[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 147 (Friday, September 20, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H5550-H5554]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               FARM BILL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Ezell). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 9, 2023, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. 
Thompson) is recognized for the remainder of the hour as the designee 
of the majority leader.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, America is facing a farm 
and food crisis. As we are here speaking today in the Nation's Capitol, 
there are farmers and ranchers who are

[[Page H5551]]

struggling. They are struggling with so many burdens and so many 
natural disasters. They are struggling in an economy with inflation.
  Mr. Speaker, let me say that again: America is facing a farm and food 
crisis.
  Now, as the chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, I have 
had the honor to travel across this country to hear from the farmers, 
ranchers, producers, consumers, and everyone in between across our 
great agricultural value chain.
  My colleagues and I have taken what we heard on the road to craft a 
bipartisan and highly effective farm bill. No matter where we traveled, 
one thing was clear: America's farm economy is in crisis, and with no 
farms, there is no food.
  The last time we passed a farm bill was in 2018, and a lot in our 
world has changed since then.
  As I stand before you today, Mr. Speaker, farmers across the Nation 
are grappling with immense challenges. For the first time in years, we 
are witnessing a downturn spiral in net farm income with projections 
for 2024 showing a staggering $54 billion decline. That is the largest 
2-year loss in net cash farm income in history, and that is across just 
eight of the commodities. If you add into that the specialty crops, it 
is a farm and food crisis.
  These are not just numbers on a spreadsheet. They are the livelihoods 
of American farmers, the backbone of our rural communities, and the 
source of food, fiber, and fuel for our Nation and the world.
  Why is this happening?
  Simply put, farm production costs have skyrocketed. Input prices 
remain near record highs, yet the prices farmers receive for their 
crops have plummeted. The prices of corn, soybeans, cotton, and wheat 
have seen an average drop of 21 percent, all while operating expenses 
continue to soar.
  The U.S. trade deficit will reach a record-breaking $30.5 billion in 
2024, but according to the USDA, that record will be broken next year 
with the 2025 agricultural trade deficit expected to reach $42.5 
billion, all contributing to this Nation's farm and food crisis.

