National Farmers Union Hopes for New Farm Bill Sooner Than Later

The Farm Bill has been the center of discussion across the agriculture industry for many weeks now. And the National Farmers Union is hopeful there will be progress in the first quarter of 2020. For Vice President of Advocacy, Mike Stranz provides more insight on this hot topic.

“I think we're going to see some progress for sure. And a whole host of issues or a host of reasons Congress, particularly agriculture committees have incentives to get this moving. Take care of it now. I think we'll probably see action from the House and Senate Agriculture committees with a markup in both bodies. But then the bigger question about for time, especially in the house rooms out there was committees will need to work with the leadership in the House and Senate to intuit that there's a path for the full House and the full Senate to give a marked-up Farm Bill considerations. So I think we'll see progress in the next few months.”

Once the Appropriation Bill clears, lawmakers have a to-do list that encompasses other farm-related issues as they move into 2024 According to Stranz.

“Making sure that climate funding is spent wisely here. That's been brought forward to the Inflation Reduction Act to make sure there's competition rules for the Packers and Stockyards Act, and to see to it that, you know, we just keep things moving into this election season and that Congress isn't bogged down into political gamesmanship, especially as we look to the November election.”

Mike Stranz with the National Farmers Union