Candidates Answer Farm Bureau Question on Regulations
It is an American Farm Bureau Federation tradition to every four years ask presidential nominees to respond to questions of particular interest to farmers and ranchers.
Among issues put before the candidates this election cycle are food safety, biotechnology, clean water, immigration, and energy.
The federation also asked the candidates about regulations affecting the agriculture industry. In this issue of Shortliner, we include the federation’s question and the candidates’ responses.
Farm Bureau Federation: As president, what actions will you take to minimize the federal government’s regulatory burden on businesses such as farming and ranching? Will you support regulatory reform to ensure that federal regulations pass a cost-benefit test and make the process of writing new regulations more transparent?
Clinton: “Hillary is committed to operating the U.S. government in as open and transparent a way as possible. She will continue and expand the open-government initiatives started by the current administration and will direct federal agencies to increase the amount of information they voluntarily disclose online.
As president, she will always engage a wide range of stakeholders, including farmers and ranchers, to hear their concerns and ideas for how we can ensure our agriculture sector remains vibrant. If there are implementation challenges with a particular regulation, Hillary will work with all stakeholders to address them.”
Trump: “Our nation’s regulatory system is completely broken. Terrible rules are written by unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats who often know nothing about the people they are regulating. The regulators have all of the power, and our nation’s farmers are often forced to endure costly, burdensome, and unwise regulations that are bad for American farmers and consumers. In many instances, extreme environmental groups have more influence in setting the regulations than the farmers and ranchers who are directly impacted. Hillary Clinton will do the bidding of the radical environmentalists. Whether through excessive land-use restrictions that impact farmers and ranchers, environmental requirements that impose enormous costs on farmers, or over-reaching food product regulations, federal regulatory burdens have increased dramatically in recent years. This must change.
As president, I will work with Congress to reform our regulatory system. We will reduce the power of government bureaucrats, and increase the freedom of our nation’s farmers to be as productive as possible. We will increase transparency and accountability in the regulatory process. Rational cost-benefit tests will be used to ensure that any regulation is justified before it is adopted. Unjustified regulations that are bad for American farmers and consumers will be changed or repealed. There will be no more ‘sue and settle’ deals with extreme environmentalists.”
To see the complete series from the Farm Bureau Federation, go to FarmEquip.org/election16.