  Many producers are barely breaking even, if they are lucky. Others 
are sinking deeper into debt, with the United States Department of 
Agriculture forecasting farm-sector debt to hit a record $54 billion by 
year's end, the highest inflation-adjusted level in more than 60 years.
  While these numbers are daunting, they reflect only part of the 
story. Since the last farm bill was passed in 2018, America's producers 
have faced powerful headwinds from extreme weather, rising foreign 
subsidies, trade barriers, global conflict, and supply chain 
disruptions. From the trade war with China to the Russian invasion of 
Ukraine, our agricultural sector has taken hit after hit.
  Despite these challenges, Federal support for production agriculture 
in 2024 is projected to be at its lowest level since 1982. Let me say 
that again: 1982.
  Imagine the impact this downturn has on our rural communities who 
already struggle with declining populations and a shrinking tax base. 
Imagine what it means for national food security and inevitably 
national security when the very people who grow our food are unable to 
sustain their operations.
  Current economic conditions have resulted in farmers and ranchers 
eating through their available liquidity and working capital. In the 
September Beige Book, the Federal Reserve bank reported declining 
conditions for the agricultural sector in their respective regions. 
Various banks reported that credit providers see building financial 
stresses within the ag sector. Without financial certainty, lenders 
will be facing a credit crunch, and it will become increasingly 
difficult to get producers to cash flow.
  The time for Congress to step up and pass a new farm bill is now. An 
extension of current policy is not acceptable. Our current farm safety 
net, while it was crafted in 2018 and while it was great for 2018, is 
simply outdated. While supplemental assistance kept many farms afloat, 
it is clear our existing programs have not kept up with inflation or 
the realities on the ground.
  In fact, in our July hearing before the House Agriculture Committee 
on the state of the farm economy, producers and lenders told us that 
even if we deliver an improved farm safety net, additional assistance 
may be necessary to account for the losses experienced over the last 
year while Congress has failed to act.
  I stand ready to work with my colleagues on the Appropriations 
Committee and leadership to deliver near-term assistance to bridge the 
gap to a highly effective 5-year farm bill.
  A strong farm bill isn't just about agriculture, it is about our food 
supply, our rural communities, and our national security. If we fail to 
act before the year's end, if we settle for just extending the current 
law, we will be condemning thousands of farm families through an 
uncertain and potentially devastating future.
  When you lose farms, you lose food, and when you lose food, you have 
food insecurity which leads to national insecurity.
  Thankfully, the House has a bipartisan solution to the crisis in our 
farm economy. The bipartisan Farm, Food, and National Security Act was 
crafted by farmers for farmers. It is the product of intensive input, 
feedback, negotiations, and the realities of where our agricultural 
industry is and the tools it needs to succeed.
  I want to walk through how this critical piece of legislation will 
benefit our rural communities, our food security, and our national 
security.
  The commodity title aids farmers in managing risk and provides 
assistance following precipitous declines in commodity prices. Through 
the reauthorization and enhancement of commodity, marketing loan, 
sugar, dairy, and disaster programs, producers are provided some 
certainty in times of unpredictability.
  Our bipartisan farm bill increases support for the price loss 
coverage and the agriculture risk coverage programs to account for 
persistent inflation and rising costs of production, the volatility 
within the agricultural markets. We have not invested in this area 
significantly or had any increase for decades.
  This provides authority to expand base acres to include producers who 
currently are not able to participate in our ARC or PLC. That is 
extremely important when you look at new, young, and beginning farmers, 
the future farmers. The future farmers are going to provide us our food 
security. They will provide food and fiber, building material, and 
energy resources. They need to be able to have that tool of base acres.
  It modernizes marketing loans and the sugar policy. The sugar policy 
has always been divisive on this floor, picking sides between those who 
produce our sugar, the cane and the sugar beets producers of this 
Nation, and those who utilize it, those who use it to make our food, 
the bakers and the confectioners with great companies across both of 
those spectrums; they are great family-owned businesses.
  Mr. Speaker, both sides of this farm bill are holding hands. We have 
worked hard to get them in a room and to work out modest reforms that 
both sides can agree upon. This will be the first farm bill that I know 
of where we don't have sugar wars and where they have come together. I 
appreciate the folks who came to the table to work those out.
  It bolsters dairy programs to continue providing vital assistance. 
That is the number one commodity, and in my home State of Pennsylvania, 
agriculture is the number one industry.
  We have included in this farm bill improvements in the dairy margin 
coverage. We have increased the amount of pounds that can be insured 
which is really important when you look at the consolidation of dairy 
farms over the years. Over the past decade, we have lost one-third of 
our dairy farms in this Nation. We don't ever want to be dependent on 
another country for our food supply, and that includes dairy.
  In this farm bill we increased the amount of pounds from 5 million to 
6 million pounds that can be insured under the dairy margin coverage.

                              {time}  1300

  We modernized the cost factors, which basically predated 2018 in 
terms of that insurance program. It is not a handout. These are public-
private partnerships where the farmers step up. They purchase coverage. 
They decide how much coverage they want to purchase. We have engaged 
the private sector to create these programs.

[[Page H5552]]

