Stabenow Funding The 2023 Farm Bill Will Be A Challenge

While officials are discussing the next Farm Bill, funding the legislation could be more challenging than in previous years. Senate Ag Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow said other than pursuing conservation funds, there aren’t a lot of extra funding sources for the 2023 Farm Bill.

“We will be dealing with a flat-funded Farm Bill, and so, that will be our challenge at this point. We have done disaster assistance through appropriations now, as I mentioned to you the different disaster-assistance programs, but frankly, if we have those resources for strengthening conservation and some other rural energy programs, that will put us in a much better position to be able to move forward on the Farm Bill. Otherwise, we're going to be looking for ways to be creative, but there is no automatic place to go. We will be looking at the same baseline that we have right now.”

Climate-smart agriculture should be an important part of the next Farm Bill, Stabenow noted, but it’s going to take funds to do that.

“I believe there are several reasons why we need to do this in terms of what we've dubbed this climate-smart agriculture, but certainly, part of that is supporting what farmers want in terms of doing more around conservation," Stabenow continued. "And we are not going to be able to meet that need if we're not able to do this. So, I'm very hopeful we'll be able to get this done.”

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