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November 5th was a turning point in the country. On a dark and dreary night after what seemed like years of bickering and debating, a decision has finally been made. Good prevailed over evil. You guessed it folks, on this faithful night your ol’ buddy Hank finally was able to secure his chew toy from his brother Buck. You see my brother Buck had “stolen” the chew toy last time in what was obvious a crooked write in vote election for ownership of this great toy. During his ownership, Buck has crippled the value of our great chew toy named “Andy” and made it the laughing stock of the neighborhood. Election night was a good night to say the least. I celebrated into the wee hours of the morning as it was quite clear that the world had spoke and put me back in control of “Andy” the chew toy. I promise this great country that I will be the best owner of this great toy and I plan on Making Andy Great Again!
November 5th was also a big night for you two footers. After months of you folks receiving mailboxes full of flyers, the country spoke. Sitting watching the results as I chewed on Andy, it was quite obvious that a red wave had engulfed the country. After a very long spell of low log prices and uncertainty, I think I can fairly speak for most of the industry and say we are praying that this is the change that is needed. So, what is our political system going to look like for the timber industry in the coming years?
The GOP has achieved a “trifecta”- they will control all three elected branches of the government. At the time of writing this, they will have at least 221 seats in the House (218 is a bare majority) to at least 211 seats for the Democrats. The uncalled races left are not enough to make up ground needed for the Democrats to make up for a majority so the industry can look forward to working with some friendly chairmen at all the committees of Jurisdiction including Agriculture, Natural Resources and Interior Appropriations.
On the senate side, the GOP has semi-officially captured a 53 to 47 majority including the flip of Montana’s seat from long time Senator Tester to Tim Sheehy. The GOP will control the Senate until at least 2026. The caucus selected long time South Dakota Sen. John Thune as Majority Leader. The key positions of power will be in Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee and Interior Appropriations Subcommittee.
With the trifecta achieved, Congress began making preparations to “punt” on most major decisions. Congress will likely pass another short-term extension of current Agriculture law, meaning the Farm Bill will be held in abeyance until the GOP has full control. The bad news is this is going to delay some of the stuff industry wants to get done like reforming Stewardship Contracting and “Cottonwood” reforms. The good news is they have a better prospect in the new Congress.
President elect Trump has made it quite clear that he’s going to get the ball rolling much faster this time around as he began staffing up his Administration right out the gate. We can expect Trump appointees will demand answers on where unspent Infrastructure and Inflation Reduction Act funds are. On a recent podcast, the two natural resources Trump brought up were oil and forestry so needless to say, the President Elect has our industry on his mind.
As the current Administration moves into lame duck mode, there hasn’t been a final decision on whether or how to move forward with a final Old Growth policy. There are some indications that the Administration is leaning towards not finalizing the proposed Amendment but anything can happen in the coming weeks.
Now that the election cycle is behind us, we can concentrate on moving forward. No matter what side of the political isle you lean, I think we can all agree that we want to see the best for the country. The election cycle has divided us and its up to us all to come back together. Pray for our leaders and their families and God bless America……and Andy.
Until next time…..Hank
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