AFBF Pressures Lawmakers For Assistance

The American Farm Bureau was mounting an 11th-hour pressure campaign to get billions of dollars in economic farm aid in a massive stopgap spending bill to avert a government shutdown this week.

“It is not acceptable for Congress to tie up their business at the end of the year and not recognize the need for, not just disaster assistance but economic assistance,” noted AFBF President Zippy Duvall.  He added that Farm Bureau and other Ag groups were mounting a high-stakes pressure campaign after Hill talks to include farm aid in a stopgap agency funding bill collapsed.

"Since early Saturday morning, we’ve had over two thousand messages sent to Congress, to the Congressional leadership there, to ask them to contact their speaker and say this is a necessity and tell him they won’t support it unless a disaster package and an economic package is in a year-end package.”

Duvall says without help, many farmers may not be able to secure new operating loans, and he vows to continue to fight any stop-gap funding bill that lacks both farm and disaster aid. 

And it appears that pressure may have worked.  House Speaker Mike Johnson announced Tuesday a last-minute breakthrough.  A must-pass bill to avert a government shutdown will now include farm aid.

“What you’ll see reflected in this final package is $10 billion to start,” Johnson says. “In addition, USDA moved some things around and has added $2 billion for specialty crops they announced in late November, all of which means help is coming.

“I’ve talked to several leaders in the ag community who say they’re greatly relieved,” Johnson added.

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