USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins Calls on Congress to Pass a New Farm Bill

U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says farmers and ranchers need a new five-year Farm Bill in 2025.

“It has failed now to get through Congress the last two times under the Biden administration, and it is a very, very big priority of mine,” said Rollins.

She says getting it across the finish line will be a complicated process.

“The farm part of the Farm Bill is only about 15-to-18 percent, and 60 votes are required to get it through the Senate. That means that it will need, depending on the Republicans, between 10-to-13 Democrat votes. There’s a lot of conversations that have to go on and a lot of negotiations that have already happened,” says Rollins.

One of the main concerns is that the cost for a new Farm Bill keeps going up as negotiations among lawmakers continue. The 2018 Farm Bill was budgeted at over $800 million, while projections for a new Farm Bill had grown to $1.5 trillion.

The current farm bill had originally expired on Sept. 30, 2023. Since that time, lawmakers in Congress have passed Continuing Resolutions twice to extend the Farm Bill at the same rates from 2018. The latest extension expires on September 30.

Source: NAFB News Service