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Wertish: lawmakers still considering $12 billion in farm relief

Lawmakers are indicating another round of Farm Bridge Assistance payments remain in the works.

Minnesota Farmers Union president Gary Wertish is in Washington D.C. this week for the annual Farmers Union fly-in and tells Brownfield members of Congress are eyeing $12 billion in economic relief for farmers.

“It does appear that they will do something with that, but it’s not likely to happen this week. The House is only going to be here until Thursday and then that’s it until after the election so there’s not many days left to work. The Senate will be here longer, but they don’t have a lot of work days left on the calendar (either).”

He says farmers need the assistance.

“There’s absolutely no doubt on that. But it just shows how really not having a true safety net in our farm bill, and we’d really like to get some improvements in the farm bill. And right now we’re dealing with the high input costs, high diesel costs, and none of that’s addressed.”

U.S. Senate Ag Committee chairman John Boozman recently told Brownfield another bridge payment is needed to help farmers navigate record high input costs.