Top Ag Congressman Glenn Thompson Offers Views at Ag Progress Days

ROCK SPRINGS, Pa. — U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson, the top Republican on the House Agriculture Committee, told Ag Progress Days attendees yesterday that work is progressing on ag legislation.

Struggling to be heard over a storm that drummed the pole building for about 20 minutes of the two-hour town hall meeting, Thompson said that supporting farmers remains a bipartisan cause despite Washington's reputation for interparty rancor.

"You're not going to read this in probably any newspaper. You're not going to see it in social media. You're not going to hear it in cable news," Thompson said. "It's sad, only because we're working hard and we're doing things together."

This cooperative spirit has manifested itself in, for example, the Ag Committee's unanimous approval of a bill that would expand internet service in rural areas.

But Thompson, whose district covers a huge swath of western Pennsylvania, frequently brought out differences between the two parties.

He criticized, for example, the Democrats' plans for the estate and capital gains taxes. The changes are designed to increase taxes on rich people, but Thompson said they would also steeply increase costs for farm estates.

Thompson is also concerned about the Biden administration's plans to redefine the "waters of the United States," which are the water bodies that federal agencies can regulate under the Clean Water Act.

Thompson and other Republicans opposed the Obama administration's version, arguing it exceeded the federal government's authority under the law and would cause needless problems for farmers.

Thompson likes the more limited definition of federal powers instituted by the Trump administration. Biden may seek to adjust only parts of that regulation, but Thompson is not taking chances.

"I'm hoping it's revisited not in the spirit of 2015," he said. "If it is, I promise to fight it with the spirit of 2015."

On climate, Thompson has been working hard to change the image of both the GOP and farmers. He wants the party to provide constructive solutions to climate change that also support a strong economy, and he wants to dispel the notion that farmers are "climate criminals."

Considering U.S. farmers already sequester carbon and have increased their output by nearly 300% since 1940, the best thing they can do is produce even more and export it, Thompson said.

Thompson and a small group of Republicans have proposed several climate initiatives, most notably a program that would allow businesses to burnish their green credentials by donating to USDA conservation programs, which receive far more applications than they can fund.

But this plan has attracted little support compared to the Growing Climate Solutions Act, which emphasizes carbon credits and passed the Senate in June.

Thompson said that bill will mainly help major corporations and owners of huge tracts of land, while his would benefit farms and businesses of all sizes. Thompson also doesn't think the government needs to run carbon markets.

Richard Roush, dean of Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, told Thompson that the U.S. should consider a major offensive against feral pigs as the risk of African swine fever grows.

The disease was identified in July in the Dominican Republic, and the virus has become a problem in Europe in part because it has gotten into wild swine.

"There's never been a more important reason than now to take out feral pigs out of the Southern United States," Roush said.

"Past time to start," Thompson agreed. He also said the U.S. must maintain strong prevention and disease response protocols to protect pigs.

Eradicating wild pigs or reducing them to low levels will be difficult. They've been entrenched in North America since their introduction by the Spanish in the 1500s, they reproduce well, and Roush said a similar effort in the 1990s to destroy feral pigs in Queensland, Australia, failed abjectly.

Thompson also said he supports aid for new and medium-sized meat processors, the expansion of the seasonal H-2A visa to year-round farm operations, and federal pushback on Canada's dairy policy.