Politics DA - DDI 2023

Farm Bill Politics DA
1NC
1NC DA
Farm bill passes now – and is at the top of the docket.
Dandes 7-12-23 (Rick, is an experienced writer for Task & Purpose, covering topics around military news, culture, analysis and product. 07-12-2023 “Thompson: $1.2 trillion farm bill on track to finish by mid-September” https://www.dailyitem.com/news/thompson-1-2-trillion-farm-bill-on-track-to-finish-by-mid-september/article_3922bdfc-20f2-11ee-b9ff-970c93c665a0.html)//BH-NB//
Stakeholders continue to provide testimony on the $1.2 trillion Farm Bill being considered by the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture on a daily basis. The ultimate goal is releasing the bill to the full House for a vote in mid-September, said Committee Chair Glenn Thompson, R-15, Bellefonte. Thompson is the first chairman of the Agriculture Committee from Pennsylvania in nearly 170 years. He said he wants the Farm Bill to be bipartisan, bicameral and highly effective. The Farm Bill touches the lives of every American family, multiple times a day, and provides resources and safety-net programs for farm families “that are in Congressional District 15, which has 18 counties, including Union and Snyder. And throughout Pennsylvania,” Thompson said. “The programs we have are not handouts. The modern Farm Bill is based on public-private partnerships,” he said. The bill is important for farmers because it includes things like crop insurance and conservation programs. But overall it addresses issues common in rural America. The bill has 12 Titles, some miscellaneous, or categories, that include everything from rural broadband and rural utilities to helping municipalities with water and sewage projects. Other Titles address workforce development, and access to food through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, as well as funding food banks and food pantries. Title four of the Farm Bill is nutrition. Forty-two million people in America are eligible for SNAP, Thompson said. The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank CEO and Executive Director Joe Arthur said he has been “keeping close watch on this year’s funding of title four.” “Where we are now is that we are having hearings and roundtables every day in Washington,” Thompson said. “And we will continue to do that right up until we pass this bill out of committee. I am shooting for having this done by mid-September, before the deadline, and having it on the House floor. That’s my goal and I am sticking to it.” Thompson is now meeting with the freshmen members of Congress and has formed groups with expertise in different areas such as content, and Farm Bill processes.
Biden’s political capital is key.
Jim Weisemeyer, reporter for Drovers, "Lawmakers Meet with Biden to Discuss Farm Bill 2023," 5/11/23 https://www.drovers.com/news/ag-policy/lawmakers-meet-biden-discuss-farm-bill-2023)
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. Thompson signaled he wants to hear a “commitment from everyone including the president that we will get this done and done in the manner I've been speaking about. Bipartisan, bicameral, on time and highly effective." Boozman said the session is a “step in the right direction” and he wants to see the discussion focus on “the fastest path forward” for the omnibus legislation. Farm Bill Meeting Perspective It’s always good to have a president’s attention on a big topic like the farm bill. It will be interesting to see if Biden/Vilsack detail any must-haves in a new farm bill. Food stamp funding and implementation flexibility, conservation and climate-smart programs are key possible administration topics. History has a lot of examples of how some White House officials wanted to take a more active role in a farm bill only to find that lawmakers write it, not the executive branch. However, a president must sign the omnibus bill and if it is vetoed, override votes are needed--a situation that has occurred before.
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Passing the Farm Bill is key to global food security.
(Grace Yarrow, reporter for the Hill, "How the farm bill could alleviate food insecurity fueled by Ukraine war," 5/25/23 https://thehill.com/policy/international/4021371-how-the-farm-bill-could-alleviate-food-insecurity-fueled-by-ukraine-war/)
The war raging in Ukraine has exacerbated food insecurity across the world — and food aid experts are looking to the 2023 farm bill for solutions. Ukraine’s massive grain supplies typically feed 400 million people per year, but the war has “drastically cut supplies” and driven up food costs for consumers in rich and poor countries alike, according to the World Food Program (WFP). U.S. legislators are currently drafting the farm bill, an omnibus agriculture act passed every five years, which includes provisions for international food assistance. The farm bill authorizes a number of domestic and international food aid programs. The legislation doesn’t fully authorize funding for this aid, which must be decided in separate appropriations, but it outlines how each program runs and how it can use future funds. Lawmakers can use the must-pass farm bill draft to amend these programs as needed. Experts like Rebecca Middleton, chief advocacy and engagement officer for World Food Program USA, are hoping to see “robust authorization” for food aid support in the 2023 farm bill — especially the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust, Middleton