SoyPAC is the American Soybean Association’s Political Action Committee. Any ASA member can make a contribution to SoyPAC, which provides ASA with resources that help support candidates who champion soybean farmer priorities.
The purpose of the SoyPAC fund is to provide the opportunity for individuals interested in the production, processing or promotion of soybeans and soybean products to support worthy candidates for public offices who support SoyPAC purposes and thus foster a positive environment in which the soybean industry can flourish and prosper.
Our SoyPAC mission is to utilize valued SoyPAC member contributions in a smart, strategic way that strengthens our relationships with policy makers and maximizes the political potential of the soy industry to accomplish long and short term goals important to soy farmers.
Ongoing
In preparation for the 2023 Farm Bill, ASA gathered farmer feedback from 12 farm bill listening sessions, an in-depth farm bill survey, written comments, and policy resolutions. This farmer feedback shaped ASA’s farm bill priorities document, which was publicly released in May 2022. ASA has shared these priorities with policymakers through testimony at congressional hearings, in congressional listening sessions, in farm visits, and in fly-ins on Capitol Hill. Read about ASA’s farm bill priorities.
ASA has been hard at work encouraging movement toward modernization of the regulatory environment for tools very important to farmers. ASA supports regulatory reforms that accelerate the timelines for biotech trait approvals and companion herbicides without disrupting foreign market approvals or U.S. agriculture exports, and that do not require pre-market approval for biotech products derived through plant breeding innovations that could have occurred through traditional breeding (e.g. gene editing, plant breeding innovations). ASA urged members of Congress to support the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and oppose legislation that misrepresents the science-based safety standards used to protect farmers, workers and the public and that would jeopardize the continued availability and innovation of pesticide products.
ASA worked for a multi-year extension of the biodiesel tax credit through 2024 and is supporting efforts to ensure soybean oil remains a competitive feedstock under the new Clean Fuel Production Credit that takes effect in 2025. ASA, Clean Fuels Alliance America, and others continue to push EPA for strong annual volume obligations through the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and is currently engaging on the proposed multi-year Set rule, which will be finalized in June 2023. In Dec. 2022, EPA released its draft set rule establishing renewable volume obligations (RVOs) for 2023 and beyond. ASA believes the draft RVOs are inadequate, that EPA did not adequately acknowledge increasing feedstock production, and EPA made faulty assumptions related to food expenditures. ASA will continue to encourage lawmakers to defend and strengthen the RFS.
2022
ASA advocated for increased federal investment in waterways infrastructure in the 2022 Water Resources Development Act (WRDA). While the final WRDA does not increase the cost-share allocation for Inland Waterways Trust Fund Projects to 75% (IWTF)/25% (General Revenue) as soy-growers supported, it did make permanent the updated cost-share allocation change of 65%/35% that was included in the last WRDA bill. This was a positive development, as without the 2022 WRDA, the cost-share change was set to expire in 2031. ASA advocates for increased investment in our inland waterways, ports, rail and highway infrastructure as a means to strengthen the competitiveness of America’s farmers. As Congress considers these funding decisions, ASA is there pushing soy priorities.
ASA advocates at every opportunity for policies that support the sustainability of the soy sector. That includes working to secure adequate funding for voluntary, incentive-based, working lands conservation programs; creating new programs to help farmers purchase input-saving precision ag technology; helping USDA to bring certainty to private sector carbon markets; improving the BioPreferred initiative to encourage utilization of soy biobased products; protecting the checkoff’s ability to research sustainable farming practices and new uses for soy oil and protein; and even helping to ensure consumer access to soy foods, for those whose definition of sustainability includes incorporating plant-based foods into their diets.
2018 and Ongoing
ASA pushed for market access in the U.S.-China Phase One trade deal and the U.S. Mexico Canada agreement (USMCA), which were both finalized in early 2020. Trade expansion, market access and international food aid remain a top focus for ASA.
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SoyPAC funds raised are for the benefit of political candidates and activities on a national level that support the soybean industry. Please contact Christy Seyfert at cseyfert@soy.org for more information about whether and how you can join SoyPAC.
