WASHINGTON, D.C. (RFD NEWS) — House lawmakers are gearing up to debate the Farm Bill this week. The long-overdue ag legislation could see floor action as soon as tomorrow. In an interview with Fox Business on Tuesday morning, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said it is time to pass it.
The House majority leader’s calendar lists the Farm Bill, but other events are taking a front seat. While Congress will meet in the morning, the House will recess when King Charles delivers a speech before a joint session of Congress.
The House’s Rules Committee was unable to advance the bill overnight. However, lawmakers resumed work on Tuesday with the goal of reaching a full House vote before the end of the week. The chamber’s draft of the cornerstone ag legislation has received strong industry support, with more than 500 ag organizations urging its passage.
The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) is one of them, and leaders there say a full House vote cannot come soon enough.
“The bill before the house right now needs to get done,” said NFU President Mike Stranz. “We’re in, what is this — the third year now of an extension situation? The present Farm Bill we’re operating under expired in 2023. So, we need some certainty out of Washington on this. We need to move forward on it. […] That said, the bill that we’re looking at right now is missing some things or has some issues that need to be addressed.”
House Ag Committee Chair, Rep. Glenn “G.T.” Thompson (R-PA), spoke before the House Rules Committee this week, where it is setting the bill up for debate.
While many extremely critical farm policy updates were included in President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act (OBBBA), the NFU says some key issues still must be addressed through several amendments to the House version of the Farm Bill.
“There’s not a lot in this bill that does anything related to input costs,” Stranz explains. “That is such a huge issue right now and isn’t just an issue at the moment. It’s one that continues year after year. It’s just at a particularly high level of interest rate now. Similarly, we need more work done on competition issues and making sure we’ve got a fair and competitive market. The bill before us doesn’t do a lot on that. Hopefully, amendments could make improvements there, or the Senate might be able to do something as well. And we also need to see a stronger farm safety net. I mean, there were some very important and welcome changes in the one big, beautiful bill last year regarding increasing reference prices.”
Other Amendments — From Prop 12 to E15
Prop 12 is one amendment up for debate, along with year-round sales of E15. The NFU hopes to get those sales across the finish line this year.
“A policy like E15, which I think is extremely important now in a time when our trade relationships with other countries are uncertain at best, we need to find higher value uses of our commodities here at home. And the year-round use of E15 makes a big step in the right direction there. And there are amendments pending that would do just that. And we need to see those move ahead as well.”
A waiver allowing summer sales of E15 was enacted last month, but members of both chambers of Congress have been working to pass legislation that enshrines year-round sales in law.
The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) warns California’s Prop 12 legislation is creating what it calls a “patchwork across states,” raising concerns for producers nationwide. As House lawmakers prepare to take up the Farm Bill this week, NPPC Director Joe Popplewell says this could be key to resolving challenges tied to Prop 12.
“One of the things I’ve learned more recently and through the National Pork Producers Council is the Supreme Court has pushed it back to say that if this is going to be challenged or dealt with, it needs to be done legislatively, which is why we’re trying to get the fix in with the Farm Bill that needs to get passed,” Popplewell explains. “Obviously, the Farm Bill is the overarching huge issue that needs to happen, but within that, to do a Prop 12 fix to where there are some type of limits, and we don’t have patchwork across states, across the United States of doing multiple different things and continuing to fight those battles state by state. So that’s why it’s been a huge issue for us to try and fix that on the national level and be more consistent across all states.”
He says the Farm Bill is a central vehicle for several other industry goals, such as addressing workforce shortages, and that this summer’s U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is up for official review.
What About Dairy? Pushing Farm Policy into the Present
House lawmakers are still aiming to move the Farm Bill forward this week, despite new hurdles that are slowing down momentum. Many producers are calling for advancing the legislation, as they continue to operate under policies written in 2018.
Alan Bjerga with the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) joined us on Tuesday’s Market Day Report for a closer look at the legislative process at hand and a look at the necessary farm policy updates most critical for dairy producers.
In his interview with RFD News, Bjerga provided his outlook on the vote taking place this week, the parts of the legislation critical to dairy producers, and whether it goes far enough to address their top concerns, and his realistic opinion of that timeline.
Finally, Bjerga shared how these farm policy updates will better benefit dairy producers in the current state of the farm economy.
