Congress left a number of issues important to ag for the 110th Congress to deal with. Those include:

• Manure clarification -- Congress failed to pass legislation clarifying that manure is not a hazardous substance or pollutant under Superfund laws. A number of ag groups are concerned that, without clarification, manure as fertilizer on farms could be prohibited.
  
• Dust and soot -- Sen. Chuck Grassley's (R-IA) legislation to prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from enforcing Clean Air Act rules on ag for dust and soot wasn't adopted.
  
• Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) -- Congress failed to complete conference committee deliberations on WRDA legislation that would modernize the lock and dam systems on the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, which are more than 60 years old. This is a priority of the National Corn Growers Association, American Soybean Association, Midwest Area Rivers Coalition (MARC 2000), and American Farm Bureau Federation. This is a critical issue to keep American ag competitive in the world market.