OMAHA (DTN) -- Negotiations continued Monday on a potential $10 billion to $12 billion economic aid package for farmers and the scope of disaster assistance in a new funding bill.
Congress has until the end of Friday to get a package through Congress or risk a potential government shutdown. As part of that package, Congress also needs to pass another one-year extension of the farm bill.
Financial aid for farmers became a major sticking point over the weekend, as lawmakers from both parties said they would not support a new funding bill -- a continuing resolution -- without including some economic support for farmers facing low prices.
"If there's no assistance to our farmers and ranchers in the Continuing Resolution, I will not support the bill," said Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., in a social media post Monday. "Through no fault of their own, Kansas farm families are struggling to keep their heads above water, and it is critical they receive assistance as soon as possible to continue their operations. I will continue working with my colleagues on the Senate Appropriations Committee and Ag Committee to provide certainty for our producers."
No specific details of the continuing resolution were available late Monday afternoon even though lawmakers had told reporters on Capitol Hill that they were close to an agreement.
It appeared a one-time aid package had been agreed upon by the lawmakers who make up the "four corners" in farm bill talks. Those lawmakers are Rep. Glenn "GT" Thompson, R-Pa., chairman of the House Agriculture Committee; Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee; Rep. David Scott, D-Ga., ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee; and Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
In an interview Monday, American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said his team had heard the "four corners" of the House and Senate Agriculture committees "were agreeable" at lunchtime on Saturday to move forward with a plan. They had agreed on $10 billion bill for economic aid, Duvall said.
"That's when we started putting pressure on from our grassroots," Duvall said. He added, "When we activated our membership, we generated over 2,000 contacts asking their congressional representatives to call leadership and put politics aside and get this done."
Duvall said he wanted to see grassroots members keep pressuring members of Congress to act.
"This economic package and this disaster package are our focus right now," he said.
Duvall also has repeatedly pointed to numbers from the 2022 Ag Census showing a loss of 141,000 farmers since 2017.
"This is not the time to turn the back on the farmers and ranchers who are providing the food and security for this country," he said.
Money for farmers appeared to be just one of the complications. Democrats also wanted money to rebuild the bridge over Baltimore's harbor that collapsed earlier this year when struck by a ship. Lawmakers were also calling for a provision on drones in the funding bill in the aftermath of unexplained drone sightings in New Jersey.
Lost in the process could be $14 billion or so in USDA conservation dollars passed in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in 2022. Those funds went into USDA's main farm bill conservation programs but include the requirement that the farm practices used for those dollars must reduce greenhouse-gas emissions or sequester carbon in the soil. Republicans on the House and Senate Agriculture committees have pressed all year to roll those dollars into the farm bill but take away the climate requirements. Stabenow last week told DTN that her staff had found that rolling the IRA dollars into the farm bill generated $10.7 billion in savings that could then be used for economic aid. However, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., apparently told the four corners last week that the GOP caucus doesn't support using those IRA dollars. That funding could be lost if Republicans cut or eliminate all the IRA programs when they control both chambers of Congress.
Duvall said AFBF would prefer to let Johnson make the decision on whether the IRA dollars could be used for disaster-aid offsets.
"We've been supportive of the IRA because it's provided some money for farm projects that farmers have been waiting in line to do for years and years and years," Duvall said.
If the IRA money is not rolled into the extension, Duvall agreed that situation could end up as $14 billion potentially lost for farmers to use.
"Wouldn't that be a shame because we don't need to be losing money out of the farm part of the farm bill. We need to be adding money to it because things have changed so much since 2018," Duvall said.
General farm groups and a range of commodity organizations representing crop producers weighed in. Groups cited price declines of 40% for their commodities and losses of $300 an acre in the case of cotton.
On Sunday, the Farm Credit System sent a letter to the four top leaders in Congress, calling for "meaningful assistance" in the year-end budget bill, citing both natural disasters and "a severe downturn in the agricultural economy."
"As the nation's largest agricultural lender, Farm Credit sees our customers facing increasingly difficult economic circumstances," the Farm Credit letter stated. "Low prices for ag products, coupled with high input costs, are creating severe losses for many producers. For some, 2024 is the second or third consecutive year of loss, and producers' working capital has dried up."
Ted McKinney, CEO of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, also cited the "powerful headwinds" facing farmers, "ranging from extreme weather to uncertain global demand to supply chain disruptions." McKinney added.
Also see "Farm Groups Rally for Economic Aid as Negotiations Stall" here: https://www.dtnpf.com/….
Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com
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