A key farm state Senator says he and others can’t accept a ‘slap-dab’ farm bill in a lame-duck session, while another has called for a long-term extension and short-term relief amid a bleak farm economy.
Iowa GOP Senator Chuck Grassley says a ‘pre-conferenced’ farm bill written by just the Ag chairs and ranking members is unacceptable. He says, “I cannot accept that, and I want to make sure that we have regular order when we have a farm bill because there’s a lot of individual people that have ideas that ought to be in a farm bill. They should have an opportunity to offer amendments, and with a pre-conferencing, there wouldn’t be such opportunity.”
That only adds to the grim reality a new farm bill may have to wait until next year. Kansas Senator Jerry Moran says; “Decisions not to get a farm bill done have come home to roost. And the families of farmers, and those farmers and ranchers, and the communities in which they live, work and provide the viability of the community, and at the same time, produce the food, fuel, and fiber that America and the world needs. Those days of the capability of doing that are waning.”
That comes as soaring input costs and plummeting prices drive profitability into the ground. Moran says to extend the farm bill again but give farmers short-term relief; “make certain that assistance is provided to the farmers to get them through the circumstances they’re in.”
Otherwise, by the time there’s a new farm bill, Moran says it will be too late for many. And for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, he says “well, this has been a very, very unproductive Congress. All things that we are supposed to do, like passing appropriations bills, doing a farm bill every five or six years.”
Blaming it largely on partisan gridlock, while Kansan Moran says farmers are paying the price. Moran says, “Our farmers deserve and need better. In the absence of successful farmers, the places that many of us call ‘home,’ the future is bleak.”
Story by Matt Kaye/Berns Bureau Washington; courtesy of NAFB News Service
