep. Troy Balderson (R-Ohio 12th district), hosting his Farm Forum at the Capitol Visitors Center, Bales said. The group heard from Rep. GT Thompson (R-Pennsylvania 15th district), chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. He told them “We want to put the farm back in the farm bill.”

Representatives from the Embassies of Spain and Mexico visited with the presidents and shared some fun trivia facts, Bales said. For instance, on average, Mexicans consume about a billion tortillas daily. Also, 6,500 truckloads of avocados were shipped to the United States in the weeks before the Super Bowl.

Finally, Casey-Booth summed up the trip this way: “I came back with a very positive attitude toward everything we discussed. Everyone there seems to be on the same page and working toward the same goals. That is something that I have not seen in a long while.”