Indiana’s senior U.S. senator said he is very concerned about the impact of President Donald Trump’s tariffs policy on farmers and manufacturers.
U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., said he met with Trump Thursday night in Washington D.C. after the president asked to discuss some issues with him.
Donnelly said he made sure to share his thoughts about how he thinks the tariff process should be handled.
During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump said he favored fairer trade agreements. A 25 percent tariff on steel and 10 percent tariff on aluminum from the European Union, Canada and Mexico went into effect June 1. Tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods go into effect Friday. The U.S. also has raised concerns about China dumping its excess steel into the U.S. market.
“I said, ‘The steel piece we can do. It’s targeted, it’s specific,'” Donnelly said Monday during a stop in Columbus.
“I said, ‘I’m really concerned about our farmers, our manufacturers.’ I said, ‘Mr. President, they’re at risk,'” he said of the conversation with Trump.
Canada has imposed tariffs on $12.6 billion of U.S. goods, the European Union on more than $3 billion of U.S. goods and Mexico on about $3 billion worth. China has raised the possibility of retaliatory tariffs, including 25 percent on soybeans and pork products, Donnelly said.
The senator said a global company such as Columbus-based Cummins is getting hit with tariffs on goods to and from the U.S., and is having to figure out new supply chain strategies.
The tariff situation is unfair for farmers who have invested in additional acreage and new equipment, and now have concerns about the viability of their farm operation, Donnelly said.
“They looked up and the rules had changed. It is not right for a family that’s been at a homestead for 100 or 150 years, as we often have in Indiana, where their family’s generations-long commitment is in danger because of what is going in trade markets that they played no role in fouling up,” Donnelly said.
The senator noted that prices for soybeans ($8.47 per bushel) and corn ($3.44 per bushel) are at 52-week lows. Donnelly said he’s hopeful that changes and compromises to the tariffs can be reached before harvest season, because every week that goes by increases the danger.
Donnelly said he told the president that there’s limited time to figure out the issue before harvest.
SNAP concerns
Donnelly said he’s also concerned about low-income individuals and families who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.
The House and Senate versions of the U.S. farm bill, which sets U.S. agricultural and food policy, differ significantly as they pertain to SNAP benefits and nutrition subsidies, Donnelly said.
The House version, for example, would tighten eligibility requirements and also require millions more people to work to receive the benefits, while the Senate version remains basically the same. The Senate version passed 86-11 with bipartisan support, while the House version passed 213-211 along partisan lines, Donnelly said.
“We’re hoping that when we get to conference committee we can work out those differences and that there will be an understanding we need to have strong work requirements, but at the same time we need to also understand the nutrition challenges in our country,” said Donnelly, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
Opioid assistance
One issue addressed in both the proposed farm and national defense bills is opioid abuse. Both contain provisions aimed at curbing the problem. One, authored by Donnelly in the farm bill, involves the use of telemedicine.
“For small towns, they’ll be able to have access through telemedicine services to the hospital here in Columbus, to Methodist in Indianapolis, to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Addiction treatment, addiction assistance is as close as the telemedicine communication away,” said Donnelly, also a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Donnelly said the goal is to make the United States Department of Agriculture a strong partner in the opioid fight through the use their facilities for addiction treatment service, and providing funding for programs, including telemedicine.
Other goals are for the federal government to work hand-in-glove with states on changes in how opioids are prescribed, and urging Eli Lilly to move forward with the non-addictive painkiller it’s trying to push through, Donnelly said.
Help for Atterbury
The $716 billion defense bill passed by both the Senate and House, but with differences that must be reconciled, has benefits for local military training installations Camp Atterbury, near Edinburgh, and Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, near Butlerville, Donnelly said.
“What we’ve seen overall … is a defense bill that provides more funding. …There’s additional funding to train here,” he said, although he did not have exact amounts of financial support immediately available.
“They’re training centers and we’ve tried to provide them with the opportunity of extra funding in the bill, that units who train can come here,” he added.
Immigration issues
As with U.S. trade policy, the country’s immigration policy under the Trump administration also is consuming a lot of Donnelly’s time.
He said the Senate has a plan available to provide to the president at any time, although it’s one Trump rejected in February.
“The president came to us in the Senate and said ‘get a bipartisan plan together and if you can put a bill together, I will sign it,’ ” Donnelly said.
A group of about 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans met for more than a month and drafted a bill that provided funding for a southern border wall and a 12-year pathway to citizenship for those in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
It had more than the 60 votes it needed initially, but when the bill was given to the president, it did not gain his support and the vote on it garnered only 54 votes.
Last week, the Border Security and Immigration Reform Act failed in the House by a 301-121 vote. It would have created a merit-based visa system, $25 million for border security and end the zero tolerance policy of separating children from their parents at the border. After seeing that result, Donnelly said he’s hopeful that Trump will reconsider the Senate solution proposed early this year.
“My goal is to get this thing settled,” Donnelly said.
