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House Ag Committee Chair: the biggest issue facing the 2023 Farm Bill is the clock  

The chairman of the House Agriculture Committee says the biggest challenge facing this year’s farm bill is time.

Glenn GT Thompson told Ohio Farm Bureau County Presidents and Vice Presidents that it’s a top priority to get the 2023 Farm Bill completed on time in a bipartisan and bicameral way.

“There are a lot of headwinds that are facing our farmers so there is an urgency with where we’re at with cost of energy, workforce availability, and crop protection tools,” he says. “We need to turn this around for the American farmer and that includes farming, ranching, and forestry.”

He says the clock is ticking as the current farm bill expires in September, but the “four corners” of the agriculture committees are ready.

“Myself, House Ranking Member David Scott, Senate Ag Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, and Senate Ag Committee Ranking Member John Boozman. We finished 2022 really strong. We did a rice fix, the pesticide regulation extension, a chronic wasting disease bill, the SUSTAINS Act etc., and so that momentum is with us and I think we’re working well together. I’m optimistic. We have a lot of intense work to do but I think we’re going to get our job done. I appreciate the opportunity to talk with the Ohio Farm Bureau county presidents and vice presidents.”

The Congressional Budget Office is forecasting the cost of 2023 farm bill programs at $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years.

When asked about price tag, Thompson said “my goal is for us to put together what we think we need for American agriculture with this farm bill and then I’ll exert my leadership and we’ll thread the needle and I’ll lead that in terms of both the financing effort and politics. In the end we’ll probably find we’re not able to do everything we would like to do to but I’m not prejudging that. There are an awful lot of pots of money from the American Reduction Plan and Inflation Reduction Act and from the things that Secretary Vilsack did unilaterally with using monies from the Commodity Credit Corporation. Whether we can use it or not has yet to be seen.”

Brownfield is on the ground for the  Ohio Farm Bureau members in Washington D.C. Chairman Thompson spoke to the group on Wednesday.