America’s farmers are no strangers to adversity, shouldering the day-to-day challenges inherent to their profession. U.S. producers have shown the ability to endure hardships outside of their control, from the weather to global conflicts, inflation, or trade escalations. They’ve shown an ability to grind it out these past five years, and it’s time Congress did the same: roll up their sleeves and negotiate an agreement on a new Farm Bill.
We have a firsthand understanding of how important reauthorizing the Farm Bill every five years is for our rural and agricultural communities and the ever-changing economic environment in which producers operate. Progress in reauthorizing the Farm Bill, which was due to be completed by the end of September 2023, has been slowed because of other competing congressional priorities, especially the need to complete the federal budget and fund the government. But the calendar is drawing short for getting this critical legislation done, and Congress must act and deliver stability to rural America.
Farm Bill programs are not static; part of their unique strength is their evolution through successive Farm Bill cycles to meet the evolving needs of American producers and forest landowners. For example, Congress first authorized the Conservation Security Program (CSP) to offer farmers the chance for compensation to offset some of the cost of important conservation activities like cover crops, rotational grazing, and nutrient and sediment management systems. Based on lessons learned from implementing CSP, Congress reworked the program to become the Conservation Stewardship Program in the 2008 Farm Bill and then provided up to an additional $1 billion per year in funding in the 2018 Farm Bill.
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Today’s growing environmental challenges are a call to action for Congress to update key programs in the 2024 Farm Bill. This includes meeting the high demand for voluntary conservation programs, bolstering forestry programs, doubling down on U.S. research and innovation, and improving risk management tools to help bolster resilience to extreme weather events like floods and droughts. The United States increasingly lags China and the European Union in public funding for agricultural research, with a one-third decline in public research investment over the last two decades. Updating these programs will simultaneously strengthen rural economies, deliver critical climate and ecosystem benefits, and help America’s farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners continue to meet national and global demand for food and renewable resources.
Traditionally, regional differences, rather than partisanship, has explained competing policy approaches, but nonetheless members of both parties have rallied to act together on the Farm Bill. The bill’s immense importance—and the diverse coalitions that support its passage, including farm constituents, conservation advocates, but also those who advocate for nutrition assistance for low-income Americans—has, to some extent, protected it from partisan politics.
In fact, for many years when we both served in the U.S. Congress, work on agriculture issues generally, and on the major Farm Bill specifically, were exceptionally collegial and cooperative, no matter how contentious other issues were between Democrats and Republicans might be.
Southern and Northern interests had differing key goals, Western and Eastern members of Congress often had different priorities. But the work across the partisan aisle always continued.
Disagreements on other issues cannot be an excuse for Congress to fail to come together to act this year on behalf of our nation’s farmers, who, after all, feed the rest of us. And we understand that budget issues, in particular, have become very fraught and contentious right now. But delaying action on a 2024 Farm Bill is not an option.
Urgent action is needed, without which America’s farmers and forest owners will be deprived of important assistance and see key programs undermined. Congress should reauthorize a new Farm Bill early in 2024 to provide oversight of and updates to USDA programs that address the changing circumstances and emerging challenges facing American agriculture. Our farmers need and deserve this action.
Saxby Chambliss served as U.S. Senator from Georgia and chaired the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee. Heidi Heitkamp served as a U.S. Senator from North Dakota and served on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee. They co-chair the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Farm and Forest Carbon Solutions Task Force.