Ag Policy Blog

The Senate voted 96-3 on Tuesday to begin debate on the tax-extenders bill, called the EXPIRE Act (Expiring Provisions Improvement Reform and Efficiency Act.) Personally, I don't think they put a lot of effort into that acronym, but it is what it is.

While the Senate is moving ahead, the House has not put forward a bill dealing with the full range of tax credits that have expired and need reauthorization. This likely means that despite the Senate's movement, a final bill probably won't be done until a lame-duck session after the mid-term elections.

The EXPIRE Act has some key provisions for farmers, especially when it comes to machinery expenses. The bill would boost and extend the Section 179 deduction through 2015 with an expense cap of $500,000 and a full purchase phase-out after $2 million in machinery purchases. Because of the lapse in extension, right now, the deduction is set at $25,000 and the maximum equipment purchases is $200,000. The extenders bill also would include a future index for inflation.

The bill also extends 50% bonus depreciation for qualified property put into service before by Jan. 1, 2016.

The Senate bill also has several provisions that are being tracked by the renewable fuels and wind-energy sectors:

Cellulosic tax credit extension of $1.01 per gallon through the end of 2015.

Biodiesel tax credit of $1 per gallon extended through 2015, as well as the 10-cent per gallon small agri-biodiesel producer credit.

Wind Production Tax Credit of 2.3 cents per kilowatt is extended through 2015.

A new acronym for the books:

From a reader who knows my love of government acronyms comes this one: We can't just call it a highway bill and the guys at the U.S. Department of Transportation apparently didn't like MAP 21 (Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century) so the DOT raised the bar on word association with GROW AMERICA (Generating Renewal, Opportunity, and Work with Accelerated Mobility, Efficiency, and Rebuilding of Infrastructure and Communities throughout America Act.) This is effectively the Obama administration's alternative highway-bill proposal.

There are probably committee staff meetings set throughout the House and Senate this week to chew out the legislative acronym interns that let GROW AMERICA slip through their fingers. I still like HIGHWAY Bill (Hey, I Got Here Way Ahead of You, Bill.) http://www.dot.gov/…

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