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Ag groups ask lawmakers for 2024 farm bill

Ag lobbyist Tom Sell says a new farm bill isn’t likely by the end of September.

“I don’t think it’s realistic for House floor action. It’s certainly not realistic for Senate floor action, but at the end of the day, none of that is really needed,” he says. “You can still craft a package and get the leadership to try and make it part of the end-of-year clean-up business of the lame duck session.”

As lawmakers return to Washington D.C. this week, more than 300 ag groups sent a letter to leaders of the U.S. House and Senate encouraging them to pass a farm bill by the end of the year.

The National Pork Producers Council is one of the groups that signed the letter.  Minnesota pork producer and NPPC president Lori Stevermer tells Brownfield she’s been attended several ag-based meetings this summer and one thing is clear, a farm bill is needed. 

“I’m saying: leaders do your job. We elected Congress to work on our behalf on a farm bill. I know it’s hard, but we elected you to do the hard things. We appreciate the work that the House has done on their version of a farm bill and now, we’re asking the Senate to do the same thing.”

The letter says failing to reauthorize a farm bill without meaningful investments in commodity programs and crop insurance, or settling for a simple extension would leave thousands of farms with no options to continue producing and Sell says…

“When you don’t have a viable safety net, it tends to force consolidation.”

Sell says ag groups also know it’s not going to be a conventional farm bill process, because there’s not enough time for that now.

“You won’t see a bill passed in the House and Senate and reconciled in a conference committee. It’s not School House Rock. We’re down to only 30 days in session and that’s including the regular session and the lame duck session. The farm bill will have to hitch a ride (on an end of the year package).”

Sell says he’s optimistic a bill can happen quickly following two years of working out the details, especially after Senate Ag Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow recently committed to doing what she can to pass a new farm bill.

Sell works with the Crop Insurance Professionals Association and other ag groups that signed the letter sent to lawmakers on Monday. Read the letter.