Vice President Mike Pence touted President Trump’s repeal of regulations he believes to be onerous on American farmers in an address to the Department of Agriculture in celebration of National Agriculture Day.
While the vice president did not introduce any new policies, Pence celebrated various accomplishments and initiatives of the Trump administration as beneficial to agricultural workers, including the administration’s regulatory rollback efforts, tax reform, expansion of broadband Internet and the improvement of the country’s infrastructure.
“This president has repealed 22 federal regulations for every new federal rule put on the books,” Pence said. “He’s actually canceled or delayed more than 1,500 planned rules – more than any president in American history.”
Pence specifically pointed out the president’s repeal of the EPA’s long controversial Waters of the United States rule that was put in place under the Obama Administration to curb water pollution.
“The president took decisive action last year to repeal the disastrous Waters of the United States rule to ensure that farmers and ranchers and every American can control the land that they possess and develop,” Pence said.
The administration’s regulatory rollback has indeed been significant.
The center-right think tank American Action Forum’s regulation tracker reports a decrease in over 16 million paperwork hours under the Trump administration and a significant reduction in regulation passed since 2016.
When touting tax reform, the vice president celebrated the elimination of the death tax, a tax levied on farmers property after death. Pence also touted the ability of farmers to deduct 100 percent of the cost of new farm equipment from their taxes for the next five years.
“That’s real relief for people who face extraordinary input costs, in terms of the equipment they use,” Pence said.
Pence also spoke about the administration’s efforts to open up export markets for American agricultural products, citing recent agreements to export rice to Colombia, beef to China and distillers and dried grains to Vietnam as early accomplishments.
“We’re just getting started,” Pence said. “We’re going to open up the world to America’s agricultural goods.”
The U.S. currently exports more than $100 billion in agricultural products every year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The Indiana native touted his experience serving an agricultural state first in Congress on the House Agricultural Committee and later as governor.
“All my life I’ve seen firsthand the difference made by the men and women who work in agriculture,” Pence said.
