Nov 19, 2024

Farm organization comments on farm bill text release

With the clock ticking on legislative action on the 2024 farm bill, Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan U.S. senator and Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee chairwoman, has released the bill’s text.

The Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act includes $39 billion in new resources to keep farmers farming, families fed, and rural communities strong, according to a news release.

“The foundation of every successful Farm Bill is built on holding together the broad, bipartisan Farm Bill coalition. This is a strong bill that invests in all of agriculture, helps families put food on the table, supports rural prosperity, and holds that coalition together,” Stabenow said in the release.

The bill builds on the proposal Chairwoman Stabenow released in May by investing new resources and including new ideas to deliver the assistance farmers need faster, according to the release.

“It provides farmers with the certainty of a 5-year Farm Bill – so they can plan for the future – and the immediate help they need to manage the urgent needs of the present. It doubles down on our commitment to rural communities, ensures that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) keeps up with the realities of American life, and brings the historic investments in climate-smart conservation practices into the Farm Bill,” according to the release.

The new investments include:

• $20 billion to strengthen the farm safety net to support all of agriculture and establishes a permanent structure for disaster assistance so emergency relief reaches farmers faster.
• $8.5 billion to help families make ends meet, put food on the table, and improve access to nutrition assistance.
• $4.3 billion to improve quality of life in the rural communities that millions of Americans call home.

On Nov. 18, Zippy Duvall, president of the Washington, D.C.-based American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), commented on release of the farm bill’s proposed text.

“We’re reviewing Chairwoman Stabenow’s newly released 1,300 pages of farm bill text,” Duvall said in a news release. “It’s unfortunate that only a few legislative working days remain for Congress to act, but Farm Bureau remains committed to working with elected officials on both sides of the aisle to achieve federal policy that improves the outlook for farmers and ranchers.

“Our members across the nation have been clear in calling for a new farm bill in 2024 that helps farmers hold on after farm income dropped 30% in two years. The hardworking women and men who grow the food, fiber and renewable fuel for our nation cannot afford to wait for good federal policy that helps them manage the day-to-day risks inherent in agriculture.”

Touting itself as a voice of agriculture, the American Farm Bureau Federation is a leading grassroots membership organization advocating for farmers, ranchers and rural communities. The organization represents 6 million member families in 2,800 county Farm Bureaus and 50 states plus Puerto Rico.

A summary of the bill is available here.

Bill text is available here.