Advocating for Iowa Agriculture on Capitol Hill. Now that the 2018 Farm Bill has officially been extended for another year, Mark Hayes with the Farm Credit Council, who is doing a great job representing us in Washington DC, says the march for a permanent, long-term Farm Bill continues:
“Yeah, Farm Credit Council had their legislative fly in, we had 840 folks in in town, farm credit leaders and producers from across the country advocating for a strong farm bill. It was an awesome opportunity to have so many producers in town to tell their lawmakers, hey, this is what it’s like on the ground. This is what American Agriculture looks like and this is what we need as farmers and ranchers from you, our lawmakers.”
Now, he adds, they want to get going as quickly as possible on that permanent legislation as, of course, the election pressure will start to ramp up by the middle of next year:
“So we heard from Senate AG Chair Debbie Stabenow, Senate ranking member John Bozeman, House AG Chair GT Thompson and House AG ranking member David Scott. They all by this point in the in the week, had had recognized that an extension was just going to happen, but had really committed to working together, the four of them early next year on the actual permanent five year farm bill. So we’re optimistic, we’re happy to work with them, we’re ready to do whatever we can. They’re waiting on a few technical items to get the actual legislative language ready.”
Now what they’re all concerned about, of course, is getting a five year farm bill done as opposed to essentially what’s happened with the budget – turning into a consistent series of continuing resolutions. In this case it would be a consistent series of one year extensions without any necessary updates.