said. The Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust builds up over time and then can be cashed out at the authorization of the secretary of Agriculture. In April 2022, $282 million was withdrawn from the Emerson Trust to support countries in need after the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict threatened food supplies in six major countries facing food insecurity: Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan and Yemen. The withdrawn money was used to obtain U.S. commodities and bolster existing aid in those countries, according to a U.S. Agency for International Development spokesperson. The Emerson Trust was renamed to honor former Mississippi Rep. Bill Emerson in 1998 but was originally established in 1980 as a wheat reserve. Because of rising food prices, in 2008, the Department of Agriculture converted the trust into a cash reserve that can be used to purchase U.S. commodities in times of need. The trust was most recently reauthorized in the 2018 farm bill, and Congress must reauthorize the Emerson Trust in the 2023 legislation. Congress also has the authority to replenish funds after they are withdrawn. “For all of those accounts [in the farm bill], the one that we’re really interested in is the Emerson Trust because it’s an account that’s not very well known, but is absolutely vital in situations like the one that we found ourselves in in 2022,” Middleton said. “It’s really absolutely vital assistance that the U.S. was able to provide because of that emergency account in this time of historic need.” The 2018 farm bill did not account for such crises like the COVID-19 pandemic or the Russia-Ukraine conflict, both which have had severe effects on supply and triggered more aid from the federal government, so the Emerson Trust was an essential resource in recent years. “I mean, the need was extraordinary and then just compounded with the shock to the global food supply chain with the Ukrainian crisis,” Middleton said. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), the former ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee’s subcommittee on nutrition, said in a statement that he supports keeping international food aid well-funded in the new legislation. “The FY 2023 farm bill reauthorization needs to continue to build on the trajectory of the past two decades and ensure that the U.S., in partnership with American farmers and non-profits, can respond swiftly and comprehensively to global humanitarian emergencies and invest in longer-term resilience and sustainability, especially for small farmers, so that they may more successfully withstand future economic and climate shocks,” McGovern said in a statement to The Hill. In addition to the Emerson Trust withdrawal, the Biden administration committed $2.76 billion toward global food security last summer, on top of Biden and other G7 leaders’ contributing $4.5 billion to the issue in 2022. High prices for fuel and fertilizer, theft of farm equipment, destruction of agricultural facilities, and the blockade of Black Sea ports all threatened to push millions of people internationally into poverty, hunger and malnutrition starting in 2022, according to the White House. The Horn of Africa faced a particularly acute crisis due to prolonged drought and famine. Dalton Henry, vice president of policy for U.S. Wheat Associates, is hoping to see solutions in the 2023 farm bill that prioritize using U.S. commodities as a “cornerstone” of donations to regions in need. “We have a tremendous priority placed on making sure that hungry people around the world get fed and the farm bill programs do such a good job at doing that with commodities,” Henry said. He added that it’s “hard to say” how much farm bill policies will change from past years, but that the Russia-Ukraine war has inflamed existing hunger and food insecurity due to global conflicts like those in Ethiopia and Yemen. Henry said the war in Ukraine has made the need for international food aid more prominent. “I think that, if anything, one of the big impacts is that the war has put global food security much more front of mind for a lot of folks,” Henry said, “and probably shone a little bit more of a light on some of these programs that normally kind of fly under the radar.”
Food insecurity goes nuclear.
Julian Cribb 22. Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, the Australian Academy of Technological Science (ATSE) and the Australian National University Emeritus Faculty, “How food can end wars, repair climate and restore the Earth”, https://juliancribb.blog/2022/05/25/how-food-can-end-wars-repair-climate-and-restore-the-earth/
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. Thus, in developing a new food system for the world of the 21st Century, we also have to find a way to curb the human appetite for war. In Food or War, I trace the links between food and conflict through human history, explore the role of food in recent conflicts and examine nine regions of the world which are at high risk of food failure and conflict in the foreseeable future – conflicts ranging from riots and government failure to nuclear war. My aim is to show that the link between food and war is inexorable – but that it can be broken. And that having enough good food is the most under-rated, under-recognised and precious ‘weapon of peace’ in the world today.
2NC/1NR
Uniqueness
Will Pass---2NC
Farm bill passes now---BUT, it’s not guaranteed.
