Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is talking with Congressman Frank Lucas about the latest movements in politics, the presidential campaign, farm bill, and more.
“This is kind of the ‘triple witching hour,’ so to speak, when you have a presidential campaign, you have a third of the Senate, and you have the entire House of Representatives on the ballot,” Lucas said. “That just creates all manners of chaos, and this is a different sort of a campaign than we have typically had in most of my lifetime.”
As the government is narrowly divided at the moment, Lucas said there have been numerous issues when it comes to funding the federal government.
“The federal government should have been funded in October 1st of 2023 to fund the fiscal year that runs to the end of September of 2024,” Lucas said. “Right now, we are looking at running out of money starting this Friday.”
Lucas said that Speaker Mike Johnson has started a six-week extension to buy the appropriators more time.
“We have to fund the federal government,” Lucas said. “Shutdowns only hurt industries and people.”
If there is a government shutdown on Friday, January 19th, Lucas said the first thing on the chopping block will be the funding at USDA.
“It is important that those folks go to work,” Lucas said. “It is important that they have the ability to work with farmers and ranchers. It is important that they do their responsibilities.”
There has not been time on the floor to move forward with much farm bill progress, Lucas said, because of the focus on the appropriations process for funding. To make the safety net as strong as it was in 2018, Lucas said there needs to be more funds.
“I think most of our producers would agree that many expenses have gone up, perhaps in some industries, as much as 70 percent over what they were in 2018, and with inflation, the buying power of things we are selling, may have gone down as much as 30 percent,” Lucas said. “We are in a real squeeze on having a valid safety net.”
Lucas said he believes between 70 and 100 billion dollars will be needed in the next farm bill to ensure a strong safety net.
“Once we get past this chaos of funding the government, we have to know how much money we have to work with, and then I think we can move forward to complete our work,” Lucas said.
In the 2014 farm bill, Lucas said it took two and a half years to achieve the “formula” to secure an effective amount of funding. Lucas added that he believes it is possible to do this again at an even faster pace.
“We don’t have to rewrite the policies,” Lucas said. “We just have to properly fund the policies. We need to reign in some of the efforts by the Biden Administration. They are very focused on their version of environmental and social justice. Those kind of policies may make somebody feel good in an office building in Washington, D.C., but they don’t put food on the table here in the United States or around the world.”
