(The Center Square) – To get the new Farm Bill passed by the end of the year, Congress needs to start marking up the draft bill in September, Illinois Farm Bureau president Rich Guebert said.
Congressional staffers are putting together a draft bill that should be ready for legislators to work on when they get back to Washington after Labor Day, he said.
“We need to get it done and our legislators understand that,” Guebert said.
Since the well-regarded 2018 Farm Bill passed with bipartisan support five years ago, a lot has changed, Guebert said. Trade policy and prices and many other areas need to be addressed in an updated farm bill, Guebert said.
“Things have changed dramatically since 2018,” Guebert said.
Illinois has five legislators on the Agriculture Committee: Rep. Mike Bost, Rep. Mary Miller, Rep. Nikki Budzinski, Rep. Jonathan Jackson and Rep. Eric Sorensen. Guebert has gone to Washington three times this year to talk about the Farm Bill. Within the last month and a half, he has visited the five legislators.
“They understand the importance of an on-time farm bill and they want to get it done,” Guebert said.
“The farm bill extends beyond the farm gate by protecting our nation’s food supply and providing access to nutrition for families facing hunger. We want to advance conservation efforts and spur innovation through agriculture research,” Guebert said.
The challenge for the ag community is getting newer members of Congress – many of them from urban and suburban districts –to understand how much the Farm Bill affects everyone in the country, Guebert said.
“Over 240….250 Congressional leaders in Washington, D.C. have never experienced writing a farm bill or voting on a farm bill,” Guebert said. So having conversations, raising awareness and telling the ag story is critical, he said.
“It is really important that we keep the nutrition, TEFAP (The Emergency Food Assistance Program) together with the other commodity titles – particularly crop insurance,” Guebert said.
Using the recent baselines for the cost of farm programs, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the cost of the new farm bill could be as high as $1.5 trillion. Compare that to the cost of the 2018 Farm Bill – just under $900 billion, Guebert said.
“The real challenge is ‘where’s the money going to come from?’” Guebert said.
Agriculture spending has a multiplier effect on local economies.
“The USDA has calculated that roughly 8 cents of every dollar spent on food purchases – including SNAP purchases – returns to the farm gate,” Guebert said.
The importance of SNAP (the $119.4 billion dollar food stamp program), the importance of crop insurance, and the importance of commodity programs are all on the table.
Other titles in the farm bill cover trade, horticulture, conservation programs, rural development and research, Guebert said.
