Farm Financial Aid Draws Increased Interest in Lame-Duck Session

With little sign of a breakthrough on the farm bill in Congress, farm groups are shifting their attention to a proposed $21 billion bailout bill. Help is needed because high costs and lower commodity prices are sharply eroding farm income, they say.

Analysts question whether the price tag for the proposed agricultural aid is too high to be accepted and say that in the relatively short lame-duck session under way, there may be room for only one piece of farm-related legislation. The overarching issue for lawmakers is funding the government past Dec. 20, when a stopgap spending law expires.

“If Sen. Stabenow continues to be an impediment to passing a full five-year farm bill, an extension [of the current law] will be necessary,” said a spokesman for House Agriculture Committee chairman Glenn Thompson, a Pennsylvania Republican, on Thursday. “Time will tell.”

For weeks, farm-state Republicans have portrayed Stabenow, the Democratic chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, as blocking the road to a farm bill agreement. But House and Senate Democrats are opposed to Republican proposals to cut SNAP outlays and loosen the guardrails on climate funding. The farm bill approved by the House Agriculture Committee in May was $33 billion over budget and has yet to be called for a floor vote.

“There is no shortage of critical issues requiring immediate attention, including disaster relief and a new farm bill,” said Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, the largest U.S. farm group. “Many farm families can’t afford to wait until January for relief, especially in light of increasing supply costs, decreasing commodity prices, and labor challenges. Farm Bureau stands ready to work with our elected leaders to tackle these issues, before it’s too late.”

More than a dozen farm groups support the financial aid bill sponsored by Rep. Trent Kelly of Mississippi, a member of the House Agriculture Committee. “Farmers have been hit with circumstances outside of their control, such as natural disasters, inflation pressures, and drought, which have crippled their ability to obtain financing from credit and banking institutions,” said Kelly when he introduced the bill in late October.

Financial aid to agriculture could become part of a hurricane relief package, said a farm policy expert, but it would be much harder to wrap up the farm bill, considering the many issues still to be resolved. House and Senate agriculture leaders reached a farm bill compromise after the 2018 elections, but work was more advanced in that case — both chambers had passed a bill.

The top priority for John Boozman of Arkansas, now the senior Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee, “continues to be passing the farm bill, but he understands the limited time available this Congress,” said a spokeswoman. “He is committed to working in a bipartisan manner to ensure the critical programs producers depend on will be available, as well as providing emergency assistance farmers and ranchers need to plan for the future.” Boozman is expected to become chairman of the committee in January, when Republicans take control of the Senate.