In Washington, D.C., the National Association of Farm Broadcasters had the chance to talk with Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan about the 2023 Farm Bill.
“The good news is, we have additional money in conservation that our farmers have been wanting for a long time,” Stabenow said. “So, we don’t need to try to find dollars within the farm bill to do that.”
With those additional dollars, Stabenow said high-demand programs like EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program) can be utilized by more farmers.
“In terms of commodities, crop insurance, other areas, it is pretty much flat funding,” Stabenow said. “The challenge for us has been because of the trade challenges, because of Covid, because of a number of things for years, we have put almost 90 billion dollars in ad hoc funding through appropriations into supporting agriculture.”
Stabenow said that even though commodity prices are up, input prices are also up, so strengthening parts of the farm bill, such as crop insurance, is going to be important.
“There is always this debate about nutrition,” Stabenow said. “We have a farmer safety net and a family safety net. We are not breaking those up, nor should we, nor do our major agricultural groups want us to do that as well.”
There has been some misunderstanding, Stabenow said, regarding work requirements for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).
“If you are able-bodied and able to work, unless you are disabled, a senior, or a family with small children under age six, you are working- you are probably working right now part-time, and the requirement is 30 hours a week,” Stabenow said.
The work requirements were suspended during Covid, Stabenow said, and will come back into effect in July. Under SNAP, Stabenow said individuals have the opportunity to receive a maximum of three months of help during a three-year time span.
“The average person right now getting some help, most of the time is temporary for folks,” Stabenow said. “Unless you are a senior or somebody with disabilities, it may be more long-term, but for most people, it is temporary. It is $6.10 per day per person, which is about what I spent for a cup of coffee.”
Stabenow said that in the farm bill, funding is not taken from certain parts and added to others.
“We never take money from nutrition and put it somewhere else,” Stabenow said. “We don’t take money from commodities and put it someplace else. Each title is its own title. That is what traditionally has happened.”
A big issue right now, Stabenow said, is the debate over whether or not the U.S. will default on its debt.
“When I first took over chairing the committee in 2011, there was a major debate just like this about extreme across-the-board cuts; otherwise, we are going to default,” Stabenow said. “There was actually something put in place that we are still living with in agriculture. Ten years later, there is a 5.7 percent cut in the commodity titles and other programs, still existing from what was called ‘sequestration’ that was passed in 2011.”
If cuts are made across the board, Stabenow said that will introduce some major difficulties when writing the farm bill.
“Mandatory spending is all the farm bill programs,” Stabenow said. “We were impacted by sequestration in 2011, and for the folks moving down that road again, they will make it even more difficult for us to write a bill.”
Stabenow also commented on the labor issues in the U.S.
“Unemployment is the lowest it’s been in a generation; about 3.5 percent,” Stabenow said. “We have fewer people in the workplace, which is a challenge.”
Immigration reform needs to be compromised, Stabenow said, because farmers need a legal system where they can employ migrant labor.
“Our farmers are absolutely desperate for it,” Stabenow said.
