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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Rail Traffic Jams Top List of MT Farmer Concerns for DC Fly-In

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Thursday, September 11, 2014   

GREAT FALLS, Mont. - Railroads are the backbone of agriculture for Montana. Rail shipping gets products to markets, grain elevators and export terminals, but scheduling rail cars has become trickier with the expansion of oil production in the Bakken. That's the experience Montana Farmers Union members shared with Congressmen and transportation officials this week for the National Farmers Union Fly-in.

Jeff Bangs and his wife farm in the Inverness area. He says everyone he met with in Washington, D.C., agreed something needs to be done.

"There has just become an infinite need for rail transport with a finite amount of rail resources," Bangs says. "There is no easy solution but it is definitely a problem."

Montana wheat often is sold on contract for export, so timetables have to be met on those contracts or there are losses. Bangs says other crop sales operate in much the same way and notes Montana producers aren't the only ones experiencing the rail traffic delays it's happening in Minnesota, Wisconsin, North and South Dakota, too.

Bangs also spent time speaking with Congressional staffers about COOL, a law passed in 2002 that he says has strong support from producers and consumers.

"There's efforts under way here to either reform or repeal Country of Origin Labeling law," Bangs says. "We're fighting hard on the side of the Country of Origin Labeling law."

Other topics discussed by farmers and ranchers from around the country during the Fly-in included trade agreements and the Renewable Fuel Standard.


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