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Back to the Drawing Board on a New Farm Bill?

(WASHINGTON D.C.) — As the 119th Congress has gotten underway and a new administration is set to take over next week, questions remain on when we can expect to see an updated five-year Farm Bill that agriculture has been advocating for.

Newly elected Ranking Member on the House Agriculture Committee, Angie Craig (D-MN) joined Jesse Allen on Wednesday’s episode of Agriculture of America (AOA) to discuss her outlook and priorities for a new Farm Bill. She mentioned her good relationship with House Ag Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA) and believes they can work together well. However, she believes the proposal released by Republicans last year is one that needs to be reworked to receive more Democratic support.

“Well, let me just start by saying I’ve got a great deal of respect for Chairman Thompson. He and I worked very well together as a member of the committee. And in fact, the day after I was sworn in, I went to Pennsylvania with him to speak to a farm show there in Pennsylvania,” said Rep. Craig. “So I hope that he and I will work well together to find some common ground on the farm bill. But the truth is the bill that moved through the House committee last year didn’t receive a lot of support from Democrats because of how they proposed to pay for it. So I think we can’t just start from where we ended.”

Rep. Craig added “If we really want to get a bipartisan farm bill through, we got to go back to the drawing board. And there has to be some changes to the bill that Chairman Thompson pushed through the committee last year. You know, there’s precedent for this. In 2018, the farm bill, which was a pretty good farm bill, was a bipartisan farm bill. I want to get to a farm bill that I can bring 150, you know, 200 Democrats to vote for. That will be my goal. And as someone who is a member, has been one of the most bipartisan members of Congress from the Democratic side, I hope we can get there.”

In terms of priorities in the Farm Bill, crop insurance and support for new and beginning farmers is among the top items on the list of the new Ranking Member from Minnesota.

“Well, for my producers, crop insurance is just incredibly important,” according to Rep. Craig.So the crop insurance title has always been incredibly important to me. New and beginning farmers across this country are, you know, finding it more and more difficult to get into farming. And this is a big issue for me personally. I, you know, I’ve got a marker bill in the farm bill that I work on with, have worked on with Republicans that would change the definition of a new and beginning farmer to up to five years to up to 10 years, because often it just takes that long to get established.”

She continued saying “my goal is to make sure that those first and second and third and fifth generation farmers can continue. So I’m going to keep working to make sure that we’re focused on family farming in this country. And, you know, we also have to have a strong nutrition title.”

You can hear the full conversation with Congresswoman Angie Craig from the Wednesday, January 15th, 2025 episode of AOA on all of your favorite podcast sources and linked below. The interview starts at the 21:00 minute mark of the show.

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