ICGA continues push for new farm bill

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — The new farm bill can got kicked down the road last month with a one-year extension of the 2018 law, but Illinois Corn remains diligent in pushing for new legislation sooner rather than later.

“We still want to get the farm bill passed as soon as possible because we’re working with a farm bill that was passed in 2018,” said Mike Shane, of Peoria, Illinois Corn Growers Association treasurer and District 8 director, representing Cass, Fulton, Logan, Mason, Menard, Peoria and Tazewell counties.

“So, we’re using 2018 numbers. There’s this thing called inflation that’s happened the last couple of years, and things have gotten a lot more expensive. There’s a gap there that we’re having to deal with right now.”

No farm bill legislation was ever brought to Congress prior to the extension agreement.

“They talked about it a little bit, but then with all of the theatrics that they did in Congress it got pushed down the road until at least 2024,” Shane said.

“The one-year extension at least allows us to have the programs in place. The Farm Service Agency can at least have its programs in place to go out the door. At least farmers kind of know where they’re at going into 2024 and not having to make a total guess.”

When the House Committee on Agriculture members were initially assigned under the then-117th Congress, there were regular press releases noting their work and many farm bill listening sessions throughout the country were held, including one during the 2022 Illinois State Fair.

Shane was asked how far the ag committee got in terms of any farm bill proposals.

“It just came to a grinding halt. I actually don’t know exactly where they ended up on that. It was rolling right along, we’re thinking, ‘alright, it’s going good,’ they’re talking crop insurance, they had hearings, but when they messed with the speaker of the House, that just really threw a big wrench into Congress. That was a mess,” he said.

“We’re thinking either they’re just going to get it done right away in 2024 or unfortunately wait until after the election. We’re really crossing our fingers that they just get on it right away and get it done. We’re hoping it’s not, ‘we got an extension in place, don’t worry about it.’

“We’re going to push on them to get it done now because if they wait that’s just another year of kicking the can down the road and we’re still dealing with older numbers so the programs are not where they should be.”

There are several key areas of the farm bill that the ICGA is focused on.

“Crop insurance has been working very well for the last several years. We want it left in place. It’s been a really good product,” Shane said.

“It’s a public/private enterprise. It you want it, you have to pay something for it. It works well and takes care of the customers. It provides a safety net for everybody.”

“We’re also looking at the Market Access Program and the Foreign Market Development program. We want to see some increase in those. They were set a long time ago and are not being funded near to what they could be with inflation. It’s really put them out of whack,” he said.

“It’s a hard ask. We want more money for that. We don’t know what we’re going to end up with at the end of the day.

“Crop insurance and those market programs are kind of big ones. We’d also like to see more usable dollars for conservation programs.”