By Billy Howe
State Legislative Director

As the final days of the 84th Session of the Texas Legislature come to a close, this is when your influence can have the greatest impact.

This is the time when a bill either lives or dies by a single action of the legislature because there isn’t time for a miraculous resurrection.

It is the time of session when our organization, with over 500,000 member families, can greatly influence the success or failure of legislation.

By Gene Hall

There is a certain level of frustration in writing about things that are pretty easily proven to be true and have folks lock down the all caps key to tell me – I DON’T BELIEVE THAT.  Fair enough.  There are things I don’t believe either.  Here’s the top 10 list.

10. I don’t believe everything I see on the Internet

9.  I don’t believe the level of regulations that can be forced on agriculture without severe consequences is unlimited

8.  I don’t believe that the public understands the issues surrounding their food supply (most admit it)

By Gene Hall

Only minutes after President Obama announced his new climate change regulatory plan, I was swamped with calls from the media asking for comment. Not knowing much about it then, I said that farmers and ranchers would examine the legislation for clues about the future and continue seeking ways to reduce carbon pollution.

We now know the plan, implemented almost entirely by executive order, might also be called, “choke the life of whatever feeble economic recovery we’ve managed so far.”  I’m ready to say I don’t like much about it at all.

By Billy Howe
TFB State Legislative Director

On May 29, Republicans and Democrats will go to the polls to elect their party’s nominee for the general election in November. But, in reality, they are electing the person who will win the general election and be your next State Representative, State Senator or Congressman.

Political reality is that every 10 years the Texas Legislature redraws the districts for these offices in a fashion where the outcome of the general election is pre-determined. Congressional and state legislative districts are so weighted either Republican or Democrat that the general election is meaningless.

By Mike Barnett

“To everything there is a season.” Ecclesiastes 3:1

“For many regulations, there is no reason.” Mike

From planting to harvesting and everything in-between, regulations are facts of life in agriculture—as they are for every industry and all Americans.

Not all are bad. Regulations have made for a cleaner and safer environment for all Americans. Our food supply is safer because of regulations. The problem is overkill. Rules tend to proliferate like rabbits.

Wayne Crew’s Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State—a survey of the cost and compliance burden imposed by federal regulations—shows the following: