Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays caught up with Tom Sell, managing partner of Combest, Sell & Associates, (CS&A) an agriculture-focused lobbying firm, for an update on the Farm Bill as today’s voting window nears its end.
Sell says big things are going on in agriculture in Washington D.C. “We have been working on these things for two years,” he said. “It all emanates from the need to adjust, update, and improve the farm safety net via the Farm Bill.”
The Bill was supposed to be approved in late 2023 or early 2024, but according to Sell, congress hasn’t been working well together and issues needing solutions are getting backed up.
“Unfortunately, this is the reality we live in today, so everything gets pushed to this final, lame-duck session when the current Congress comes back after the election,” Sell explained. “They will have from about November 13th until the new Congress is seated on January 3rd. The current Congress has to adjourn before the new Congress gets seated, so there is a lot of pressure on this lame-duck Congress.”
He said agricultural lobbyists are still asking for a disaster relief program for 2023-2024 to address crop losses and a solution for the economic crisis going on in rural America due to the decline in prices of the 2024 crops that fall short of the cost of production. They also desire the completion of the Farm Bill to provide a long-term, bankable safety net for farmers and ranchers.
Sell says that an extension of the previous Farm Bill is still possible but raises more questions. Would it be a clean extension meaning that nothing will be changed or an extension plus which may include something to address the economic losses from 2024? If so, would those provisions extend to 2025 or perhaps for the next five years?
“There are a lot of different ways that even the term ‘extension’ could be molded and shaped into a way that would be more favorable to farmers,” he said. “The vast need, as farmers line up their finances over winter, is a greater safety net, some greater assurance that our independent entrepreneurial farm families are going to be able to compete in this environment.
“There is so much packed into this ag policy. The work these farmers do is so very essential and vital to our nation’s economy, culture, and health.”
