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Emmer and colleagues call for increased Farm and Ranch Assistance Network funding

There’s a push in Congress to increase funding for USDA’s Farm and Ranch Assistance Network.

Minnesota Republican Tom Emmer tells Brownfield he led a group of 11 U.S. representatives who want to support rural Americans facing acute mental health challenges.

“Even with this clear need, rural areas routinely have less access to mental health resources. Since 2018, the last time we passed a farm bill, we’ve led the effort to provide $10 million in funding for rural mental healthcare.”

He says approximately 6.5 million rural Americans suffer from a mental illness but receive less frequent mental health treatment from providers with less training than their counterparts living in non-rural areas.

“So we’ve advocated for reauthorization and in fact, increased funding for this as a top priority to the House Ag Committee for this year’s farm bill.”

Emmer says House Ag Committee chair Glenn “GT” Thompson is looking to “reprogram” funds from COVID relief and other moneys to use for top farm bill priorities like the Farm and Ranch Assistance Network.