The U.S. House Thursday passed the tax bill which includes Section 179 expensing and bonus depreciation—tax measures deemed helpful for agriculture. The House voted 318-109 to pass the measure and was expected to vote on the omnibus spending bill Friday morning. Votes on both measures are also expected on Friday in the Senate, according to the Hagstrom Report. The Senate is expected to combine the $622 billion tax bill along with the $1.1 trillion spending bill. The spending bill was supported by agriculture groups like the American Farm Bureau because it includes a full repeal of mandatory country-of-origin labeling. However, for the same reason, the National Farmers Union and the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association criticized the bill because it went beyond what the World Trade Organization deemed necessary to stop tariffs from Mexico and Canada.
The full repeal also removes the WTO legal labeling law on ground meat products. USCA and NFU had both previously supported a voluntary measure introduced earlier this summer as a contrasting option to full-repeal of COOL.