Working for Farmers and Ranchers
By Sen. John Thune
Agriculture is the lifeblood of South Dakota; it affects communities large and small across our state. In just the last few weeks, I’ve sat down with ranchers in Bison, talked about the ag economy with folks at a grain elevator in Lemmon, and joined agriculture forums at the Brown County Fair, Dakotafest, and in Sioux Falls. Listening to farmers and ranchers is an important part of my job, and these conversations inform a lot of my work in Washington.
No matter where I go, the farm bill is on everyone’s mind. It’s been a challenging few years for farmers and ranchers, both in South Dakota and around the country, and we’ve been working in Congress to help producers overcome recent headwinds. That work began last year with Republicans’ landmark Working Families Tax Cuts legislation, which strengthened a number of programs that producers depend on, such as crop insurance and commodity and livestock programs.
At the beginning of August, the Senate Agriculture Committee considered a five-year farm bill that would build on these investments and make long-overdue farm policy updates. This is an important bill for America’s producers, and I’m disappointed that Democrats chose to put politics ahead of producers and prevented the farm bill from advancing to the Senate floor at this time. But we haven’t given up. Our work continues to get these important priorities across the finish line.
This farm bill includes more than 100 bipartisan bills, among them are many of my priorities that have been informed by conversations with South Dakota producers. My CRP Flexibility and Improvement Act is in this farm bill, which would allow grazing options on all CRP acres and increase the program’s payment limit for the first time in its 40-year history. Other priorities of mine, like greater transparency in the fertilizer market and strengthening smaller meat processors, are also a part of this bill. And I am very proud that it also includes year-round E15, a longtime priority for South Dakota producers and an effort that I’ve championed for decades.
In addition to the farm bill, I’ve also heard from ranchers about increased beef imports. I share their concerns that increasing imports could make it more difficult to increase domestic production in the long term, which is where I think our focus should be. South Dakota ranchers work tirelessly to produce some of the highest-quality beef in the world, and we should be working to support American producers like those in our state and addressing the underlying supply constraints rather than turning to imports.
South Dakota farmers and ranchers work hard every day to feed and fuel America and the world, and I value every chance I get to hear directly from them so I can make their priorities my own in Washington. I’m proud of what we were able to do to support agriculture producers last year in the Working Families Tax Cuts, but our work is not finished. We have more work to do to strengthen South Dakota’s farmers and ranchers now and for the long term.
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