Issues agriculture is trying to push to the top of the legislative agenda include the following:

WOTUS - EPA's "waters of the U.S. (WOTUS)" rule, now in abeyance nationally thanks to a federal court stay, will continue to be a major legislative target.  The House passed legislation last year to force EPA to withdraw the current WOTUS rule and restart the rulemaking process with greater producer and industry input.  A similar effort stalled in the Senate, and a move to include WOTUS withdrawal language on December's FY2016 omnibus spending package failed.  The Senate will move again to pass a bill similar if not identical to that approved by the House, particularly since the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found EPA violated federal prohibitions on government lobbying in its push to publish the final WOTUS rule.  However, even if the Senate GOP prevails and passes a WOTUS bill, the President has said he'll veto the legislation so the pressure on the Senate to approve a bill with more than 66 votes increases.  Likelihood of success:  60-40%

EPA -With EPA the designated poster child for federal regulatory overreach, GOP lawmakers in both chambers are taking dead aim at a number of pending regulatory initiatives beyond WOTUS.  Firmly in the crosshairs of Republicans are rules proposed to recapture CO2/carbon from existing and new power plants - McConnell calls these rules Obama's "war on coal" - as well as the agency's recently proposed rule to make ground level ozone maximums stricter.  The most likely action will be to try and pass stand-alone bills to stop the rules, but also to use EPA's FY2017 appropriations bill to restrict any spending on finalizing the actions.  However, these rulemakings are the other two legs of Obama's three-legged stool of "climate change," and with the recent approval in Paris of an international accord on climate change and carbon recapture, the President has vowed to veto any action.  Likelihood of success:  30-70%

Food Safety - The grumbling over the impact of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) - the biggest overhaul of FDA food safety authority in 70 years - is getting louder.  The negatively lopsided cost/benefit of the feed rule is a focus of strong efforts by the American Feed Industry Assn. (AFIA) and National Grain & Feed Assn. (NGFA).  Further, absent promised guidance documents, FDA public interpretations of its own rulemakings are often victims of internal agency contradiction, and the number of industry segments seeking some form of relief - if not outright exemption from FSMA - is growing.  Fruit and vegetable producers, despite some size exemptions, remain nervous about FDA coming on to the farm, and congressional intervention seems inevitable.  Pressure on FDA will increase during the first half of 2016, as final rules on sanitary transportation and intentional adulteration are published.  Action to reopen FSMA is unlikely given the sheer complexity of the law and lawmakers unwillingness to appear to be weakening food safety protections in an election year.  Likelihood of success:  60-40%

GE food labeling - A significant priority for food and agriculture, the House last year approved by a wide margin a bill to federally preempt state laws requiring the labeling of foods/feeds containing genetically engineered (GE) ingredients.  That bill also creates a voluntary certification program at USDA for companies wishing to label products for the presence or absence of GE ingredients, while requiring FDA to define for labeling purposes the term "natural." While the House effort enjoyed strong bipartisan support, getting a Senate bill introduced has proved difficult as the labeling issue is far more politically charged in the upper chamber.  Industry is nervous because Vermont's labeling law - under federal court challenge by the food industry - goes into effect in July, and the industry wants relief before having to launch relabeling and logistics efforts.   An effort to get language into the FY2016 omnibus simply preempting for two years any state GE labeling law failed, as Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D, MI), Agriculture Committee ranking member, demanded - and didn't receive - action by industry to develop "smart labels," adding icons allowing consumers to scan a product to find out if GE ingredients were used, among other things. While negotiations continue with Stabenow, USDA has waded into the issue with Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack holding an invitation-only meeting with a month between the food industry and consumer groups to try and find a middle ground on the issue.  Likelihood of success:  60-40%

Farm Bill - Both House and Senate ag committees have said they intend to hold 2014 Farm Bill oversight hearings, particularly to review USDA implementation of the hard-won omnibus ag program law.  Issues to be examined include payment limits and USDA definition of "materially involved" farm manager; the future of crop insurance and premium subsidies, as well as administrative support received by crop insurance companies; the sugar program, and cotton growers are pounding on Capitol Hill to provide them some relief from low prices and a rewrite of the so-called STAX program.  Likelihood of success: 90-10%