As of this Monday morning, many news outlets from the Associated Press to Fox News and CNN have projected that former Vice President Joe Biden is the President-Elect of the United States. There are other things that must happen before this projection becomes a reality on January 20th, and that is a topic for another time. However, if things stand where they are, what could a Biden Administration realistically look like for the agriculture industry?
Mary Kay Thatcher is a veteran of the political landscape and how it relates to agriculture. She is currently the Senior Manager of Federal Government and Industry Relations for Syngenta. Previously, she was the Senior Director of Congressional Relations at the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF). She talked about the issues that were top of mind to farmers in this election. These include trade, broadband, regulations, health insurance, and much more.
Thatcher also talks about the importance of the state legislative votes, especially after the 2020 census was completed. States like Iowa will be looking at how their Congressional districts will be broken up, which can mean a different look in the House of Representatives coming in the future.
As Thatcher went through her discussion, she assumed three things at that time.
- Joe Biden would win the Presidency.
- Republicans would maintain control of the Senate
- Democrats retain control of the House of Representatives
However, as Thatcher did point out, these are subject to change. There are some races still being looked at, and there are likely Senate runoffs in Georgia to come in January.
Thatcher talked about the effects of the election loss of House Ag Committee Chairman Collin Peterson. Thatcher talked about the ally that agriculture lost, especially in regard to having someone who had the ear of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Thatcher highlighted that importance by highlighting how Speaker Pelosi voted when it comes to agriculture issues. She did this to highlight the part Chairman Peterson played for the Ag industry. She highlighted Farm Bill votes, USMCA, crop insurance, and more.
Coming up in future installments of this multi-part feature, we will look at topics of biofuels, climate change, trade, and much more. There have been many promises made, but how can they be realistically kept in a possibly divided Congress? What things should farmers expect to see a change on, and what things are not going be so easy for a Biden Administration to reverse? We will look at more coming soon.
