Mike Stranz, vice president of advocacy for the National Farmers Union, expects the House Agriculture Committee to release a markup of the Farm Bill before Memorial Day.
Within the next few weeks, Stranz says he hopes to see a draft. He says the draft will get consideration from all 54 members of the House Agriculture Committee.
The last Farm Bill, in 2018, got marked up in the House Ag Committee and was voted on the floor of the House two months later. While it didn’t pass right away, it got done before the end of the year. Stranz says not every Farm Bill cycle is the same, so it could take less or more time. But the news of a markup is an important step.
National Farmers Union has been using this time to get their priorities across. A lot of these have to do with keeping farms competitive.
One way to do this is to continue farm safety net programs to help when disaster strikes, Stranz says.
The other way is through “fairness for farmers” – supporting the agricultural right to repair and supporting cattle price discovery and transparency.
Stranz says these priority items gained popularity during the pandemic when store shelves were running out of food. He explains that hiccups occurred in the supply chains dominated by only a few businesses. He says competitive, diverse markets help alleviate those disruptions.