[fullwidth background_color=”” background_image=”” background_parallax=”none” enable_mobile=”no” parallax_speed=”0.3″ background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_webm=”” video_mp4=”” video_ogv=”” video_preview_image=”” overlay_color=”” overlay_opacity=”0.5″ video_mute=”yes” video_loop=”yes” fade=”no” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding_top=”20″ padding_bottom=”20″ padding_left=”0″ padding_right=”0″ hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” menu_anchor=”” class=”” id=””][title size=”1″ content_align=”left” style_type=”underline solid” sep_color=”#000000″ margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” class=”” id=””]Senate clears long-term transportation bill late Thursday[/title][fusion_text]
Friday, December 4th 2015
The Senate cleared a long-term transportation bill late Thursday after soundly rejecting a last-ditch effort to restore a $3 billion cut to the crop insurance program. The cut, which was part of the two-year budget agreement enacted in November, would be repealed by the highway legislation to fulfill a pledge the House GOP leadership made to House Agriculture Chairman Mike Conaway, R-Texas, before votes on the budget deal. Sens. Jeff Flake, R- Ariz., and Jean Shaheen, D- N. H., forced a vote on the cut Thursday by raising a point of order against including the repeal provision in the transportation measure. The Senate rejected their move, 77-22, and then approved the legislation, 83-16. The bill replaces the $3 billion through a reduction in the Federal Reserve dividend that goes to big banks. Fourteen Democrats and eight Republicans voted against repealing the crop insurance cut. All of the Republicans running for president, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who has called for reforming crop insurance, voted to preserve the repeal provision. His challengers backing it: Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mario Rubio of Florida. Vermont’s Bernard Sanders, who is running for the Democratic nomination, was the only senator who didn’t vote. The legislation, which also would revive the Export-Import Bank, now goes to President Obama for his signature. The House approved the measure earlier in the day, 359-65. It would be the longest extension of highway programs since 1998. The budget agreement requires the Agriculture Department to cap the insurance companies’ rate of return at 8.9 percent, down from the current 14.5 percent. The cut was supposed to be made through renegotiating the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation’s Standard Reinsurance Agreement (SRA) with the companies. Since 2011 the rate of return has varied from a loss of 15 percent in fiscal 2012, a drought year, to a gain of 13 percent in fiscal 2014. Insurance companies argue that their real rate of return is closer to 4 percent.
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