Capital Update – For the Week Ending Dec. 6, 2024 

Congress Returns to Work on Funding, Farm Bills 

What happened: Congressional lawmakers returned to Washington, DC, to begin a two-week work period in which they are expected to approve another short-term funding measure to keep the government operating and another extension of the 2018 Farm Bill.  

Congress likely will extend the Farm Bill through another continuing resolution (CR), which must be passed by Dec. 20, when current funding for federal programs runs out. 

NPPC’s take: NPPC wants a new Farm Bill as soon as possible and supports provisions that would double the funding for USDA’s Market Access Program and Foreign Market Development Program, which help promote U.S. exports; provide resources to protect the nation’s food supply from foreign animal diseases; reauthorize and increase funding for the federal Feral Swine Eradication Program; and, most importantly, fix problems caused by California Proposition 12. 

Why it matters: The five-year Farm Bill sets farm, conservation, forestry, and nutrition policy and authorizes various agricultural programs, including ones related to foreign animal disease preparation and prevention and export promotion. 

Court Stops Business Ownership Information Reporting Law 

What happened: A U.S. District Court issued a temporary nationwide injunction against enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), which required entities, including pork operations, organized as corporations to report by the end of this year ownership information to the U.S. Department of Treasury. 

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas also stayed the reporting law’s implementing regulation, saying “reporting companies need not comply with the CTA’s January 1, 2025, [beneficial ownership information] reporting deadline pending further order of the Court.” 

In granting the injunctions, the court opined that “the CTA is likely unconstitutional as outside of Congress’s power.” In passing the law, the court noted, Congress was attempting to monitor companies created under state law and end a feature of corporate formation under states: anonymity. The CTA required domestic LLCs, corporations, and other entities formed through filing with a secretary of state or a comparable office to report detailed, personal information about company owners. 

Why it matters: The CTA was enacted in 2021 ostensibly to enhance transparency in entity structures and ownership to combat money laundering, tax fraud, and other illegal activities. The law exempted banks and credit unions, insurance companies, certain tax-exempt entities under the Internal Revenue Code, inactive businesses, and certain large operating companies, defined as those with more than 20 full-time employees, an operating presence at a physical address in the United States, and more than $5 million in gross revenue.