(WASHINGTON D.C.)– On Monday, Senate Ag Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) released her long awaited Farm Bill text. Reaction is starting to roll in to a potential lame duck Congressional push for a new five-year Farm Bill.
Ranking Member on the Senate Ag Committee John Boozman (R-AR), in a post on the Senate Ag Republicans X account was quoted as saying “an 11th hour partisan proposal released 415 days after the expiration of the current farm bill is insulting. America’s farmers deserve better.”
In a statement, Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) said that Republicans on the ag committee were “blindsided” by the near 1,400 page document. “This morning, Chairwoman Stabenow released her Farm Bill text—a 1,400-page document that no Republican committee member has reviewed or had the opportunity to collaborate on,” said Senator Marshall. “This is not a sincere or transparent effort to address the urgent needs of Rural America. Instead, it is a last-minute power play in the final hours- manipulating her majority power in the Senate Ag Committee before losing the gavel. Today’s move shows that Senate Democrats have walked away from meaningful bipartisan negotiations that are a tradition in this committee and have opted to play politics with the livelihoods of hard-working farmers and ranchers at a time when Rural America needs real solutions.”
Among notable changes in the Farm Bill text released on Monday, it includes integrating Inflation Reduction Act funding directly into the bill, an increase in reference prices for crop insurance, $8.5 billion to enhance access to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits and a dedicated $4.3 billion investment in rural healthcare, childcare, broadband access, and job creation represents a broader approach to rural prosperity.
Various agriculture and commodity groups are starting to share their reactions to the text release as well, including the National Pork Producers Council. “Though America’s pork producers appreciate Chairwoman Stabenow’s efforts to publish Farm Bill text, this is simply not a viable bill, as it fails to provide a solution to California Prop. 12,” said NPPC President Lori Stevermer, a pork producer from Easton, Minn. “Pork producers have continually spoken up about the negative impacts of this issue, and it is a shame these conversations were disregarded.”
In May, NPPC secured 100 percent of pork producers’ priorities in the House Agriculture Committee-passed bipartisan 2024 Farm Bill. In June, producers once again secured all policy priorities in Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member John Boozman’s 2024 Farm Bill framework.
NPPC urges both chambers of Congress to swiftly consider and pass a Farm Bill this year that includes a fix to California Proposition 12, a state law that places arbitrary housing standards on the pork industry, creating uncertainty for pork producers as they look to continue their operations to the next generation.
In his response, Senator Marshall also added “thoughtful negotiation and bipartisan cooperation are essential to delivering a Farmers First Farm Bill that Kansans deserves. Despite Stabenow’s attempt to upend the process, as a member of the Senate Ag Committee representing Kansas agriculture, I remain committed to reviewing this bill and advocating for the needs of our farmers and ranchers. With farmers facing record decreases in net farm income, we must put FARM back in the Farm Billby increasing crop insurance coverage and reference prices for the American farmer.”
More coverage of this story can be found below. We will continue to update as more reaction is released throughout the week.
