Congress strikes deal to add 'grain glitch' fix to omnibus

The $1.3 trillion government spending bill expected to be released Wednesday includes a remedy for the so-called grain glitch in the Republican tax law that gives farmers lucrative incentives to sell their products to agricultural cooperatives over other types of businesses, two House GOP aides familiar with the negotiations said. Securing the legislative language, which would amend the Section 199A deduction in the tax code, was among a host of sticking points that congressional leaders had to work out in the final hours of negotiations after Democrats demanded a compromise that would boost the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit in exchange.Democrats at one point had sworn off cooperating with Republicans to fix technical errors and unintended consequences of the partisan tax overhaul, H.R. 1 (115), which cleared Congress with great speed in December. But many vulnerable Democrats facing reelection battles this year in farm states pushed for the Section 199A remedy to be included in the spending package to respond to the outcry from their agricultural sectors back home.The House is hoping to vote on the measure Thursday, which would give the Senate just one day to clear the deal before government funding expires at the end of the day Friday.The technical points of the proposal to change Section 199A were agreed to last week by House and Senate GOP lawmakers after weeks of negotiations with two farm groups — the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives and the National Grain and Feed Association.While the problem has been dubbed the "grain glitch," it also threatened to disrupt other markets like dairy, livestock and biofuels.