Date:
9/17/2009 12:00:00 AM
Title:
CCA Representatives Visit Washington, DC
CCA officers and members are in Washington, DC this week visiting a variety of agencies and Colorado's Congressional delegation. The Colorado contingent is making these visits in conjunction with the NCBA Legislative Conference.
The CCA group will discuss numerous topics with members of Congress and USDA officials. Topics of great importance to beef producers in Colorado include a more permanent solution to the death tax, national animal ID, and grazing on federal lands.
CCA, along with the California Cattlemen’s Association, have been working diligently to get legislation introduced regarding an estate tax exemption bill directed toward agriculture. The ‘Family Farm Preservation and Conservation Estate Tax Act’ (H.R. 3524) was introduced the end of July by Representative Mike Thompson (D-CA); co-sponsored by Representative John Salazar (D-CO). This bill would set exclusions from estate taxes for certain farmland so long as farmland use continues. Additionally, the value of an estate would not include the value of land in qualified conservation easements.
While in DC, CCA representatives have also had the opportunity to listen to USDA discuss climate change, animal ID, Tuberculosis, and Brucellosis.
“As an association, CCA is continually working with the stakeholders,” states CCA President, Tim Canterbury. “It is vital to the agriculture industry that producers, legislators, and agencies try to come to terms with a set of parameters comfortable to everyone.”
Colorado Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) is the state’s only nonprofit trade organization exclusively representing Colorado’s cattle producers. Founded in 1867, CCA is the nation’s oldest state cattlemen’s association.