BIG-AG FAT CHECK$: The Democrat Party’s $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill ‘DOES NOT’ include an animal agriculture tax
The Build Back Better Act doesn’t include an 'animal agriculture tax' of any amount. On the contrary, parts of the package are on track to shovel more cash to the agriculture sector.
DANIEL FUNKE: As Congress deliberates trillions of dollars worth of spending on infrastructure and social welfare programs before a looming government shutdown, some online claim the legislation includes a new tax on farmers. A Sept. 27 Facebook post says the “$3.5 Trillion Infrastructure package includes an animal agriculture tax on dairy cows in the amount of $6,500.00 and $2,600.00 per head of other cattle.” “It also includes an agriculture tax in the amount of $500.00 on swine (pigs- hogs) raised in the United States,” the post says. “AND that would be for each and every year.”
The post accumulated more than 1,000 shares in a day. Similar claims have racked up thousands of interactions on Facebook and Instagram, according to CrowdTangle, a social media insights tool… “The tax is estimated to cost $6,500 per dairy cow, $2,600 per head of cattle, and $500 per swine each year,” the column reads. “That is more than what the animals are worth, it’ll run ranchers out of business”…
The Build Back Better Act, a budget reconciliation bill, does include a proposed methane fee. But it’s aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions from oil and natural gas producers, not farmers. Federal tax and farm law experts, as well as lobbying groups, say the provision is not a tax on cattle… If passed, the Build Back Better Act would impose a fee on methane emissions from oil and natural gas producers. Cattle farmers would not have to pay…
“No, the Build Back Better Act doesn’t include an ‘animal agriculture tax’ of any amount, let alone $2,600 per head of cattle,” Joshua Sewell, a senior policy analyst at Taxpayers for Common Sense, a federal budget watchdog organization, said in an email… And other parts of the reconciliation package are “on track to shovel cash to the agriculture sector,” according to Sewell. “The reconciliation portion from the Agriculture Committee … spends more than $90 billion on agriculture and forestry,” he said. “The Build Back Better agenda isn’t picking the pockets of farmers, it’s opening up the federal Treasury wallet to them”…
Meredith Blanford, Rep. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., communications director, said in an email the claim in the congressman’s column was based on an analysis conducted by the American Farm Bureau Federation. She cited a statement… “This is what could happen if the methane fee were applied to agriculture,” Blanford said. “Right now the text of the bill only specifies the oil and gas industry, but it also references EPA’s (greenhouse gas) inventory and leaves too much room for the EPA to expand its regulatory reach”…
The agriculture industry is the largest source of methane emissions in the U.S., according to the Environmental Protection Agency. But Mary Werden, communications director for Rep. Frank Pallone, the Democratic chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, told USA TODAY in an email the claim in the Facebook post is “patently false”. SOURCE…
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