NCGA Corn Congress, Hill Visits

Kansas Corn Leaders Represent in Washington DC

Kansas Corn Leaders Represent at Corn Congress, Hill Visits

Seven Kansas Corn leaders were in Washington DC last week for National Corn Growers Association’s Corn Congress as well as NCGA action team meetings and Hill visits. We did a lot during the four days we spent in D.C.  Two days of action team meetings, followed by two half-days of Corn Congress and then two half-days spent visiting the offices of our congressional delegation as well as representatives from non-corn states. Representing Kansas Corn: Ken McCauley, White Cloud; Dennis McNinch, Utica; Pat Ross, Lawrence; Brian Baalman, Menlo; Lowell Neitzel, Lawrence; Bob Timmons, Fredonia, and Randy Small, Neodesha. At the Capitol Hill meetings, our growers focused on the following issues:

  • The need for a positive conclusion to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations and an end to the imposed trade tariffs that are affecting corn and other ag products.
  • Support for a fully funded 2018 Farm Bill before the September deadline, that meets our priorities with crop insurance and funding for our trade promotion and export programs (MAP and FMD).
  • Expanding consumer access to higher blends of ethanol by allowing for year-round E15 use and reallocation of the nearly 2 billion gallons lost to questionable small refinery exemptions granted by EPA.

We are lucky to have a united Kansas Congressional delegation that is advocating for us on these issues.

In addition, Kansas Corn brought its Collegiate Academy, made up of seven select college students who are learning about the corn industry. The college students attended the week’s events, and had growers joined them for several side meetings including: FSA Administrator Richard Fordyce; Chief Agricultural Negotiator Ambassador Gregg Doud; USDA Under Secretary, Bill Northey, US Meat Export Federation and US Grains Council.