If passed, North Dakota farmers and ranchers will get what they said they wanted out of the 2018 Farm Bill.
A compromise was reached late Monday by the conference committee, which has been negotiating a new Farm Bill for months, after the last Farm Bill expired in September. The Senate passed the bill 87-13 Tuesday. The House is expected to vote on the legislation this week. And the omission of stricter work requirements proposed by House Republicans for the federal food stamp program makes the bill palatable for Democrats in both houses.
Between the Farm Bill and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency changes to the Waters of the U.S. rule, producers in the state appear to be getting everything they wanted.
The proposed Farm Bill would make permanent the fixes to crop insurance that farmers said were on the top of their wish list.
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Under the new bill, U.S. Department of Agriculture Risk Management Agency data rather than National Agricultural Statistics Service survey data will be used to determine yields when calculating Agriculture Risk Coverage insurance payments.
“RMA is a more accurate and defensible source of yield data, ensuring payment variability is due to actual differences in yields,” according to a statement by Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.
Some steps also were taken to address farmers concerns with Price Loss Coverage insurance payments. The bill makes changes to the reference prices used in calculating payments, allowing them to be adjusted with improvements in market prices, Cramer said.
North Dakota Farmers Union President Mark Watne said his organization would have liked to have seen the reference prices on certain commodities raised without having to be tied to increases in the market.
“But it's a good step in the right way that they’re indexed,” he said. “I’m glad that we got this Farm Bill done or that appears it will get done.”
Cattle producers fears also will be allayed by the removal of language that had called for permanent Conservation Reserve Program land easements.
"Perpetual easements rob future generations of their ability to make decisions and manage their property as appropriate for the times. They are a disservice to individual landowners and the communities in which they live and have no place in farm programs,” North Dakota Stockmen’s Association Past President Warren Zenker said in July.
The bill also provides $300 million in funding for animal disease prevention, which could be used to fund a federal vaccine bank cattlemen said was important, particularly as it relates to foot-and-mouth disease.
Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., also highlighted the inclusion of programming for young and beginning farmers and trade promotion dollars for Cuba included in the final version of the bill.
“Particularly during a time of uncertainty in farm country due to the administration’s ongoing trade war, it’s critical that we get this important piece of legislation across the finish line before the end of this Congress,” she said in a statement.
Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., echoed Heitkamp saying “producers need the certainty that comes with the passage of a five-year farm bill.”
“We worked hard with our fellow conferees to find agreement, and now we need to pass this legislation as soon as possible,” he said.
The $867 billion bill also increased Farm Ownership and Operating Loan Program loan limits, removed industrial hemp from the Controlled Substances Act and made it eligible for crop insurance and raised the Conservation Reserve Program acreage from 24 million to 27 million acres while capping rental rates.
While the Farm Bill did not include the repeal of Waters of the U.S. regulations called for by the North Dakota Farm Bureau, The EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced a separate rollback Tuesday that re-defines Waters of the U.S.
“While I work with North Dakotans to dig through the details of this proposal, its highlights are clearly vast improvements from the 2015 rule. It reduces the areas of jurisdiction under the federal government and provides the clarity lacking in the original definition," Cramer said in a statement.