The Senate has approved the conference report pertaining to the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act, also known as the Highway Bill or the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act. The American Soybean Association (ASA) is pleased with the Senate passing this legislation, especially with the reversal of the $3 billion in crop insurance cuts originally included in the October budget deal that passed with bipartisan support. “The cut to crop insurance was a deal breaker for soybean farmers and we’re very relieved to see these cuts reversed,” Wade Cowan, ASA’s president and a farmer from Brownfield, Texas, said. “Soybean farmers across the country rely on crop insurance in times of extreme weather to ensure they can stay in business to farm in the coming year. An ill-advised $3 billion in cuts would have severely hobbled the program, and we’re happy to see them reversed.” The ASA is still concerned about attempts to cut farm bill programs in future budgeting conversations in Congress. “ASA will continue our opposition to any attempt to cut the farm bill programs in the budgeting process,” Cowan said. “These programs seem to be low-hanging fruit to lawmakers who don’t understand how important they are to the nation’s food producers, and we will continue to fight to make sure they stay whole. We thank Chairmen [Pat] Roberts (R-KS) and [Mike] Conaway (R-TX) and Ranking Members [Debbie] Stabenow (D-MI) and [Collin] Peterson (D-MI) for their continued defense of the farm safety net, and for securing the fix for this most recent grab at the crop insurance program.” The Highway Bill assures that state and local government will have funding they need for maintaining and moving forward on transportation projects. However, the bill does not allow for increased truck weights on federal interstates. Source - http://cropprotectionnews.com