The ag community is eager for action out of Washington D.C.
Lawmakers are back at work, but they have got a lot to accomplish with very little time.
“Well, there’s several things in play right now. First and foremost, of course, is the overall appropriations process. The government is only temporarily funded until December 20. There will be some of my very conservative friends who will say, ‘Well, let’s just do a short-term extension of the present funding, and let’s sort through all that in the new administration.’ I suspect President Trump’s advisers would like to have a clean slate, and I agree with them. There’s also something called the NDAA authorizing the activities of the Department of Defense for the coming year, and when you’re in a state with five big military bases, which matters too. And then, of course, it goes without saying my heartbeat is set by where we are in the farm bill process, and right now, I’m missing a beat every so often,” said Oklahoma Congressman Frank Lucas.
With all the work left to finish, Lucas says the Farm Bill will likely be the hardest to complete during the lame duck session.
“It might be the toughest piece of those three. I had a long visit with Chairman Thompson last night on the phone about the issue. He assures me that he’s pressing the Speaker on the first hand that we in the ag committee have a product that’s ready to go, and whatever kind of year-end negotiations, we could be a part of that. He also made the point to me that if we can’t have a complete farm bill, we, at the very least, need to take section one, the commodity title - title one, I should say - and title 11, the crop Insurance title, and incorporate that into whatever final year package.”
Lucas says it has been a challenging year for the ag community, and he is hoping protections can get through to offer producers some support.
