MCGA thankful for passage of economic and disaster assistance for farmers
Yesterday, Congress voted to keep the federal government funded until March 14 when it approved the text of the continuing resolution (CR). The bill extends the current Farm Bill by one year and includes $31 billion in economic and disaster relief for farmers, which is a major win for growers who saw revenues well below the costs of production in 2024.
“The funding will help farmers plan for the 2025 crop year as they seek operating loans this winter and recover from production losses due to extreme weather,” MCGA President Jim Kanten said. “We appreciate Congress including this package in the bill, the tireless work of agriculture committee leadership and members of Minnesota’s delegation to ensure this assistance was maintained in each version of the CR. We look forward to its implementation.”
Throughout 2024, MCGA advocated for Congress to pass a new Farm Bill that protects crop insurance and bolsters the farm safety net. As the economic outlook for Minnesota corn farmers worsened, MCGA called on Congress to include economic relief, as well as disaster assistance in an end-of-the-year spending bill. We kept up the pressure to get a new, five-year fam bill completed but when it became clear that was unlikely to happen before the end of the year, economic and disaster assistance became the priority.
Since the early months of 2024, MCGA farmer-leaders have worked hard to secure passage of a new farm bill testifying before Congress and meeting with lawmakers one on one. For example, this past summer, then-MCGA President Dana Allen-Tully testified to the U.S. House Agriculture Committee about the importance of a new bipartisan farm bill. She also reiterated the value farms bring not only to the growers who operate them, but also to the larger rural communities across the country.
The hearing was titled “Financial Conditions in Farm Country.” In her testimony, then-MCGA President Allen-Tully told the committee, “My aim here this morning is not to discourage you, but I do feel it’s important to provide a glimpse into the economic landscape that producers are facing right now. Unless conditions change, I believe we’re heading into a perfect storm, a storm that I don’t think will be fully appreciated until early next year when farmers try to get loans but are unable to do so because they cannot demonstrate the ability to cash flow.” We are grateful the Congress listened to that July warning and included economic and disaster aid to U.S. farmers and ranchers.
MCGA thanks congressional leaders for including the relief package in the continuing resolution. We especially want to thank U.S. House Agriculture committee chairman G.T. Thompson (R-PA) and incoming Senate Agriculture committee chairman John Boozman (R-AK) for their advocacy to include economic aid for farmers in the year-end bill. The organization continues to call on Congress to pass a new farm bill in the coming months that protects crop insurance and bolsters the farm safety net. We appreciate the continued work of Minnesota’s congressional delegation, including Senators Klobuchar and Smith and Representatives Craig, Finstad, Fischbach, Emmer, and Stauber on the farm bill and look forward to working with them in 2025 to pass a new five-year Farm Bill that protects crop insurance and strengthens the farm safety net.
Additionally, although we were excited to see a fix for year-round E15 included in the CR text posted on Tuesday evening, we are disappointed that it didn’t make into the third version. Securing nationwide, year-round E15 is still a priority for MCGA and we will be working with partners to advance this no-cost, regulatory fix in the next Congress.
