AFBF Looking For A Farm Bill In The New Year

A New Year is a fresh chance to do what farm leaders hoped for the last two years, and that’s to develop a new Farm Bill.  But how soon that gets done in the new year is a key question.  And how quickly can agriculture recover from the legislative setbacks and uncertainty of a lack of a Farm Bill is another question that remains.  American Farm Bureau’s Director of Government Affairs Joe Gilson says if the legislation will help the U.S farmer, he believes Congress can get a Farm Bill accomplished quickly.  But Congress, with its last-minute stopgap funding bill, extended the 2018 Farm Bill through the end of September, taking pressure off lawmakers to rush a new Farm Bill in 2025.  Gilson acknowledges there are challenges ahead. 

“There’s a million hangups in a farm bill.  It’s a massive bill with 12 different titles, so who knows what could hang up Congress.  There is a litany of issues.”

Gilson said incoming Senate Ag Chair John Boozman could short-circuit the legislative process, given earlier Farm Bill hearings.

“I guess that he knows the state of the farm economy, pays close attention to this, and might just have a markup instead of the full committee hearing.”

Gilson said Boozman and House Chair Glenn Thompson could still hold a hearing.  Either way, he says the Farm Bureau wants to “hit the ground running” and avoid repeating Senate Ag’s out-of-time proposal last year.

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