Senate Ag Chair John Boozman says that the work on a bipartisan farm bill is about to yield results. Boozman says that the high prices of fertilizer and diesel fuel, labor and interest costs are all necessary reasons that farm policy needs to be updated and modernized.
Ranking member Amy Klobuchar says recent farm bill talks have been productive but the elephant in the room remains SNAP cost shares by individual states.
Klobuchar is hopeful for farm bill changes once USDA issues final state SNAP error rates at the end of June.
Ag Democrats argue that the administration’s tariffs and the war with Iran have fueled farm income losses and farm bankruptcies. USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins says in response that the tariffs brought 19 new trade deals, and the ag trade deficit has been slashed nearly in half.
Rollins does concede that the farm economy, which is struggling with the loss of markets and high input costs, continues to face “serious headwinds.”
