By Jessica Domel
Multimedia Reporter

The nation will see progress on a new five-year farm bill in the coming weeks.

U.S. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson gave Texas Farm Bureau members an update on the food and farm legislation during the National Affairs Awards Trip in Washington, D.C. this week.

“Without a doubt, we’re going to pass out of the House Agriculture Committee a farm bill before Memorial Day,” Thompson said. “We have been working on this with due diligence now for two years and four months.”

Earlier in the week, lawmakers stood on the House floor and discussed the need for a new farm bill.

Although the legislation already has some vocal supporters, there may be challenges in getting the farm bill passed.

“Farm bills are always unique in terms of the challenges they have. There’s detours and potholes, and none of them ever progress the same way,” Thompson said. “This time around has its unique challenges. For the first time, we’re trying to do a farm bill where we’ve fired the Speaker of the House, which absolutely paralyzes the House for a period of time.”

House Republicans also have the smallest majority in history.

“Of the 435 members of Congress, over half have never debated or voted on a farm bill before. That’s a unique challenge that requires a lot of education to bring people up to speed,” Thompson said.

Those challenges are not insurmountable, Thompson noted.

“I feel positive mostly because of that product that we have developed in the House,” Thompson said. “Listening to your voices, the ideas you have brought, we heard it loud and clear—the importance of the safety net. We’re preparing that for Title 1 but also crop insurance to make sure that it’s more affordable.”

While in Washington, D.C., TFB members and staff told their lawmakers that reference prices need to be updated to address a changed economy since the 2014 and 2018 farm bills.

“In 2018, we tweaked the previous farm bill,” Senate Ag Committee Ranking Member John Boozman said. “We had good policy changes and things, but it was a tweak. The 2018 Farm Bill was based on 2012 data. The world is totally different now than it was in 2018 and for sure 2012.”

Boozman said work has been done to get reference prices where they need to be and to put research, conservation and trade funding together.

“We can do this,” Boozman said. “I’m really anxious to get GT’s bill out and then in the Senate. The Republican’s side is going to release a framework shortly after that saying our thoughts, which will be very close to what they’re trying to do.”

TFB members also asked their lawmakers to prevent cuts to federal crop insurance and Title 1 commodity programs, prioritize funding for risk management tools, protect animal health programs to guard against the spread of diseases, invest more in young and beginning farmer and rancher programs, and to aid poultry growers struggling with increased production costs.