A bipartisan Senate effort yielded a new bill this week, meant to alter how the government oversees the transportation of agricultural products.
Under the Agricultural Trucking Relief Act, the definition of an agricultural commodity would be expanded to include both horticultural and aquacultural products — think plants, fish and algae farming, and similar — while also promoting greater consistency in regulation by federal and state agencies. Overall, the bill’s goal is to ease regulatory burdens on trucking and the agri-community.
“American truckers play a key role in transporting agricultural goods across the country, so they shouldn’t have to navigate confusing shipping regulations,” U.S. Sen. David Perdue (R-GA), one of the bill’s sponsors, said. “Right now, certain crops, animals, and other farm products that are considered an ‘agricultural commodity’ are treated differently the minute they are put on a truck. That makes no sense. This bipartisan bill will clarify the trucking rules, so agricultural products can be delivered further and faster.”
Perdue was joined in the bill’s introduction by U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Johnny Isakson (R-GA), Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Jim Inhofe (R-OK).
“Small business operators, especially those shipping products that require immediate delivery—like flowers and trees—should not be in the dark about which shipping regulations apply to them,” Merkley said. “Yet confusingly, some goods that are recognized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency as ‘agricultural commodities’ are not eligible for the same transportation exemptions as other agricultural products. This bipartisan legislation is a necessary step forward in clarifying trucking rules, to make sure businesses in every sector of Oregon’s agriculture industry have the same ability to deliver their products while they’re still fresh.”