(WASHINGTON D.C.) — 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.
AFBF President Zippy Duvall says 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.
“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,” says Duvall. “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.”
Some House and Senate members have already said they won’t vote for such a must-pass bill to keep the government funded after Friday: a sign farm groups’ ‘hard-ball’ play was having results. Partisan differences over how to pay for a ten-billion-dollar farm aid package torpedoed a deal over the weekend. Duvall says economists feel the real need is 30 billion dollars.
“Of course, that’s going to be difficult for them to produce that. But the 10 billion, we think around 15-20 billion would do some good across farmland, across the country, and hoping that they can negotiate closer to that,” says Duvall.
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. “We need to keep up this drumbeat. Congress hasn’t done its job for a long time,” says Duvall. “They keep kicking the can down road on the farm bill for two years now, which is part of the reason farmers in such a tough spot. So, we need farmers to call their members of Congress and to send emails today to say that it’s time to step up and help cover the massive losses that agriculture has experienced before we see any more of our farms go under.”
To get involved, visit the Action Alerts page at fb.org.
Story in part by Matt Kaye/Berns Bureau Washington and courtesy of NAFB News Service
