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DROUGHT HEARING: The Senate Ag subcommittee on conservation, climate, forestry and natural resources will focus on federal drought investments this week during a trip this week to Colorado and Kansas.

In the farm bill: Key Senate Democrats have been pushing in public and private for months to boost investments in the farm bill for ag producers facing severe drought, especially in the West.

The only path to passing a bipartisan Farm Bill is holding together the broad farm and food coalition that has formed the foundation of every successful bill for decades. However, recent attempts to fracture that coalition through misleading statistics and an inaccurate portrayal of how the Farm Bill works has stalled progress on negotiations and risks forcing an extension of the 2018 Farm Bill at the end of the 118th Congress.

Stop The Politics Around SNAP

Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) called for negotiations on the next farm bill.

Details: In a blog post, Stabenow said lawmakers should end the politics around the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, saying that year-to-year changes in SNAP spending do not take funds away from other farm bill programs.

Despite ongoing issues of gridlock in Congress — and the fact 2024 is a presidential election year — U.S. Rep. Frank Lucas remains optimistic a new farm bill will be passed and signed into law this year by President Joe Biden.

In an interview with The Oklahoman during a visit to his southwest Oklahoma City office, Lucas said he’s glad Congress approved a one-year extension of the 2018 farm bill, which carries that bill until the end of this September and bought more time to negotiate the details of what now would be a 2024 bill. But before that happens, Lucas said Congress has got to do some “basic work.”

The future of American food production is up for grabs this year.

With the nation’s farm bill expiring this September — along with a wide array of crucial programs that put food on American plates — lawmakers are on the clock to craft a farm bill that can pass the divided Congress.

The top four farm bill writers and President Joe Biden will meet Thursday to discuss the legislation amid concerns that an impasse in debt ceiling negotiations between the White House and House Republicans could slow progress on the wide-ranging policy bill for agriculture.

Uncertainty over the debt ceiling led House Armed Services Chairman Mike D. Rogers, R-Ala., on Tuesday to indefinitely delay a markup of the fiscal 2024 defense authorization bill. Subcommittees had planned to mark up their sections of the bill Thursday and Friday.

President Biden invited a bipartisan group of lawmakers to the White House this afternoon to discuss the upcoming farm bill reauthorization. Invitees include Rep. G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.), Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.), and USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack.

Stabenow labeled the session as a chance to “have a broader discussion about the farm bill and all the implications for it,” and that it will show “we are working together in a bipartisan way.” She also noted it was a chance for both sides to share their priorities for the bill.

A U.S. Congressman from Nebraska is confident a new farm bill will get done this year despite sharp criticism of the Senate framework.

Republican Mike Flood tells Brownfield the legislation is picking up momentum with a likely markup in the House Ag Committee later this month.

Visiting with Collin Peterson, former House Ag Committee Chair, you've been through all the battles trying to get the job done and make meaningful improvements to foreign policy and do it within the parameters of the budget. Taking a look at what came through, in this particular work in the House Ag Committee, what's your take? How did the committee do?

Well, first of all, the farm part of the bill was excellent. I thought, you know, we had asked for some improvements in crop insurance and so forth, they were included in the bill. So I think the title one title 11 title, who were excellent, you know, they, they, they did a good job of listening to everybody. The Southerners got what they needed, which I think helped them get these votes from Bishop and gave us you know, so that was a very well done. The other thing was positive is that the fight a partisan fight was not over policy in the in the farm area, it was over pay fors. So the whole partisanship came down for how they were going to pay for this. And, you know, and it gets back to the old roots stamp fight that we've had the last few farm bills. So none of that caused any additional partisan division that wasn't there already. So I think that was good, you know, because they could have got off on payment limitations, and all this other kind of stuff that normally divides us. Didn't happen. So that was very positive. And the fact that we got four Democrats voted for the bill gives us a place to start to try to build a bipartisan coalition that can get this bill through the floor of the house. There are a lot of Republicans that are going to vote against this on the floor. But we're going to need, you know, 20-30 Democrats, at least, to get this bill passed. And this gives us a place to start. So there's a lot of work to do. All the turkey food plan and food stamps are a big challenge about how to how to get how to get savings to pay for this. Way, you know, I don't know exactly how to do that. But there's some talk about having director of scoring out of the budget committee, that might get us where we need to be, but we got probably three months before this bill would come to the floor. So we've got some time to work on that. And we're going to talk to some people that are smarter than I am in terms of how we can do budget stuff. And I think the way it's currently constituted with the turkey food plan, you'll not get enough Democrats with that in there to pass the bill. But maybe there's a way that he's going to be fine tuned. And there's other ways to come out and not so quickly after our over the next three months, so. So we'll be involved in that the Midwest Council on agriculture will be involved in that trying to be positive and feel weakened to help. We're having a policy meeting on June 11, and Moorhead as part of the chamber thing that's going on. So we've got a bunch of economists coming in, and we'll do our part to try to be a positive force and all of that.

News that Congressional ag leaders may soon consider farm bill proposals elicited varying responses from across the ag world. On Wednesday Senate Agriculture Committee leader Debbie Stabenow, D- Mich., and House Committee Leader Glenn “GT” Thompson announced they would soon bring new legislation to their respective committees. While a new bill this year is far from certain, most agree that any sign of progress is a good thing.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack called Stabenow’s “Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act” a comprehensive and thoughtful proposal. He praised it for advancing food and nutrition security, promoting sustainable agriculture production and conservation practices, expanding opportunities for new farmers and strengthening the farm safety net. He also believes proposed investments in the bioeconomy will bring more good paying jobs to rural America.

