By Jessica Domel
Multimedia Reporter

During a recent trip to San Antonio to visit with U.S. farmers and ranchers, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA) and Ranking Member Angie Craig (D-MN) shared their thoughts on the farm bill and priorities for the food and farm legislation.

Both the chairman and ranking member expressed their desire for Congress to pass a farm bill this year.

“I’m always optimistic. This is my focus. It needs to happen,” Thompson told the Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) Radio Network. “I really can’t give it a timeline, but the sooner we can get that done, as opposed to waiting toward the end of the year, the better. If we wait toward the end of the year, we’re going to have to come back to Congress for more economic disaster relief, and producers don’t want that.”

The ranking member emphasized the need for any farm bill to be bipartisan in order to make it through Congress.

“I’m hopeful. Am I optimistic? Some days. I think in a very thin majority, and democrats have been there and republicans are there now—right now there’s a two seat majority in the House—that requires the two parties sit down together and iron out, and hammer out, a bipartisan agreement,” Craig said. “I think if my colleagues are willing to do that, we can get a farm bill done.”

Before work on the farm bill may begin, Thompson and Craig said they’ll give time for new committee members to become acquainted with the farm bill’s 12 titles.

“It’s a real issue for me to make sure that all of my members understand every single title in the farm bill from crop insurance to the conservation title to why we want to put conservation dollars that were in the IRA (Inflation Reduction Act) into the baseline of the farm bill and use it for grant programs like EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program) and to help my members understand why the nutrition title and the farm programs coexist together and to make sure we get strong bipartisan support,” Craig said.

New committee members will work one-on-one with mentors, in small groups, and through round tables to learn more about the thousand-plus-page bill.

“We want to prepare people before they sit in those hearing rooms,” Thompson said.

Last session, Thompson introduced a draft of the farm bill that was passed out of the committee in a bipartisan vote. Unfortunately, the legislation never made its way to the House floor for consideration.

Thompson said he hopes to use that legislation as a building block this session.

“That’s the goal from my perspective. Obviously, we’re going to mark it up, so we’ll look for new ideas,” Thompson said. “There may be some things we need to tweak.”

The way the bill would have funded safety net enhancements was a sticking point last Congress. Thompson said that will need to be ironed out this session.

“(The bill) will be the basis because it’s a good, solid bill. It was written in a tri-partisan way,” Thompson said. “At the end of the day, there were 40 measures in that bill that were just led by Democrats. I’m a Republican, but these were great measures. They helped to put the farm back in the farm bill. There were 140 measures that were led in a bipartisan way by at least one republican and one democrat.”

Thompson’s bill, the Farm, Food and National Security Act of 2024, calls for increases in support for the Price Loss Coverage (PLC) and Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) safety net programs to account for inflation and rising costs of production.

It modernizes marketing loans and sugar policy, bolsters the Dairy Margin Coverage program, enhances disaster programs like the Livestock Indemnity Program and Tree Assistance Program, and enhances the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).

“On Title 1, in terms of reference prices, we make the first investment that, the last time around, was cut back 20 years ago. They cut that and move money to nutrition and some to conservation,” Thompson said. “We make it so those safety net works. Markets are a form of safety net, right? So we double the Market Access Program and the Foreign Market Development Program.”

The legislation would also make crop insurance more affordable for everyone, not just new and beginning farmers, Thompson said.

“We could walk through all 12 titles, and you’d find the good investments that we’ve made—the improvements that we’ve put into that bill,” Thompson said. “It’s a good, solid foundation to bring forward to start with.”

Going into the process, Craig said there is some concern there will be problems with what committee democrats want versus what republicans want in a farm bill.

“That’s always a problem, right?” Craig said. “The truth is that there are about 30 republicans who are never going to vote for a farm bill. The Freedom Caucus, in particular. Then, for democrats, the nutrition title is important. Crop insurance is important to me. The conservation title is important to me and to a lot of my members, but you’re not going to have a farm bill without a strong nutrition title. I think once we agree what’s important, we can sit down and hammer it out. That’s what happened in 2018.”

Rural development is also a priority issue for Craig this Congress.

“I grew up in a small town in Arkansas. In fact, my grandfather was a farm foreman. He farmed rice, cotton and beans. I’m just looking at the ways we can support rural communities overall, whether that be from energy, whether that be for broadband or healthcare. Family farms are the core of those communities,” Craig said. “They are the foundation, but those communities also require a lot of other resources to be strong and thriving.”

The ranking member is also concerned with equality between the states in term of farm bill funding, trade, a growing agricultural trade deficit and agricultural labor.

Thompson also shared his concerns with border security and agricultural labor.

“If you don’t have a workforce, you have food insecurity. If you have food insecurity for even a short period of time as a nation, you have national insecurity. That was one of the reasons we formed in the 118th Congress a task force looking at the agricultural workforce,” Thompson said.

In discussions about a potential reconciliation bill Congressional Republicans may be considering, Thompson also clarified rumors that he is looking to cut the Supplemental Nutrition Program (SNAP) are untrue.

“I’m not looking to roll those back. That’s inaccurate,” Thompson said. “We need to protect our children who are living in poverty, our seniors and those living with disabilities. Now with that said, I think within the nutrition title, there may be opportunities in terms of program integrity.”

He said there may be options in a reconciliation bill or the farm bill to reduce fraud and abuse that may be happening in the program.

Craig said for every dollar that is spent through SNAP, $1.50 comes back to the economy.

“When we think about SNAP investment, it’s to make sure that we’re a country that takes care of its disabled, its seniors, its children and of its veterans,” Craig said. “I know GT and I agree with that.”

Currently, the nation is working on a second single-year extension of the 2018 Farm Bill.

Last Congress, the House Ag Committee was able to pass Chairman Thompson’s bill out of committee in a bipartisan vote, but it never made it to the House floor.

Senate leadership released their priorities for a farm bill but never considered a text.

This year, there will be new players leading farm bill talks. On the House Ag Committee, ranking member Craig replaces outgoing ranking member David Scott (D-GA).

On the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, former ranking member John Boozman (R-AR) is now chairman while Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) has been named ranking member.

“The team is really coming together, and I think we’ve got a great basis to start with,” Thompson said.