Nearly 300 corn growers took to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to share with staffers the urgency of getting a farm bill across the finish line this year, but time is running out.
“We’re down to about 50 legislative days between now and the elections. So, in one sense, that’s not much time. I think that’s the reality,” says Neil Caskey, CEO of the National Corn Growers Association. “But I would say that if we could help Congress develop the political will to get a farm bill done, there’s plenty of time to do that.”
House Ag Republicans have already pushed their version forward. It still awaits a vote from the full House. Ag Democrats have yet to move forward in the Senate.
When asked what the biggest obstacle is to progress the Farm Bill, Caskey says, “Simple politics. I say ‘simple’, I mean, there’s nothing simple about the political world that we’re in. But, I mean, I think that that’s just trying to get people to come together. We’re grateful for all the leadership and the commitment that we’re seeing from Capitol Hill. It’s just that we really need them to come together on a bipartisan bill and deliver for rural America. Obviously, Senator Stabenow is sitting in a key spot, and we’re grateful for people like her. We know that she wants to get a bill done, and we are ready to throw our collective shoulders behind whatever efforts she needs us to do to get something moving on the Senate side. We hope that that will happen soon.”
Obviously, the sooner the better. As Caskey says, tomorrow, there will only be around 49 legislative days left before the elections, and a bipartisan farm bill is what’s needed.
