The Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) announced on Feb. 24 that Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) were the recipients of ARA’s 2015 Legislator of the Year award. The awards, which were presented earlier in February when the ARA board of directors visited Congressional offices, are given annually to a member or members of Congress who “champion legislation important to the agricultural retail industry.”
ARA said Cochran, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, was instrumental in providing agricultural retailers with “urgent regulatory relief” from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Process Safety Management (PSM) standard in the Fiscal Year 2016 Consolidated Appropriations Act.
ARA said it recognized Thune, chairman of the Transportation Committee, for his efforts to reform the Surface Transportation Board, address the Positive Train Control deadline, and enact a multi-year surface transportation reauthorization bill. Thune has also attacked EPA’s redefinition of Water of the U.S. under the Clean Water Act, calling it a “tremendous overreach” that would cause “great economic harm to farmers, ranchers, and small business owners.”
ARA President and CEO Daren Coppock said Cochran’s and Thune’s “insistence agricultural interests be included in conversations regarding transportation and appropriations resulted in appropriate and functional legislation on key issues for ag retailers. We appreciate their dedication and continued support for the agriculture industry.”