The U.S. House Agriculture Committee approved a $1.5 trillion Farm Bill proposal.
Congress failed to pass a new five-year package last year.
Rep. Dusty Johnson said South Dakota farmers and families will benefit greatly from the bill.
“I heard loud and clear about the priorities from South Dakota families and farmers, and I adopted those as my marching orders for what we needed to get into this Farm Bill and I got to tell you, Mr. Chairman, we got all five of the big ones in,” Johnson said.
Johnson specifically mentioned increasing the buildout speeds from an upload perspective for agricultural networks, building cattle capacity, increasing reference prices to address inflation and adding a voluntary base acre update, improving emphasis and investment in market access programs and putting emphasis on practicing the conservation of working lands.
Johnson said the bill also has big implications for South Dakota’s tribal communities.
“We can give those tribal governments the opportunity to manage their own SNAP programs in Indian country. And also, the New Beginnings Program. It’s been an incredibly powerful program to take those first generational tribal students, bring them to those land grant schools and make sure that they have a real chance to succeed. This is a heck of a piece of work,” Johnson said.
Although the bill passed committee, it meets plenty of opposition on the House floor. Specific criticisms of the bill are the limiting of future SNAP funding – or funding for food benefits to low-income families. Critics also say it reallocates nearly $20 billion from “climate-smart farm practices” of the Inflation Reduction Act.
The bill also needs to be reconciled with a proposal that has already passed the Senate.
