(WASHINGTON D.C.) — A 2018 farm bill extension and a disaster aid package are all on the table in the final weeks of 2024.
Some lawmakers in the lame-duck session of Congress want to include specific provisions to help commodity farmers who weren’t hit by a disaster in any potential disaster aid packages. Farm Policy News says while many farmers weren’t hit by disasters like hurricanes and wildfires, they have experienced significant price decreases for their commodities. Congress also has to deal with another potential shutdown and is said to be looking at another short-term extension that would put most major funding decisions into Fiscal Year 2025 for the new Congress and President-elect Donald Trump.
Some of the House Republican leadership plans to attach a one-year extension of the farm bill to the Continuing Resolution to keep the government funded. Reports say there is also a chance they’ll add the farm bill to an annual defense authorization bill, which is also a must-pass package to handle this month, but most lean toward the CR.
Wisconsin Third District Congressman Derrick Van Orden told affiliate WRDN that “What we’re going to try to do is there’s a farm aid package that we need to get through and a disaster relief package we need to get through, and then, we’re looking at taking Title One and Title 11, so that’s the commodity and the crop insurance, and attaching it to those bills. The reason is that people are getting denied credit right now because they don’t know if the money is going to be around there. You need to have Farm Insurance sitting there in case there is a huge event the lenders want to know that they’re going to be made whole if there’s some event that’s outside of the control of the farmers. So, we’re working on taking title one commodities, so stabilize it, get rid of that dairy cliff, and make sure that everybody understands and crop insurance is available so our farmers can get money lent to them.”
In terms of a 2025 farm bill, that process could still be difficult but more doable according to Iowa Senator, Chuck Grassley. He commented this week that a 2025 farm bill “in the House, it’ll be easier than it was before, and probably, even a better farm bill and that was a pretty good farm bill that came out of that committee. In the Senate, it’s not going to be easy. But we’ve got the leverage of a Republican majority this time that we didn’t have last time. And we’ve got the capability of moving a bill, actually moving the bill for debate and eventually compromise.”