President Anderson reports on National Policy Trip
BY SCOTT ANDERSON
WCFB BOARD PRESIDENT
On March 13-16, I had the privilege of traveling to Washington, D.C. to represent Winnebago County, and along with 40 other members, the State of Iowa on the Iowa Farm Bureau National Policy Trip. The purpose of this trip was to discuss the concerns of the Farm Bureau members in the areas of tax reform, trade, crop insurance, regulatory reform and the farm bill.
On Tuesday, March 14, we started the day with a briefing at the American Farm Bureau Federation offices and had congressional district breakout sessions. We then had lunch with the Ohio Farm Bureau consisting of their county Presidents and state staff. In the afternoon, we were able to meet with Senators Charles Grassley and Joni Ernst as a large group.
That Wednesday, we attended an informal coffee meeting with the Senators and their staffers. It was a gathering open to anyone to attend and gave us an opportunity to talk one on one with the Senators and their staff. After that we went to the Bloomberg News offices and listened to Alan Bjerga, an Ag/Politics reporter for them. A group of us then went to the Capital for lunch and a tour. While on the tour we had a little excitement as Vice President Pence walked right by us on his way to a meeting. We also took the opportunity to go and sit in the galleries of both congressional chambers. After that, myself and the rest of the members from representative District 4 had a private meeting with Rep. Steve King in his office.
To end the trip on Thursday we went to the Embassy of Mexico and listened to Kenneth Smith Ramos, a representative from their Trade and NAFTA Office on the importance of trade between Mexico and the United States. Mexico has been the number one export market for U.S. corn.
It was a great experience to meet our legislators and interact with them on a personal level. I would like to encourage everyone to contact your legislators and express your concerns and also your gratitude, if you agree with something that they supported. They do listen, I have now seen it firsthand.
