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Take Action Now: Stop amendments that would kill the 2018 farm bill

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The U.S. House of Representatives is now debating H.R. 2, the Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018—also known as the farm bill. As part of this process, some very lethal amendments will receive a vote in the House this afternoon or tomorrow morning that would kill the 2018 farm bill if passed.

It is imperative Minnesota’s agricultural community contacts their representative and ask they help defeat the below poison pill amendments to preserve the farm bill:

  • Farm Policy Amendment #93: This amendment proposed by Tom McClintock (R-CA) eliminates the entire farm safety net, including through the repeal of Price Loss Coverage, Agriculture Risk Coverage, Dairy Policy, U.S. Sugar Policy, and Crop Insurance.
  • Sugar Policy Amendment #32: The amendment proposed by Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL) and Virginia Foxx (R-NC) not only guts U.S. sugar policy, but also essentially kills the farm bill and severely hurts U.S. farm policy moving forward.

Contacting House Members from your state or their Agriculture legislative assistants (LA) is easy. Simply follow the link here and input your zip code into the box and then hit “go”.  Once you find your Congressperson, you can click their name and follow the link to their contact information and staff.  If you choose to email the agriculture LA, the format for House staff emails is:  firstname.lastname@mail.house.gov.

When contacting Republican offices, simply urge your congressperson to follow Chairman Conaway, defeat poison pill amendments — McClintock and Foxx-Davis — and pass the farm bill.  Take some time to explain why these amendments would hurt rural America and farmers.

For contacting Democratic offices, urge your congressperson to follow Ranking Member Peterson in defeating poison pill amendments, including McClintock and Foxx-Davis.  Again, take some time to explain why these amendments would hurt farmers and rural America.

Whittled down from over 100 amendments, a group of 20 non-controversial amendments have already been approved but the next group of 30 amendments to the 2018 farm bill will be considered on the House floor in the next 24 hours. The Minnesota Corn Growers Association will continue working with its partners in Washington to advocate for a farm bill that protects the state’s corn growers.

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