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Farm Bureau Seeks Answers on What FSA Can Do During Government Shutdown

A farm organization is trying to find out what the Farm Service Agency’s limitations are during the government shutdown. American Farm Bureau Federation’s John Newton tells Brownfield their team is meeting with USDA officials this week to discuss priorities, “and what they can and cannot do for our members as they’re going in there and looking at ARC and PLC payments, looking at potentially CRP payments, looking at marketing loans, disaster payments and getting those resumed.”

Newton says rules for limited reopening of government services during a shutdown depend on the administration, as the Trump administration prioritized paying the military and is showing they want to help farmers.  “I think Secretary Rollins understands the importance of the disaster payments and the farm program payments given where the farm economy is, and I think that’s why it was a priority for them to work with the FSA office to get that help where it’s needed fast.”

Newton says once the government reopens, Farm Bureau has a lot of priorities for the skinny farm bill, which he hopes lawmakers can work on yet this year or early next year.

AUDIO: John Newton from American Farm Bureau Federation discusses the government shutdown, beef, dairy, his return to AFBF, and other topics with Brownfield’s Larry Lee.