Much has been made about how the U.S. House’s draft of the Farm Bill—that massive omnibus legislation that governs our food system—stands little chance of advancing. Whether the potential cuts to food assistance, or its lack of attention to climate change, the 900 page-plus bill moving through the House is being slammed by Democrats in the Senate and House alike.

Posturing from both sides aside, Democrats and Republicans should work across differences and pass a Farm Bill before electoral campaigns in the fall put legislative activities on hiatus.

Former House Agriculture Committee Chair Collin Peterson sees a path forward for the farm provisions of the bill. “The way the debate happened did not put anybody into any corners that they couldn’t get out of,” said Peterson. “Most of the divisiveness was over how to pay for this; it was over food stamps; it was over the sideboards on conservation; it was over the CCC. Those are things I think can be worked out.” It will likely be September before this bill advances to the House floor. Peterson, who now leads the Midwest Council on Agriculture, says more work will happen ahead of that vote. “The fact that we got four Democrats that voted for the bill gives us a place to start to build a bipartisan coalition that can get this bill through the floor of the House. There are a lot of Republicans that are going to vote against this on the floor so we’re going to need 20, 30 Democrats at least to get this bill passed.”

Washington – Rep. Don Bacon (NE-02), who has served on the Ag committee since 2017, announced that five of his priorities made the final bipartisan 2024 Farm Bill to be passed out of the House Agriculture Committee (HAC). Farmers and ranchers, rural America, the food insecure, and the American taxpayers are well served in this bill.

I Believe in The Future of Agriculture

The director of the Gardner Agriculture Policy Program at the University of Illinois says he’s slightly more optimistic about Congress passing a new farm bill.

Jonathan Coppess tells Brownfield…

Some members of Congress are busy working on a new Farm Bill, hoping to prevent the need for another extension at the end of September.

Representative Kelly Armstrong said the House marked up the Farm Bill out of the agriculture committee and passed it along party lines. He said Senator Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., who serves on the Senate Agriculture Committee, came over to the House side to try and rally Democrats against it. He said he thinks that’s unfortunate because the House has a good bill to start with. Armstrong said he is hopeful they can find a way to get it to the floor and pass it over to the Senate.

Friday, we spoke with South Dakota Representative Dusty Johnson who worked on drafting the bill in the House Agriculture Committee about the progress the bill has made and what still needs to be done.

Last week, the Farm Bill advanced out of the House Agriculture Committee in a 33 to 21 vote. The bill, which is supposed to be renewed every five years is now on its sixth year nearing seven which has caused issues for food assistance programs and farmers nationwide

WASHINGTON (States Newsroom) — Republicans on the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry on Tuesday released their framework for a new five-year farm bill that will set the policy and funding levels for key food, agriculture and conservation programs.

The top Republican on the committee, Arkansas Sen. John Boozman, laid out GOP priorities with reporters during a Tuesday morning briefing prior to publication of the framework.

On Monday, June 11, the House Appropriations Committee released their proposed funding bill for the 2025 fiscal year. Appropriations bills are passed annually and determine how much funding different parts of the federal government receive. The Agriculture Appropriations bill determines how much funding USDA and important agriculture programs receive. Disappointingly, the House’s proposed funding bill makes spending cuts – cutting total funding by 3.6% from 2024 – to every Farm Aid priority program, cuts SNAP funding and includes very harmful “riders” (unrelated policies tacked onto a spending bill.) Among these riders are measures to eliminate protections for small meat and poultry producers against large companies, prohibit equity, diversity and inclusion programs at the USDA, and allows individuals and organizations to discriminate against LGBTQIA+ people on the basis of “sincerely held religious beliefs.” The proposed bill passed along party lines over the course of a very quick 30-minute vote. The bill will be brought to the whole House for a vote in July.

Meanwhile, on June 12, Republicans on the Senate Agriculture Committee released a very general framework for their version of a Senate farm bill. The summary lacks any specific funding details and is a very high-level overview, but at first glance appears to be very similar to the House’s Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024 (otherwise known as the farm bill) that passed in May. The move could signal that there is momentum building in the Senate around an effort to pass a farm bill before the end of the year.

Humans have fought over food and the means of producing it for 20,000 years, as rock art in Australia shows. Food, water and land scarcity are primary drivers in two thirds of modern conflicts today. Indeed, many people seem to have forgotten that the primary German war aim in World War II was to take farmland from the Soviets and put German farmers on it. It is very likely that controlling the Ukraine’s bountiful and reliable food bowl is among Putin’s main aims also. In the short run this is imposing hunger and even starvation on hundreds of millions of people far beyond Europe. 

Spreading hunger in turn snowballs into government failures, civil wars and refugee tsunamis around the world – as it did in 2008 when a shortfall in Ukrainian grain exports led to revolutions in three Arab countries. Already, a third of a billion people – equal to the entire population of Europe – leave their homes each year, either as refugees or economic migrants, to seek better lives in countries which seem more stable and food secure. War will add to the flood.

While Congress is flailing—moving from one near government shutdown to another—crucial legislation that supports our communities lies in limbo.

That includes the Farm Bill, a vital legislative package responsible for funding everything from farm subsidies and SNAP benefits to international food aid, the urgency to assist war-torn countries, combat rising hunger, and protect our farmlands.