Despite the passing of a Stop Gap Bill over the weekend, a new Farm Bill is the Christmas gift the enitre U.S. ag industry had on their wish list, yet none will recieve.
While it has been at the top of the priority list, Congressman Dan Newhouse says that the bill will need to be completed sooner rather than later in the new year.
According to the Congressman, “The new extension would expire on September 30, 2025. I hope we don’t wait until August 30th to address the Farm Bill. We should get this done sooner and with a Republican Senate and House, I think that there’s a bigger chance of us coming together on a final package that we could send to the President.”
Looking to the new administration in the new year, Newhouse says that President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on some of our biggest trading partners could lead to ag trouble.
Placing pressure on an industry alreadying paying steep prices.
“Certainly, tariffs we’ve seen be used as a valuable mechanism to help level the playing field with some of our international trading partners, with the caveat that we have to be strategic and not go overboard ow what we have seen in the past is retaliatory actions by some of our trading partners, and the target for that retaliation is inevitably the agricultural industry, ag products,” Newhouse explains.
He says that another priority for the new year is ag labor reform. The Congressman says that it needs to be addressed before the industry loses the majority of its workforce.