Schlecht 7-10-23 (Jenny, is the Agweek's director of ag content and she graduated from the University of Mary with a bachelor's degree in communications. 07-10-2023 “Collin Peterson says farm bill discussions are in good shape” https://www.agweek.com/news/policy/collin-peterson-says-farm-bill-discussions-are-in-good-shape)//BH-NB//
With Congress raising the debt ceiling and dealing with concerns about work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in June, some common sticking points that historically have kept a farm bill from timely passage appear to have been cleared up, a former long-time agriculture policymaker says. “Everything has been positive so far as far as the obstacles,” explained Collin Peterson. The current farm bill expires on Sept. 30, though it’s far from unusual for a new bill to be in place on the deadline. In fact, Peterson said there is no particular reason to have a new bill passed when the old version expires. Instead, if the House and Senate can’t reach an agreement by the end of the year, they could vote to extend the existing bill. “Nothing becomes critical on Oct. 1,” he said. Peterson served 15 terms in the U.S. House, representing Minnesota’s 7th District, and much of that time was spent in leadership on the House Agriculture Committee. He played a major role in crafting five farm bills during those years. After losing a re-election bid in 2020 , he helped form the Midwest Council on Agriculture , of which Northarvest Bean Growers Association is a member. The Midwest Council on Agriculture is a coalition of members from across the agriculture industry in 12 states: Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. The purpose of the council is to provide a united voice for agriculture out of the region to policymakers. Peterson and former USDA Undersecretary Bill Northey, of Iowa, modeled the council after Southwest Council on Agribusiness and the Delta Council, which helped propel the needs of their members to Congress. In mid-June, Peterson was gearing up for a trip to Washington, D.C., later in the month to meet with ag committee leaders and offer his advice. Being out of Congress has freed him up to give his “legitimate advice” rather than worrying as much about getting people from across the country on board with a unified plan. “I think I’m almost doing more good on the outside,” he said. A money problem Peterson said a few obstacles remain in getting a bipartisan farm bill completed. While the SNAP issues and debt ceiling conversations should be cleared up, he said there remain House members “agitating” for change. But he doesn’t think they have as much power as they act like. “People in charge of committees say SNAP and work requirements are settled and won’t be brought up again,” he said. But even with that major hurdle cleared, others remain. The big one is a lack of money. “Every day, another group is looking for additional money,” Peterson said. “Right now, there is no additional money.” It’s unlikely that Republicans would agree to a tax increase and equally unlikely that lawmakers would cut spending in another area to put more into the farm bill, he said. That means putting more money into programs in one part of the farm bill likely would come at the expense of other parts of the farm bill. A substantial amount of funding went into conservation programs through the Inflation Reduction Act, and the Biden administration’s Climate Smart programs were put in place through the Commodity Credit Corporation. Some opponents of the increased funding would like to see cuts in those areas to fund other things in the farm bill, Peterson said, but he said that doesn’t seem like something Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who chairs the Senate Ag Committee, would support. “Stabenow is not going to stand for that,” Peterson said, noting that millions of dollars already have gone out in grants for the conservation programs, and canceling those would “set off alarms” in agriculture. “Anybody that’s anybody in agriculture has gotten a grant.” That lack of money means farm groups might not get all of the things they want out of the new bill. But that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t still advocate for themselves and their needs. “They should maintain their relationship with their elected officials,” he said. It’s not the job of farm groups to figure out how to come up with the money; it’s their job to say what they need for their members to be successful, even if they know the money might not be there right now. “The people on the committee can sort that out,” he said. He recommends farmers and farm groups engage at town hall meetings with lawmakers and reach out to members on the House and Senate Ag Committees. The Northarvest Bean Growers Association was among a number of farm groups that sponsored farm bill listening sessions across North Dakota in the spring. The sessions were an opportunity for farmers to tell farm groups what mattered to them, including the kinds of issues they are having on their farms that might be helped by policy changes. Protecting the farm bill From the overall perspective of the Midwest Council on Agriculture, Peterson said the existing farm bill is a good framework. “We want to protect what’s there. That works pretty well for Midwest agriculture,” he said, noting agriculture in other areas, including the South and West, have legitimate concerns about things like low reference prices for prominent crops. Crop insurance is the most important thing to protect, in his perspective. Ideas that could undermine the existing crop insurance program include payment limitations on subsidies and tying crop insurance to things like conservation. But Peterson said the program could use some help in the area of affordability for places with regular weather instability — including North Dakota and northern Minnesota. Somewhere like Iowa, farmers can buy 95% protection on corn at a “pretty reasonable amount.” “But in North Dakota, you really can’t afford to go above 75%,” he said. Improving the ability to buy coverage in the Dakotas and Minnesota, as well as places like west Texas and Oklahoma, without undermining the overall structure of the program, would be welcome changes, Peterson said. “If we did this, it would maybe eliminate the need for ad hoc disaster (programs),” he said, noting that it’s unlikely that such programs would ever completely end because of unexpected situations. However, Peterson said flexibility remains key. “We’re not locking ourselves into anything until we see what we’re working with here. Is there more money? Is there not more money?” he said. And then, as ever with the farm bill, it’s a matter of getting everyone on the same page.
“This bill is not going to get done if it’s not bipartisan,” he said.
The Farm Bill is on track
Allen 6-20 (Jesse, is a Farm and Ranch Director for the American Ag Radio Network. 06-20-2023 "Lucas Optimistic for on-time Farm Bill" https://americanagnetwork.com/2023/06/lucas-optimistic-for-on-time-farm-bill/)//BH-NB//
A former chair of the House Agriculture Committee is optimistic that Congress will pass the next farm bill on-time. Representative Frank Lucas, an Oklahoma Republican, says he believes it is possible to finish the 2023 Farm Bill in 2023. Lucas; “One of the most important things we had to do was pass a piece of legislation dealing not only with the debt ceiling but setting spending levels for the next few years. The allocation process in the House and Senate is going on. As we wait for those final numbers in the House, Chairman Thompson is now moving us in the directio

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