Farm Bill Renewal Not Happening in 2023

With the federal government shutdown looming, experts say the Farm Bill won’t make it to the finish line before 2024.

We are joined again by San Luis Obispo Farm Bureau Executive Director Brent Burchett.

“We're going to have to have a farm bill at some point. We think now that they're going to do an extension… it reverts to the old permanent agricultural legislation, like the first Farm Bill from I believe the 1960s or maybe earlier than that. Basically, it's a kind of an incentive for Congress to do an extension of the current pro farm bill if they don't pass a new one outright.”

“At this point, it's zero chance they're going to pass a Farm Bill before the end of the calendar year. They've got just too many things, and we don't even know if they're going to meet that deadline to keep the federal government open. So, they won't do any kind of work on a Farm Bill if they don't have staff in DC and those things. We expect an extension this calendar year that would hopefully give us a little bit of urgency to start work on that early 2024, but at least we would have the full year to get that going in Congress and it won't be easy. I think a lot of these programs are food safety oriented, and a lot of research programs. That's a big deal for our fruit and vegetable producers, but also these disaster programs. There's some forecast of additional rainfall and heavy rainfall this winter and we could see these same problems again.”