No Rest for the Weary: Ag advisors warn to put pressure on legislators to get the Farm Bill done

Ag groups, lawmakers, and farmers are eager to see action on the Farm Bill. While it likely will not see much movement until later this year, ag advisors say it is important to put pressure on lawmakers.

“There is still hope, and we are witnessing, and we hear this from the leadership in Congress, that they still intend to bring it forward this year,” said Cassandra Kuball, vice president of the Torrey Advisory Group. “They need to stay positive with that, and it’s a way to ensure that we’re still engaging on the Farm Bill. Nothing’s officially done and closed. So, this is a reminder to the ag community that you still need to get out there and talk about the importance of what matters to you with that Farm Bill, despite whether or not it’s taken up this year or gets kicked to next year.”

The Farm Bill is currently running on the second one-year extension of the 2018 legislation, but it could be some time before it makes any big moves. One former Washington insider says a lot is happening right now, directly involving agriculture.

“We’ve got trade tariffs, and we have to deal with the budget deficit, and we have to try to pass a new Farm Bill,” said Randy Russell. ‘We’ve got to try to get new trade agreements. We have immigration issues that obviously affect the impact and the supply of ag labor. There is no rest for the weary in Washington.”

Russell says this all shows how badly we need leadership at the USDA. He is urging senators to quickly confirm Brooke Rollins for U.S. Ag Secretary.

Related Stories
National Farmers Union (NFU) President Rob Larew discusses the urgent need for aid as farm families face mounting input costs and long-term market uncertainty.
The new antitrust agreement between the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) aims to enforce antitrust laws and monitor market activity across the ag sector.
President Donald Trump says a deal is nearly done on lowering beef prices, but he has not released details.
Large carryover stocks continue to put pressure on commodity prices, creating uncertainty for growers looking to market their grain.
Farm CPA Paul Neiffer outlines how producers should navigate evolving Farm Bill provisions and prepare their operations for the next crop year.
Peel says Mexico has a much greater capability to expand its beef industry than it did 20 or 30 years ago in terms of its feeding and packing infrastructure.
The impacts of the government shutdown have reached commodity growers with crops to move, ag economists monitoring the harvest without key data reporting, and meat producers in need of new export markets.
In a statement provided to RFD-TV News, a USDA spokesperson reiterated President Trump and the USDA’s commitment to farmers in difficult economic times.
Support policies that keep U.S. biofuels at the table—marine demand could materially lift corn grind, crush margins, and rural jobs.