American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall is calling anew for a 2024 farm bill as one option for speeding up action remains on the table. Duvall, on AFB’s “Zipline,” says “time is running out” and that families on and off the farm “cannot afford a delay. From small towns to big cities ,Americans need to tell lawmakers on recess to pass a farm bill now.
On Capitol Hill, Duvall says the Senate’s been “incapable” of building on House Ag’s progress in advancing a bill. Iowa Senator Joni Ernst was asked about House Chair Glenn Thompson’s openness to direct talks with Senate Ag Chair Debbie Stabenow. Ernst said, “I love his optimism. I just don’t know that it will happen.”
AFB’s Duvall says, “the time is now, not next year,” to improve risk management programs when 141-thousand family farms failed in the last five years. Ernst is worried; “Very, very concerned, but we haven’t seen any ‘give’ by Chair Stabenow when it comes to our priorities. So, I would love for her and GT to get together and start working this out between all of the leadership. If they can make that happen, I’d love to see it.”
And the pressure is on. Farm Bureau rallied more than 500 Ag stakeholder groups in a recent letter to House and Senate leaders to pass a farm bill this year. Duvall says leaving the farm bill outdated places American farms at risk amid rising input costs. And with seven percent fewer farms since the last farm bill, he says, “that’s a risk none of us can afford to take.”
Story by Matt Kaye/Berns Bureau; courtesy of NAFB News Service