  Yes, the government does make them more affordable so that our 
farmers are able to keep farming, so that we are able to have continued 
food security, that we can have continued national security as a 
nation.
  We enhanced the standing disaster programs and expanded eligibility 
for assistance.
  Mr. Speaker, when you look around this country and, just in the past 
year, the amount of flood, the amount of drought, hurricanes, and 
wildfires that have impacted our farmers and that acreage in so many 
devastating ways, to be able to enhance standing disaster programs so 
that they are more reliable, more timely, that they help keep our 
farmers farming, that is the direction we need to go in. The language 
within the Farm, Food, and National Security Act accomplishes that.
  The conservation title provides farmers, ranchers, and growers with 
financial and technical assistance to address a variety of natural 
resource concerns, such as soil health and erosion, water quality and 
quantity, and the wildlife habitat.
  The 2024 farm bill continues to support our proven system of 
voluntary, incentive-based, and locally led conservation through 
various improvements.
  Mr. Speaker, I don't know whether you know this, but, in terms of 
endangered and threatened species, there has been more endangered 
threats and species delisted through the efforts of these locally led, 
voluntary, incentive-based conservation programs that are in this farm 
bill than, quite frankly, what U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or anyone 
else has done through more punitive measures. We are proud of that 
fact.
  These are great programs. They do a lot of good things. We provide 
historic investment in title II by reallocating the Inflation Reduction 
Act conservation dollars and expanding covered conservation practices.
  It protects and enhances working lands conservation programs, like 
the environmental quality incentive program and the conservation 
stewardship program while promoting precision agriculture, the 
agriculture of today and tomorrow.
  It includes commonsense easement reforms and protects working forest 
lands through newly authorized forest conservation easement programs.
  It strengthens and improves program administration for the regional 
conservation partnership program and the technical service provider 
program and PL566, which deals with our watersheds.
  It modernizes the conservation reserve program by incentivizing the 
enrollment of marginal lands and emphasizing State partnerships. We 
need to use soils that are fertile for growing. We need to be growing 
our crops. We need to be grazing our livestock. We have a nation to 
feed. Quite frankly, a lot of the rest of the world relies on food that 
is produced in our great country.
  These programs do that. We discourage fertile land from sitting idle. 
It is the marginal lands we invest in with this modernization.
  It reauthorizes and funds successful programs, such as the feral 
swine eradication program--and, quite frankly, they are devastating in 
many parts of the country--and the voluntarily public access and 
habitat incentive program, an incredible program when it comes to 
wildlife through promoting the right kind of habitat on that rural 
acreage.
  It emphasizes science, technology, and innovation, including within 
the conservation practice standards establishment and the review 
processes.
  Agriculture is the backbone to most of the world's economies, and 
robust promotion programs not only create market access, but protect 
our agricultural interests and act as a catalyst for innovation and 
economic growth.
  Mr. Speaker, the trade title expands the research and impact of the 
market access program and the foreign market development program.
  The 2024 farm bill will mitigate global food insecurity while 
providing U.S. producers new markets, improving local economies, and 
lessening the damage of this administration's ineffective trade agenda.
  Mr. Speaker, our bipartisan farm bill doubles funding for MAP and 
FMD. They have never been increased since those programs were created. 
We have doubled those. We know how important that is. We have listened 
to our farmers and ranchers around the country.
  It prioritizes U.S. commodities rather than unlimited market-based 
assistance.
  It balances the authorities of USAID with those of USDA.
  It lessens the bureaucracy associated with programs meant to respond 
to immediate crisis.
  It addresses trade barriers and infrastructure deficiencies.
  It fosters education partnerships to ensure developing countries can 
benefit from our Nation's advanced research and developing 
technologies.
  The nutrition title, Mr. Speaker, is a really important title within 
the farm bill. The fact is I think it is a value and a principle where 
we are from, right? Neighbors help neighbors in need, but it is also a 
market program for our farmers. It is a workforce development program 
as we provide assistance for individuals who are struggling in poverty 
and need nutrition assistance, to get the type of SNAP, employment, 
education, and career and technical education, to climb the ladder of 
opportunity.
  It supports families formally disallowed to receive benefits. It 
refocuses work programs to support upward mobility. It vests in and 
modernizes food distribution programs to create parity with urban 
programming. It promotes program integrity and State accountability.
  The biggest problem we have had with the nutrition program is not the 
farm bill program. It is how certain States have inappropriately 
implemented and administered that program. We take actions to provide 
better oversight and accountability on those States as they execute 
those programs in their States.

