Kansas Common Sense - 2014 Farm Bill Signed into Law

Statement

Dear Friend,

Welcome to "Kansas Common Sense." Thanks for your continued interest in receiving my weekly newsletter. Please feel free to forward it on to your family and friends if it would interest them. Last week, I learned of the tragic airplane crash that claimed the lives of Glenn and Elaine Mull, their daughter Amy Harter and granddaughter Samantha Harter. Glenn was piloting his company's Gulfstream 690C as the family was traveling to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association Trade Show in Nashville, when the plane crashed during a landing attempt. My heart goes out to the entire Mull family during this difficult time. Both Glenn and Elaine were well-known for their generous spirit and commitment to improving Pawnee County and the state of Kansas. I ask everyone to join me in keeping their family and friends in our thoughts and prayers during the days ahead.

2014 Farm Bill Signed into Law

On Friday, President Obama signed the Farm Bill into law after passage by the U.S. Senate last week. While it is not perfect, the bill reduces farm program and food stamp spending by $16.6 billion and provides agriculture producers with the long-term certainty they need to produce food, fiber and fuel for our country and the world. The Farm Bill also provides Kansas farmers and ranchers with the strong, stable crop insurance and disaster programs they need when facing Mother Nature. Ultimately, consumers are best served when farmers and ranchers know the rules of the game and have the support they need to continue work in one of the most high-risk professions -- agriculture.

Also last week, I asked Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack for immediate
implementation of the livestock disaster programs reauthorized in the Farm Bill. In 2012, U.S. livestock producers experienced the most devastating loss of pasture, rangeland and forage in decades due to the widespread drought, which resulted in more than 80 percent of all U.S. counties determined as "abnormally" to "exceptionally" dry by the U.S. Drought Monitor. I will continue to work to get this Farm Bill implemented as effectively and quickly as possible.

When it comes to regulatory reforms, there is still considerable work to be done. As a member of the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee I plan to keep Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) and Grain Inspection, Packers & Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) front and center this year. I am committed to working to complete the work still needed on these issues, and build on the Farm Bill's provisions to help make certain the United States remains the most food secure country in the world.

Obamacare is Dragging Down the Economy

Federal policies should promote job creation and economic growth, not create economic conditions that facilitate layoffs and reduce working hours for Americans. On Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its latest budget outlook and analysis of the American economy. CBO is the nonpartisan government agency that crunches the numbers, evaluates the impact of legislation, and advises Congress on fiscal matters. The agency's latest estimates indicate that the Affordable Care Act is causing even more damage to our economy than previous analyses forecasted. While this news comes as a shock to some, I am not surprised by this data. Well before the new health care law was voted on in Congress, I argued that this plan was fundamentally flawed and would do significant harm to the American economy.

The CBO report tells us that the negative impact on the labor market and economic growth is real and substantially larger than initially predicted. CBO analysis finds that Obamacare will effectively reduce our nation's full-time workforce by around 2.3 million workers through 2021. The agency increased its estimate on the number of work hours lost due to the Affordable Care Act -- in fact, CBO tripled this projection compared to its previous estimate. These work hours will be lost by businesses reducing jobs and by individuals dropping out of the labor forces or not working as much.

It is bad policy to impose new tax burdens that increase the cost of health care and restrict economic growth. This is especially true at a time when many Americans are already working so hard to survive in a tough economy. It is well past time for the President, his Administration, and congressional Democrats to face the facts. This law is unworkable and is proving to be harmful to the very people it aimed to help. Congress needs to start over and replace this broken law with targeted reforms that will actually reduce costs and improve access in a manner that does not undermine the American economy in the process.

Preventing Implementation of U.N. Arms Trade Treaty

This week, I wrote a column for Breitbart.com on the action Congress recently took to make certain the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty will not be implemented without ratification. The House and Senate passed language in the Omnibus Bill stating, "None of the funds appropriated by this Act may be obligated or expended to implement the Arms Trade Treaty until the Senate approves a resolution of ratification for the Treaty."

Throughout this process, it has been disturbing to watch the Administration reverse U.S. policies, abandon its own negotiation principles, admit publicly the treaty's dangerous ambiguity, and hastily review the final treaty text. Congress has now made it unequivocally clear that we are committed to upholding the fundamental individual rights of Americans and reject the U.N. ATT. We will not fund the treaty or any part of its implementation.

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