Farm Policy Matters: A Request for Information on USDA’s Debt Relief Program and Debt Discrimination Lobbying During Biden’s Campaign

The Agriculture Department on Thursday announced it is beginning the process of creating a program that will ultimately dole out $2.2 billion to farmers who have faced discrimination from the agency in the past.

The funding is another push by congressional democrats, led by Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., to address historical discrimination within farming and USDA. One of President Joe Biden’s campaign promises is to reduce inequalities between farmers of different races.

The repeal of the debt relief program and the replacement in reconciliation is a matter of contract according to four farmers of color in Virginia.

Among the provisions in the recently passed reconciliation bill are those dealing with discrimination and debt relief for economically distressed borrowers.

USDA has yet to announce how it will structure the latest debt relief effort. But the department has reviewed blowback over the delay to implement the promised financial relief — even while it was stalled.

Thursday’s move – known as a request for information – offers an opportunity for farmers, advocates, lawmakers and more to provide advice on selecting the third-party program administrator and to provide recommendations, conducting outreach to farmers who borrowed from USDA and how the department should even identify who has been discriminated against.

There is a 30-day comment period for the public along with weekly listening sessions hosted by the department. After the comments are collected and reviewed, the department will look to select the third parties to administer the program, according to a USDA official, and design the program while recruiting the organizations to run the program.

The USDA wants to know how the program will work for people who have different lives, and that’s why the information request has very specific questions. We want a farm focused program that will work in ways that others have not.

The 2023 Farm Bill: How farmers, ranchers, and community leaders are asking what’s on the manuf – a speaker’s perspective

Lawmakers drank thick milkshakes brought to them by the Pennsylvania Dairymen’s Association as they listened to farmers, ranchers, and community leaders from around the state talk about their needs and wants for the 2023 farm bill.

The Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg served as the perfect curtain opener for House Agriculture Committee Chair GT Thompson to begin discussions on the measure that funds many parts of the American food supply chain and rural development.

“We’re working on crunch time here,” Thompson said to open the listening session on Jan. 13. “This is an industry that’s important, not just to those of us who live in rural America. This industry is the most important because it touches the lives of every family more often than any other industry.

The once-every-five year piece of legislation is a hodgepodge of policies. The bill is made up of multiple titles — 12 to be exact — that blended together make up a bill known as the biggest safety net for American farmers.

Ahead of September, when the farm bill’s expires, a lot of people are vying for their slice of the bill’s pie.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/02/1151727273/congress-gears-up-for-another-farm-bill-heres-whats-on-the-menu

Senate-Gears Up for Another Farm Bill: Whats-On-The-Menuuu of an Other Farm Bill?

One such group is the Center for Employment Opportunities. CEO is a non-profit organization that trains formerly incarcerated individuals in 12 states. 600,000 people are served annually by the organization.

Kia Hansard, program director at CEO, came to the listening session hoping lawmakers take the opportunity to see that the bill expands beyond animals and crops.

The biggest portion of the bill is the nutrition title. It makes up about 80% of the bill’s spending and helps to manage nutrition assistance programs, such as food stamps. The farm bill helps make rules for nutrition programs and who is allowed to participate in them.

“Lowering benefits or expelling individuals off the program is done because of their income from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.” E&T program itself,” Hansard said in her testimony to lawmakers. “Participants are then faced with having to choose between obtaining the training and skills needed to ensure their long-term success or keeping the security of simply being able to feed themselves in the short term.”

Currently, Hansard said, ‘income’ received from the Employment and Training program for learning and training is being counted as income to calculate SNAP eligibility.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/02/1151727273/congress-gears-up-for-another-farm-bill-heres-whats-on-the-menu

Farm Bill (2001): Agriculture and Climate Change in the State of the Rural Midwestern Midwestern Continuum, Sensitivity and Accessibility

“It’s a nice name: the Farm Bill. Dennis Nuxoll said that there are programs that benefit farmers, but you do not have to be a farmer to be interested in them. It is possible to live in a rural community and be a librarian. And in the farm bill, there are programs that your small town accesses to build the library that you work in and some of the infrastructure of your town. You’re a Librarian, and you don’t grow anything.

During the farm show listening session, Elizabeth Hinkel, the president of the Pennsylvania Corn Growers, spoke about her organization’s goal to make crop insurance more accessible. Farmers in the state are at risk of being stung with bills if their crops fail because they don’t have insurance.

The Department of Agriculture is the only federal agency that has an explicit mandate to help the development of rural areas. This includes grants to build hospitals, schools, traditional infrastructure and utilities services.

The title received a boost from recent Congressional efforts to invest in climate change mitigating efforts. Programs are not mandatory for producers, but lawmakers have pushed for this in the past. Many people say that the programs are oversubscribed because there are more people who want to be a part of them.

House ranking member David Scott sent out his priorities in January to include expanding rural broadband, adding $100 million in funding to the 1890 Land Grant African American College and Universities Student Scholarship Program and an increase in help for farmers looking to get involved in USDA conservation programs.

“One of the biggest risks for (farmers) right now relates to the climate crisis,” Stabenow said. “It’s the largest conservation investment in preserving land and water that we do as a country. So it’s very important to our quality of life and hopefully we’ll be able to get the bipartisan support we need to get it done.”

John and Stabenow want to look at how disaster relief programs are set up for producers hardest hit by natural disasters.

“It’s something that Congress has to go in and fight for the dollars for the particular region that has been affected,” Boozman said. “The other problem that we’ve got is once Congress goes through all the mechanisms that they have to to get the money allocated, that takes a long time. Then the program has to be set up. It’s possible that you won’t get compensation for two years after a disaster.

The topic of funding for the bill looms large. Climate group are calling for more funding for their programs. When asked where he was expected to find the money for it, Thompson said he had “no idea.”

But he credited the American Rescue Plan, the 2020-era pandemic relief bill, and the Democrats’ reconciliation package for providing pots of money that past farm bills didn’t have as a resource.

Stabenow, who championed the portions of the reconciliation package that added a historic $20 billion to voluntary conservation programs, agrees that this improves the baseline of money lawmakers have to work with.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/02/1151727273/congress-gears-up-for-another-farm-bill-heres-whats-on-the-menu

The Farm Bill and the Political Debate of the House of Representatives. Rep. Kevin McCarthy and Analyse Thompson at an Agriculture Conference in Pennsylvania

The House got off to a rocky start with 20 members of the Republican conference voting against electing Rep. Kevin McCarthy as Speaker. Mary Miller, an agriculture committee member from Illinois, was also at the Pennsylvania event.

Thompson is not worried. The political differences in the farm bill are more about industry and geography, according to him.

But there have already been signs of opposition. Thompson and other Republicans do not agree with the proposed removal of the nutrition title from the farm bill by the Republican Study Committee. But the group has other suggestions too including phasing out the sugar program and federal dairy subsidy programs.