  It advances policies related to healthy eating, healthy behaviors, 
and healthy outcomes. Our bipartisan farm bill provides resources 
across multiple programs that have successfully benefited Tribal 
communities, seniors, and households pursuing healthier options.
  It offers significant opportunities for individuals to remain on 
their current career pathways without choosing between SNAP and 
employment. We encourage them to stay on those rungs of the ladder of 
opportunity and to climb higher.
  It creates new access for participants either formerly disallowed or 
beholden to arcane restriction.
  It corrects egregious executive branch overreach and disallows future 
unelected bureaucrats from arbitrarily increasing SNAP benefits. 
Congress holds the power of the purse, and no one else. We are the 
closest to the people here in the House, so this provision allows us to 
do our job as Members of Congress going forward.
  It creates a stronger, more sustainable connection between health and 
Federal feeding programs. For example, the dietary guidelines process 
is flawed. The committee-passed bill makes certain that scientific 
rigor and total transparency are at the forefront of any Federal 
dietary policy. At a time when most of our food industry is under 
attack, it is so important to remember that science should guide our 
policymakers.
  It holds USDA and States accountable to the generosity of the 
American taxpayer. There are ongoing integrity issues in SNAP, 
including billions of dollars in fraud, families falling victim to 
transactional criminals and States manipulating data to avoid able-
bodied individuals in joining the workforce or pursuing career and 
technical education. We take measures to end that in this farm bill, 
Mr. Speaker.
  Our Nation's producers borrow more capital in a single harvest season 
than most Americans do in their entire lives. Interest rates have 
exploded under the Biden administration, resulting in skyrocketing 
borrowing costs, which fall especially hard on our Nation's younger, 
less-established producers. Programs within the credit title are 
instrumental in helping producers both start and maintain their 
operations.
  It enhances financing options for producers who are unable to obtain 
credit from a commercial lender.
  It provides resources to new, young, beginning, and veteran farmers 
in their transition into farming and ranching.
  It protects and enhances the ability of commercial lenders to provide 
rural

[[Page H5553]]

America with a reliable source of credit and capital. That is so 
important when you look at bigger projects in rural America, whether it 
would be schools or hospitals, rehabilitation centers, or nursing 
homes.
  Programs offered by USDA's rural development play a vital role in 
enhancing rural life and fostering economic growth. The rural 
development title of the 2024 farm bill continues the long history of 
bipartisan support for rural development initiatives and implements 
important improvements to enhance a robust, rural economy.
  It strengthens broadband connectivity to rural communities.
  It improves precision agriculture practices and increases 
accessibility of precision agriculture services.
  It protects access to healthcare in rural America.
  It enhances efforts to meet childcare demands of rural areas.
  It addresses existing workforce challenges within rural communities 
to effectively meet their needs.
  It encourages private capital investments in rural communities, and 
it streamlines the permitting process for rural development processes.
  The research and extension title of the 2024 farm bill keeps American 
agriculture at the forefront of innovation and productivity through the 
cutting-edge research and supports the Nation's land-grant and nonland-
grant colleges of agriculture.
  Our bipartisan farm bill supports the modernization of the 
agriculture research facilities by providing funding for the Research 
Facilities Act.
  It increases funding for the Specialty Crop Research Initiative, 
allocates funding for research and the development of mechanization and 
automation technologies for the specialty crop industry.
  It maintains funding for the emergency citrus disease research and 
extension program.
  It provides continued funding for scholarships for students at 1890 
institutions, and it promotes interagency coordination for further 
agricultural research and other Federal agencies.
  The forestry title of the farm bill promotes active forest management 
through incentivizing public-private partnerships, creating new market 
opportunities and revitalizing rural communities while reducing 
wildfire risk and improving forest health to ensure healthy and 
productive Federal, State, Tribal, and private forests.
  It incentivizes active forest management through the public-private 
partnerships by expanding existing authorities like the Good Neighbor 
Authority and the Stewardship End Result Contracting.
  It creates new and enhances existing market opportunities for forest 
products, including existing and new data sources and tools, including 
investing in innovative wood products and expanding the use of biochar.
  It revitalizes rural communities and forest health through cross-
boundary authority. It simplifies environmental process requirements 
while ensuring environmental protection by building upon the success of 
categorical exclusions and other streamlined authorities.
  The energy title of the farm bill increases access to energy system 
and efficiency updates for farmers, ranchers, and rural small 
businesses while encouraging growth and innovation for biofuels, 
bioproducts, and related feedstocks.
  It allows for critical cost and energy savings by increasing access 
to the Rural Energy for America Program.

