Members of Kansas’ congressional delegation say they remain optimistic about the fate of the once-every-five-year Farm Bill — though there is an acknowledgement that lawmakers could blow their Sept. 30 deadline in advancing the key agricultural package.
Extensive negotiations over the bill, which must be passed once every five years, are commonplace, as are delays requiring a short-term extension of the many programs that must be authorized.
Kansas officials have made clear their desire to see a deal reached sooner rather than later.
“I know the rest of the delegation is working every single day to make certain that that happens,” said U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner, R-Kansas. “We have to protect crop insurance for our farmers. We have to provide certainty for them. We are going to work diligently to get this done.”
But there are signals that conflicts over spending could make for a more contentious dynamic than in years past.
And while agriculture groups say they are optimistic about a deal, their message is similar to that of Chris Tanner, a northwest Kansas farmer.
“If you have to get an extension to get it right, well, that would be worth it,” said Tanner, who is vice president of the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers. “But, from a farmer’s standpoint, if we get an extension so we can play politics, well, that’s kind of disheartening as an American citizen.”
Farm Bill unlikely to be done on time, lawmakers acknowledge
The behind-the-scenes work of crafting the Farm Bill has been going on for years and it is the first time in years that former U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, of Kansas, won’t be involved in shepherding it through the legislative process.
But lawmakers have not yet begun the process of rolling out a final version of the bill and advancing it to the U.S. House and Senate floors.
There is concern that the Farm Bill will be coming to a head at the same time as a series of key spending bills needed to avert a government shutdown, meaning lawmakers will have to prioritize.
“The challenges perhaps are greater than they normally are,” U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, said in an interview Friday. “Congress is, sadly, historically slow. There’s no reason that you can’t reach an agreement in advance of a deadline instead of after a deadline. But it seems that Congress always is waiting for them.”
With a price tag expected to top $1 trillion for the first time ever, conservative Republicans may take a more hardline approach to the Farm Bill than in years past, creating worries that the process could resemble a contentious fight to raise the debt ceiling earlier this year.
Lawmakers have said they expect the most conservative members of the U.S. House Republican caucus to be on board, something LaTurner echoed.
“We’ve had folks second-guess the ability of the House Republican Conference to come together to pass meaningful legislation,” LaTurner said. “And we’ve done it time and time again since January and I’m confident we’re going to do it on this.”
Despite its name, the Farm Bill is overwhelmingly comprised of programs focusing on nutrition, notably the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps.
Some members want to use the reauthorization of the nation’s largest food safety net program as a way to leverage change, such as an expansion of work requirements for recipients or requiring that benefits be used only on healthy foods.
Others want to spin SNAP off from the Farm Bill entirely. Past delays in passing the measure have often been because of the program, which affects 40 million Americans.
U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, noted that delays in the Farm Bill are often de rigeur and would necessitate a short-term extension, with the hope of getting a permanent solution to President Joe Biden by the end of the calendar year.
“The challenge in D.C. is that it seems like we just go from one crisis to another and it doesn’t give us the ability to make good long-term plans,” Marshall said in an interview following a Topeka event this week. “So I’m trying to get it right and we’ll get it done by Dec. 31.”
Crop insurance and safety net programs key for agricultural groups
The biggest priority for the state’s agricultural groups is reauthorizing crop insurance, which must be done in the Farm Bill.
In the U.S., the federal government helps subsidize and regulate the most commonly used plans sold by private insurers. Typically, those plans will cover any number of naturally occurring issues that farmers might encounter and payouts are based on the value of a specific crop.
Ryan Flickner, senior director of public policy for the Kansas Farm Bureau, said avoiding a situation where crop insurance access could be restricted or means tested was imperative.
“Crop insurance is the cornerstone of risk protection in a state like Kansas,” he said.
But advocates are seeking some tweaks to the program nonetheless.
Wheat production in Kansas typically falls into two categories. Farmers might plant wheat in the fall after previously harvesting soybeans or corn in that same spot over the summer months. In other cases, they might leave those fields fallow in the spring and summer before using them for wheat.
If a hailstorm or other natural disaster wreaks havoc on their crop, the two methods would be treated the same way for crop insurance purposes, even though they require different levels of investment and have different yields.
Then there are two programs that provide aid to farmers who either are hit with lower-than-expected crop prices or who are seeing a period of high-income bottom out.
Payouts in the Price Less Coverage and Agriculture Risk Coverage programs, however, are tied into per-acre rates set by Congress. Tanner said he hadn’t availed himself of either in years because the rates have not been updated and are out-of-whack with the increased costs farmers now face.
While funding can vary depending on the commodity involved, Tanner said wheat farmers would need a 20% increase to bring the programs up to market rate.
“It’s not a safety net. It’s safety asphalt,” he said of the current setup.
How can Kansas farmers be supported in drought conditions?
The Farm Bill negotiations come against the backdrop of a challenging few years for many Kansas farmers.
Currently, there are 83 counties in the state that have received a drought disaster designation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Nearly 70% of the state remains in some form of drought, with 30% of the state in extreme or exceptional drought.
For Tanner, this was a much better growing season than last year, which he termed a “devastating” moment for Kansas agriculture.
“As an agriculturalist, you go out and you plant your crop and hope for a harvest,” he said. “Just seeing things not even make it to a reproductive stage in the field because they burned up due to drought is not the reason I started farming.”
A rainier than usual July has helped in much of western Kansas, but there are wide swaths of the state that would need as much as a foot of rain to relieve the drought conditions, according to National Weather Service data.
Using the Farm Bill to help farmers weather more extreme climatic conditions has been a priority for many policymakers.
“Instead of placing burdensome regulations on farmers and ranchers with already thin margins,” Gov. Laura Kelly wrote in a letter to congressional agriculture committees last year, “the next Farm Bill should invest in voluntary conservation programs, drought-resistant crops like sorghum and cotton, robust crop insurance, and biological and technological innovation that will drive down the cost of regenerative agriculture in the long run.”
For Zach Pistora, a lobbyist for Kansas’ chapter of the Sierra Club, the goal was to invest in local food systems that are more resilient in the face of drought and other environmental hazards.
Critics have said crop insurance in its current form isn’t always the best way of doing that and could make farmers less likely to adapt in the face of climate change.
Encouraging conservation programs, investing in training and promoting technological innovations to use less water were all important areas of emphasis, Pistora said.
“As we’re adapting to the new normal or new circumstances with harder weather challenges, then agriculture will have to adapt,” he said. “And then we need those tools to help adapt.”
Flickner noted that uncertainty isn’t confined to drought but also the roller coaster of commodity prices that has blasted farmers in recent years, not to mention the COVID-19 pandemic, a trade war with China and rising prices for fertilizer and other materials.
“Where we are at as an agricultural state, as producers and growers across the state and the nation, times are a lot different here in 2023 than they were in 2018,” he said.
But Marshall said while he believed Kansas farmers were on the cutting edge of learning how to irrigate their crops more efficiently, he noted that the drought was just a part of the inherent risk that comes from being an agricultural producer.
