By Jennifer Whitlock
Field Editor

The Build Back Better Act in Congress promoted by President Joe Biden would be harmful to agriculture and rural America, according to Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) and the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF).

Worrisome provisions in the bill include $555 billion in “clean energy and climate investments.”

Although $90 billion of that funding is supposed to be earmarked for agriculture in the form of conservation program increases and the creation of new sustainability programs, Boening noted the bill does not include any funding to enhance or protect the existing farm safety net.

Farm and ranch families are suffering from unchecked inflation, skyrocketing input costs, supply chain issues, volatile markets and other obstacles which make profitability extremely uncertain. The absence of funding for production agriculture is concerning, according to TFB President Russell Boening.

And many middle-class Americans are wondering who, exactly, will be left to foot the bill. Despite Democrats backing away from a proposal to eliminate stepped-up basis and other changes to inheritance taxes, AFBF President Zippy Duvall said the totality of increased federal spending in this proposal, coupled with burdensome tax increases leveled on small businesses and individuals to pay for it, will stifle economic growth and destroy jobs—particularly among populations who can least afford to lose ground.

Ultimately, the result could be the consolidation or sale of family farms and ranches, he noted.

“The massive amount of spending and tax increases required to pay for the plan outweigh the gains we would see in rural America. Also, the manner in which they were crafted is concerning,” Duvall said. “The agriculture industry and the committees of jurisdiction have held to a long tradition of bipartisanship that we have seen erode over this past year.”

Transparent, bipartisan policy development is not a hallmark of the Build Back Better Act, Duvall added.

Discussions about a bill of this magnitude should be open and include input from a variety of stakeholders, Boening noted, not just factions of a political party determined to further their agenda at the expense of everyday Americans.

“As farm and ranch families suffer from inflation, supply chain issues, volatile markets and other obstacles, they cannot afford additional burdens to be placed on them,” he said.

Read the TFB letter.

Read the AFBF letter.