  It streamlines program delivery and enhances program integrity for 
biobased market programs and biofuels and bioproducts development 
program like the biopreferred program and the biorefinary, renewable 
chemical, and biobased product manufacturing assistance programs.
  It requires the administration to study the impacts of solar 
installations on prime, unique, or statewide or locally important 
farmland.
  Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Pennsylvania has 12 
minutes remaining.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, the horticulture marketing 
and regulatory reform title provides critical investments to enhance 
the competitiveness of specialty crops and protect plant health. It 
delivers commonsense regulatory reforms necessary to relieve American 
farmers and ranchers from overregulation by the Biden administration.
  It provides additional funding for the specialty crop block grant 
program and directs program administrators to consult with specialty 
crop producers when setting priorities for the program.
  It increases funding for plant, pest, and disease management to 
further safeguard American agriculture and natural resources.
  It maintains funding for the local agriculture market program and 
approves program delivery through simplified application.
  It continues support for organic production through the national 
organic program, organic production, and the market data initiative and 
the national organic certification cost-share program.
  Agricultural producers are greatly affected by numerous factors 
outside of their control, ranging from extreme weather to geopolitical 
instability.
  Crop insurance, a vital risk management tool, is available to help 
producers manage the unique risks of farming and is delivered through 
an effective public-private partnership in which the Federal Government 
shares in the cost of the premiums, which would otherwise be 
unaffordable for most farmers.
  The crop insurance title of the farm, food, and National Security Act 
expands premium assistance for beginning and veteran farmers.

                              {time}  1315

  It directs research and development of new policies and establishes 
an advisory committee for more robust engagement with specialty crop 
producers. It enhances certain coverage options to reduce the need for 
unbudgeted and ad hoc disaster relief. It bolsters the private-sector 
delivery system.
  Mr. Speaker, the miscellaneous title brings together provisions 
related to livestock health and management, foreign animal disease 
preparedness, young and beginning farmers, and other key areas. It 
directs additional resources toward the three-legged stool to protect 
the entire livestock and poultry industry in the United States from 
foreign animal diseases.
  This title provides guidance documents and other resources for small 
and very small meat and poultry-producing facilities. It allows 
livestock auction owners to invest in packing facilities, subject to 
capacity limitations. It directs the Secretary of Agriculture to work 
in consultation with the U.S. Trade Representative to negotiate animal 
disease regionalization agreements with our trading partners. It 
enhances protections for dogs under the Animal Welfare Act.
  It clarifies that States and local governments cannot impose a 
condition or standard on the production of covered livestock unless the 
livestock is physically located within such State or local government 
boundaries.
  It requires the Secretary to conduct regular assessments to identify 
risks and security vulnerabilities to the food and agriculture critical 
infrastructure sector.
  It reforms certain reporting requirements under the Agriculture and 
Foreign Investment Disclosure Act to ensure accuracy and transparency 
of data on farmland owned by foreign persons or foreign entities.
  Again, farm security is food security is national security.
  Mr. Speaker, as I wrap up, I thank the thousands of stakeholders 
across the country who have made themselves heard and been a part of 
this process so far, from fly-ins to speaking directly to staff and 
Members, to hosting roundtables, webinars, social media campaigns, 
drafting letters of support, and so much more.
  Mr. Speaker, we approach this bill in a tri-partisan manner. That 
means bringing Democrats and Republicans to the table, and it means 
bringing the people of rural America, and specifically agriculture and 
farming, to the table. We did that in traveling the country to around 
40 States and one territory. I have been honored to chair and lead 
somewhere close to 100 listening sessions in those areas.
  We brought the voices of American agriculture and American consumers 
to the table, and that is how we wrote

