After more than 20 years, Congress is getting closer to eliminating one regulatory hurdle that impacts the nation’s farmers. Since the early 1990’s, farmers and custom harvesters have been limited to carrying 119 gallons of diesel fuel in an individual tank. That’s challenging for an industry that works in rural areas and uses a lot of fuel to harvest the nation’s crops. A provision to change that regulation has been included in House and Senate version of the six-year transportation funding bills. If the provision is signed into law, U.S. Custom Harvesters Executive Director Tracy Zeorian said this is going to be a change for efficiency.
“It’s going to allow us to haul up 1,000 gallons from the service station to our equipment, rather than up to 119 (gallons),” Zeorian said. “So it’s going to be more efficient and more beneficial to our American farmers.”
The provision was been included in both the House and Senate version of the transportation funding bills. Zeorian said U.S. Custom Harvester are hoping the conference committee can reach an agreement on the measure, so it can be signed into law.
Funding for the transportation bill was set to expire on Friday, November 20th. President Obama signed into law a bill that extends federal transportation funding through December 4th. The extension gives Congress time to reach an agreement on the transportation funding bill.
Zeorian is looking forward to getting this provision passed into law, so the U.S. Custom Harvesters can focus more of their efforts on other industry challenges like labor and the need for immigration reform.
Click here to see more...