Farm Bill Conference to Get Underway
Work on a mammoth five-year farm bill (HR-2419) probably will start next week, as conferees are named after the Senate returns. USTelecom said Wednesday it is pleased that so many of its suggestions are reflected in the bill. The group praised a Senate provision making Connect Kentucky, a state broadband program, the model for a national effort.
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Such public-private partnership “helps determine the areas where broadband is not currently available and educates consumers on the benefits of broadband,” USTelecom President Walter McCormick said in a letter to Rep. Collin Peterson, D- Minn., chairman of the House Agriculture Committee.
USTelecom urged a “simple” change in expensing rules by which taxpayers could deduct the costs of broadband Internet access. USTelecom suggested that the farm bill, instead of redefining “rural area,” use the definition in section 6020 (a)(13)(A) to eliminate “conflicting definitions and benefit more consumers,” McCormick said.
But some lawmakers likely will balk at that suggestion. In a continuing debate on broadband policy, some fought to redefine “rural area” in the bill’s broadband loan section so loans would flow to the places most in need. The law now deems a city or town of fewer than 50,000 rural. HR-2419 would define a rural area as a census tract not within 10 miles of an area with more than 25,000 people and not in a county with a more than 500 residents per square mile of land.
USTelecom worries about a Senate provision to let current law continue to apply to loan applications and appeals of rejected applications. “The current program is fundamentally flawed and should be improved by the farm bill as soon as possible,” McCormick said. “A grandfather provision will undermine Congress’ purposes going forward, as it will delay implementation of the excellent reforms in both bills, as well as delay the processing of new loan applications.”
Sections 12521 to 12523 of the Senate bill, which address corporate taxes, should be cut, as should the related section 13003 of the House bill, McCormick said. “We believe current common law works as intended,” he said. The White House has threatened to veto the House and Senate versions of the farm bill over broader program spending. The rural broadband program is a tiny section of the multititled bill.