Please Wait…
Every five years, Congress takes up a Farm Bill that not only determines our agriculture and nutrition policy but provides assistance for our farmers and producers and families who need it most.
Leading the nation in cheese production, cranberries, ginseng and organic vegetables, Wisconsin’s 78,000 farms pump more than $59 billion into our economy each year. Our Wisconsin farmers deserve a Farm Bill that works for them and works for the 21st century.
The current Farm Bill is set to expire on Sept. 30.
Unfortunately, this Congress has chosen politics over people and leadership has refused to bring a Farm Bill to the House floor for a vote before this date. Not only does this jeopardize the future of our farm programs, dairy policies including MILC, the conservation title, rural economic development and food aid programs, but it leaves our family farmers without the certainty they need to plan and execute a successful harvest.
We owe it to our family farmers to provide the certainty of a five-year Farm Bill, and we owe it to the American people to do our job. While we need to continue providing the tools for our farmers to be successful, and in an era of tight budgets, we must also do so in a way that is fiscally responsible.
This means taking a comprehensive approach, making important updates and reasonable reforms to our farm programs, but also eliminating open-ended and wasteful subsidies that don’t work and don’t help our family farmers.
At the same time, we need to provide the security our agriculture sector needs. This means taking a serious look at drought assistance and insurance programs, keeping what works and eliminating what doesn’t, ensuring the risk management tools are available to our producers when they need it most.
The time is now. We need to bring a bill to the House floor for free and open debate, and we need to pass legislation that works for our family farmers. Agriculture is the backbone of our state, supporting 354,000 jobs and providing more than $20 billion in income. Our family farmers deserve certainty and support as they grow their production and as they face the challenges of the industry.
Democrat Ron Kind represents Wisconsin’s Third Congressional District.
And that turns it into a political football.
Term limits.
However, the bill crafted by the Speaker Boehner's "Knuckle Draggers," as he calls his Tea Pary Caucus is mean-spirited and shameful. It slashes funding for nutrition programs beyond any reasonable level, just at a time when middle-class Americans, the working poor and the poor, Romney's victims, need these programs the most. And, to top it off they left town, kicking the can down the road until after the election.
There will be a fiscal crisis soon and the Farm Bill will be part of it. Congress does some of its best work when they at the edge of the cliff, stare over and know jumping is certain death. Only then will something give.
Perhaps Wisconsin farmers who are represented by GOP members, like Paul Ryan, will break some arms and legs and get these fellows to get the work done. Put country above politics. That would be refreshing.