[[Page H5554]]

the bill. We wrote the bill with their voice. We did it in a manner I 
like to call from the outside in.
  Too frequently and often in this Chamber, we write legislation that 
is inside out. We gather a handful of so-called experts here on Capitol 
Hill to write these bills, and then we take them outside the beltway of 
Washington and try to convince everybody it is the best thing since 
sliced bread. That doesn't always work out.
  We did this bill from the outside in. We traveled the Nation. We 
heard from the very people who provide us food and fiber and building 
materials.
  We heard from vulnerable populations who need nutritional assistance, 
the families that are living in poverty. There are way too many of them 
living in poverty today. That is why the cost of the nutrition title is 
so high. It is reflective of the fact that there are way too many 
American families living in poverty today.
  This bill can help change that because within the moneys that are 
invested, as I talked about in the nutrition title, quite frankly, we 
invest in employment, education, and career and technical education, 
helping them reach the next rung on the ladder of opportunity so they 
can wake up one morning and don't need this type of assistance because 
they found the great American Dream, which is opportunity.
  I often say, Mr. Speaker, if you are not at the table, you are 
probably on the menu, and it has been a truly rewarding experience to 
see so many advocates for our agricultural industry at the table as we 
crafted this bipartisan bill.
  When I became chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, I took 
seriously my mandate to protect our food supply and enhance the impact 
of our Nation's agricultural value chain.
  As I have just highlighted, across each title of this bill are new 
and better tools and resources for our farmers and rural communities. 
From production and processing to delivery and consumption, this bill 
strengthens the rural economy across every region, State, and district.
  The farm bill has long been an example of consensus, where both sides 
must take a step off the soapbox and have tough conversations. I do not 
draw redlines. I do not close the door to conversation. I do not keep 
anybody from coming to the table to work on legislation, and we 
certainly didn't do that here. I have encouraged everyone to come to 
the table with this farm bill.
  Finally, let me be clear, we continue to have productive 
conversations across the aisle and across the Capitol Building. The 
stakes are too high to get this wrong or to fail to deliver, and I 
firmly believe the four corners of our Agriculture Committees agree on 
this.
  Working together, we can pass a bipartisan, bicameral, and highly 
effective farm bill. Quite frankly, coming out with the bipartisan bill 
for the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024 that passed out 
of committee is a huge step in that direction.
  Mr. Speaker, I so appreciate the opportunity and the privilege of 
speaking on this floor about America's number one industry, which is 
agriculture, the industry that every American family is so dependent 
on, and not just those three times a day when they pick up the tools of 
American agriculture, be it a knife, fork, or spoon, but when it comes 
to the economy, when it comes to jobs, when it comes to economic 
impact, when it comes, quite frankly, to the taxes that are paid by 
these hardworking members of the agriculture industry, processors and 
producers, at all levels of government. Significant tax dollars get 
paid to pay for what we hope are the essential services at all levels 
of government.

  This industry and the tools around it make a better environment and a 
cleaner climate. I always like to cite data that I was so excited to 
read here that shows that our American farmers are the climate 
champions of the world. They sequester 6.1 gigatons of carbon annually. 
That is 10.1 percent more than what they emit.
  Nobody does it better when it comes to a cleaner climate than the 
American farmer, rancher, and forester, and our processors, as well, 
with the processes that we use and the products that are developed.
  Mr. Speaker, let me be clear, America is in a farm and food crisis. 
If we don't have farms, we don't have food, food security, national 
security. A nation that cannot feed itself will not exist.
  I am hoping that all of my colleagues will join me, as many have, in 
supporting the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024. I look 
forward to getting this bill to the House floor in the lameduck 
session. I know I have the support of the other three corners, which is 
the leadership of the Senate and the House Agriculture Committees. They 
have made a commitment to do that.
  We don't see a need for an extension. We see a need for Congress, 
that being the House and the Senate, to do our job and get the work 
done on behalf of the American people.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________