Noem, House Send Farm Bill to President’s Desk
Washington, D.C. – Rep. Kristi Noem today led the U.S. House of Representatives in passing the 2018 Farm Bill. The legislation is now headed to President Trump’s desk for his signature.
“Today, we crossed a major hurdle in securing a safety net, not only for South Dakota producers, but for America’s food supply,” said Noem. “This critical legislation maintains strong crop insurance and livestock disaster programs and makes improvements to the commodity title. Additionally, we expand support for rural broadband and increase investments in farm country. Especially after five years of droughts, floods, and depressed markets, this legislation provides some needed certainty regarding the safety nets available to them.”
“Crop Insurance provides farmers a tool to manage their risk and handle the unpredictable nature of farming,” said Lisa Richardson, Executive Director of South Dakota Corn. “We are grateful for Rep. Noem’s dedicated work in standing up for South Dakota farmers and protecting this critical Farm Bill safety net.”
“Most farmers take on a tremendous amount of risk every year to grow the food our nation and world needs,” said Scott VanderWal, President of South Dakota Farm Bureau. “Even though most of us have had great yields the last few years, low prices cause stress and a poor crop in addition to that could be disastrous for a family farm. We are grateful for Rep. Noem’s leadership in pushing the Farm Bill forward in a way that protects producers while respecting the taxpayer dollars we all contribute.”
“The Farm Bill is important to South Dakota’s beef producers,” said Jodie Anderson, Executive Director of South Dakota Cattlemen’s Association. “It promotes the use of best management practices through conservation programs targeted at working lands, such as CSP and EQIP. It’s also an important safety net for producers who rely on livestock disaster programs such as LIP, LFP and ELAP to recover from weather-related events like unseasonal blizzards or wildfires. Without these programs, our ability to help feed the world would be diminished.”
“With farm income down 40-50% from 5 years ago, it is now more important than ever to rapidly pass a farm bill that ensures families remain America’s food producers and to guarantee a steady supply of food at stable prices for consumers,” said Jerry Schmitz, Executive Director of South Dakota Soybean Association. “We are grateful to Rep. Noem for fighting for a strong crop insurance program, along with commodity program reform that will assist farm families, especially young farm families, through this tumultuous time.”
During the 2014 Farm Bill debate, Noem took on her own party to push one of the most reform-minded Farm Bills to passage. While only minor changes were needed to the base legislation, Noem was able to secure a number of wins for South Dakota to make the Farm Bill work better.
More specifically, the 2018 Farm Bill:
- Incorporates Noem’s reforms to strengthen commodity programs. During the 2014 Farm Bill implementation, USDA elected to prioritize county yield data from its National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), which has proven unreliable in many cases. Today’s House proposal, using Noem’s language, would direct USDA to prioritize crop insurance data instead, which is a more dependable source.
- Maintains a strong crop insurance program.
- Increases CRP acreage to 27 million acres and bases enrollment rates on a state’s historical data, which Noem has previously pressured USDA to do.Maintains meaningful Livestock Disaster Programs, which Noem fought to prioritize during the 2014 Farm Bill debate.
- Maintains and strengthens dairy policy.
- Maintains the Beginning Farmer incentive program.
- Enhances incentives for rural broadband development.
- Includes critical support for SDSU’s Wokini Initiative.
- Simplifies the environmental review process requirements for forestry management, which Noem has strongly advocated for – particularly as it relates to fighting the pine beetle and other insect infestations in the Black Hills.
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“Farm” Bill
It’s welfare, plain and simple.
Mitch McConnell made sure the bill included legalization of domestic hemp production and moves regulation of it from the Justice Dept. to the Agriculture Dept.
“When at home in Kentucky, McConnell has regularly visited hemp farmers and processing facilities, often stressing to critics that industrial hemp comes from a different plant from marijuana.”
http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/mitch-mcconnell-touting-victory-hemp-legalization-farm-bill
I thought the Republican Party opposed handouts? Seems like a contradiction between campaign rhetoric and policy. Yet this party continues to govern without interruption in this state.
You can carp all night, but it won’t change the fact that the 2018 Farm Bill represents a huge win for Noem, Thune, Rounds, and South Dakota. The bill provides (as I read it) $87 billion per year to sustain American Agriculture. As the saying goes, that ain’t chicken feed! Supporting our farmers and ranchers helps them directly and helps all South Dakotans indirectly.
Will the Farm Bill increase the federal debt? Yes, but let’s not ignore context. In 2009, President Obama approved a similar amount ($80 billion) to bailout just one corporation, General Motors.
In fact, the liberal media eggheads calling the 2018 Farm Bill “irresponsible” deemed Barrack Obama the world’s greatest messiah for baling out the financial industry. And the 2009 Obama bailout DWARFS the assistance farmers will receive. Doubt me? I quote that famous Republican robber baron, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who said:
“Congress bailed out the big banks with hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money; and that’s a lot of money. But the biggest money for the biggest banks was never voted on by Congress. Instead, the Federal Reserve provided over $13 TRILLION in emergency lending to just a handful of large financial institutions. That’s nearly 20 times the amount authorized in the TARP bailout. Now, let’s be clear, those Fed loans were a bailout too. Nearly all the money went to too-big-to-fail institutions. For example, in one loan, the Fed put out $9 trillion and over two-thirds of it went to just three institutions: Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch.”
Lend (at sweetheart rates) trillions to the .001 percent who manage big banks = collect Nobel Peace Prize. Help struggling Midwestern Farmers and Ranchers = ‘progressive’ dems say you’re corrupt as Boss Tweed. William Jennings Bryan must cringe in his grave.
Anybody who thinks farmers have it easy should try it sometime. Or quit eating.
They do have it easy in the sense that it’s easy to do the same thing year after year and be guaranteed a minimal POSITIVE return (and returns don’t just include “income”).
>subsidized crop “insurance”
>no sales tax paid on machinery
>lower property tax rates on ag land
>mandatory use of ethanol by general public artificially keeps ethanol prices high
>price supports for most commodities
>subsidized use of roads
>no tax implications when using “income” to buy more land
Yes, farmers may be INCOME poor in some years, but they are ASSET rich (and growing) nearly every year.
Ever tried eating an asset?
Why aren’t our reps highlighting hemp legalization? They are apparently super concerned about our farmers but fail to mention they can now grow a new crop. Hmmm.
I don’t know what you intend to imply but based on our soil (gumbo instead of sandy) and rainfall (annual plus reliability for a month after germination), it is unlikely hemp will be grown here to any significant level.
The benefit to us are the products hemp is used for plu a reduction of planted acres of bean and corn (which impacts price for our crops).
Someone coming up with Hemp Baler twine at a lower cost than Brazil’s imported Sisal baler twine will become the next American Ag Star. And filthy rich too.
And my sandy soil type should grow Hemp extremely well. Exciting news certainly.
I’m implying that perhaps our reps are afraid of being seen as dirty libruls for signing a bill that legalizes a plant that’s related to the devils lettuce.
Regarding soil, I am not a farmer but hemp (or ditch weed, not sure which) grew wild all over the place in the country around my hometown.
Hemp was the fiber of choice for many marine products before plastics. It was used for rope, sails, and boat shoes. Unlike plastics it is biodegradable and won’t cause problems for marine animals. It will become wildly popular in coastal areas where people care a great deal about that. If people in California and New England want these products, they have the money to buy them, and we should try to cash in on that.
The production of hemp shopping bags comes to mind.
Amen, Anne.