POINTING TO SEPT. DEADLINE, HYDE-SMITH URGES SENATE ACTION ON NEW FARM BILL
In Floor Speech, Miss. Senator Says Move Away from Partisan Disagreements & Work on Finding Common Ground
VIDEO: Senator Hyde-Smith Encourages Senate to Act Soon on Writing a New Farm Bill.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, today encouraged her fellow Senators to move past partisan differences and begin real work to write a new Farm Bill.
In a speech to the Senate, Hyde-Smith pointed out that an extension of the outdated 2018 Farm Bill expires September 30 and advocated writing a new Farm Bill based on the comprehensive framework unveiled last month by Agriculture Committee Ranking Member John Boozman (R-Ark.).
“The bottom line is this, Madam President—it’s time to move away from partisan disagreements and instead work on finding common ground,” Hyde-Smith said. “It’s time to graduate from concepts and proposals and instead start advancing actual legislation. Simply put, it’s time for Congress to enact a new Farm Bill – one that our farmers, ranchers, and rural America have been asking for for quite some time.”
For more than two years, Hyde-Smith has participated in committee hearings on Farm Bill issues and welcomed input from Mississippi producers in listening sessions. In her remarks, Hyde-Smith reviewed the priorities that Mississippi farmers, ranchers, and rural communities want in new agricultural and rural development policies—all of which are included in the Boozman framework.
“The Farm Bill framework released by our Senate Agriculture Committee ranking member would achieve all of these things, and in a bipartisan, fiscally-responsible manner,” Hyde-Smith said. “Times are changing. New challenges and threats to rural America emerge every day. This is why Congress revisits this important, multi-year legislation – to keep what’s working, fix what’s not, and eliminate what’s no longer necessary.”
Below is the text of Hyde-Smith’s remarks, as prepared for delivery:
Madam President, we are now well into the month of July and less than three months away from the current Farm Bill extension expiring. As such, I would like to bring renewed focus on the framework proposed by my colleague and ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
I commend my friend, Senator Boozman from Arkansas, for presenting us with a framework that answers the call of farmers, ranchers, stakeholders, and taxpayers across this country.
For the greater part of two years, we’ve heard time and time again from those who elected us to be here: In the next Farm Bill, Congress must:
- Strengthen the farm safety net – ARC, PLC, disaster assistance, and crop insurance, among other important safety net mechanisms;
- Enhance conservation programs, especially those designed for our working lands, such as CSP and EQIP;
- Provide greater opportunities for U.S. agriculture in the global marketplace;
- Ensure that our domestic food assistance programs serve as a “hand up,” and “not a handout”;
- Offer better access to credit and financing, particularly for young and beginning farmers;
- Dedicate adequate resources to our rural communities, which are built around agriculture;
- Invest more in agricultural research, which America is currently lagging behind our competitors and adversaries in, despite having the brightest minds in the world and a storied history of innovation;
- Modernize existing policies pertaining to forestry, energy, and horticulture, among others.
- In short, put more farm in the Farm Bill.
The Farm Bill framework released by our Senate Agriculture Committee ranking member would achieve all of these things, and in a bipartisan, fiscally-responsible manner.
It is our responsibility in Congress to listen to those who know best about what they need to make a living so they can continue to feed our nation and the world.
When the Subcommittee on Commodities, Risk Management, and Trade conducted a hearing last year on producer perspectives of the farm safety net, a producer described the current farm safety net as being “two inches above the concrete.”
That’s insufficient in today’s farm economy where producers face extraordinary volatility, historic inflation, record-high input costs, catastrophic natural disasters, and geopolitical tensions that disrupt markets.
Times are changing. New challenges and threats to rural America emerge every day. This is why Congress revisits this important, multi-year legislation – to keep what’s working, fix what’s not, and eliminate what’s no longer necessary.
I commend the House Agriculture Committee for advancing a strong, common-sense Farm Bill proposal out of committee, and I commend our Senate Ag Committee Chair for all of her efforts throughout this process.
But the bottom line is this, Madam President—it’s time to move away from partisan disagreements and instead work on finding common ground.
It’s time to graduate from concepts and proposals and instead start advancing actual legislation.
Simply put, it’s time for Congress to enact a new Farm Bill – one that our farmers, ranchers, and rural America have been asking for for quite some time.
Thank you, Madam President. I yield the floor.
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