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Stabenow reflects on Farm Bill one year later

It’s been one year since the President was at Michigan State University to sign the Farm Bill.  Debbie Stabenow, ranking member of the Senate Ag Committee says USDA has been working hard over the past year to implement the different provisions.  “We were able to help those who were wiped out in 2012 get some disaster assistance,” she says.  “That was very important to get out early.  They now have new options on crop insurance and there will be more rolled out all the time.”

She tells Brownfield the House and Senate Ag committees came together to provide long-term solutions for farmers and rural America.

Looking back, she says her only question centered on how the commodity title was handled.  “We (the Senate) had the Price Loss Program and what was called ARC,” she says.  “We set it up where farmers could qualify for either, whichever one fit for them.  The House really wanted to make that an either or and require folks to make a choice at the beginning of the five-year farm bill.  That was not my first choice.”

But, she says in order to strengthen crop insurance that was one of the compromises that had to be made to get a Farm Bill completed.